Monday, February 28, 2011

Progress Report #5

As last week wound down I realized that February was almost done leaving me with only 2 months before the tournament. Of course I don't have a drop of fresh paint on any figs yet but I'm making great progress in my conversions. So my goal for the weekend became to make sure that every project is on the go, progress was made on everything and at least 1 unit had to be ready for paint by March 1. I put in a good 8 hours (while watching tv) on Saturday and more than exceeded my goals.
Still waiting for a bitz shipment. I got a tracking number but for over a week and a half it's just said "received" and looks like it hasn't moved. Leading me to believe that some US postal worker is sitting on a chair staring at it trying to get up the courage to put it on the truck. Next time I'll order my bitz from Germany, there post office is efficient. With standard shipping from Germany I always get my stuff within the week, now that's service!

I've added the resin sand product to the bases of a couple squads and their trukks. The effect turned out pretty good and more importantly they are ready for primer.
I also borrowed a trick from a friend and drilled out the barrels with a pin vise. It's surprising how much of a visual difference it makes.
Ignore the painted guy in the background he doesn't count.
Why yes, that is the base hull for a Chinook helicopter. Not like you really good have guessed but at least it's progressing. Considering that was a sheet of plasticard Sat morning I think I'm doing pretty well.. I'm hoping to have the basic shape of the hull together by the time the rest of my bitz arrive which is hopefully next week.
I have the lower half of my 4 wartrukks together. I built an upper rail for one. Stared at it for a few days, decided I hated it. Tore it off. Now back to square one. This isn't a big deal though, I'd rather waste a bit of time to do a good job then hate it. From experience I know once I figure it out I'll have a project like this done within the afternoon.
Huey is on its base. I didn't break it, the upper hull was never glued on. I can't until the krew arrives anyway. I've attached the rotors, finished the tail and 99% of the armor. I say 99 because I might add a detail or two yet. I have a chin turret for it as well that I'm finishing up and a grot bomb launch rail that I built, turned out badly and scrapped so I have to start over. But that's not alot of effort.
There's the panoramic shot for now. All 4 trukks are close to done, most of the boyz are too. I'm at the point now where I can reasonably sit down with most of the projects individually for a couple hours and get it done. My goal is to have 50% of the stuff ready for paint by this weekend. Wish me luck.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Sometimes things turn out better than you expected

 Just a little bit more more and I'll have this project done. My Mek is gonna have so much fun cruising around in this trukk.

I like the result so much that I plan on making a second one. I really must hate myself to inflict this kind of punishment. ;)

Friday, February 18, 2011

Old Army Lists

I went digging tonight and found a couple of my old army lists, one from last year and one from 5 years ago.

It's been an interesting experience review the lists seeing what I used to use. Some of it is inspiring! reminding me of tactics and units I could use again. Other stuff is WTF was I thinking using that? ;)

It made for a good thought exercise, I would highly recommend it if your stuck on army list design.

Progress Report #4.5

I won't call this progress report 5, this being day one of a long weekend I'll save that one for the last day off.

My Wartrakks are starting to take shape, had a bit of help tonight getting some of the more tedious parts cut and shaped en-mass which turned an entire nights worth of work into about 20 minutes of straight forward labour. I should be able to get all 4 wartrakks to 80% completed this weekend, assuming I don't get distracted by something else which I know doubt will...

Did a quick bit of work on the Huey. Mainly patching up a giant hole on its rear side and adding various bitz to its underside. It's suddenly gone from far off to almost done. Maybe I'll push it this weekend and get it 90% done. (only waiting for the pilots to arrive in the mail)

Squad #3 of Orks is also ready for paint. I went through my old bitz and found 6 converted Orks I really liked but were painted poorly. I had my helper cut parts of the sprue tonight while I filed, cut, converted and assembled. Again great progress in little time and really happy with the result.


I made good progress tonight, hopefully the rest of the weekend will be as if not more productive.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Amount spent on Bitz so far: I don't want to know

So the engine blocks I ordered for my Warbuggies FINALLY arrived this morning. So after bitching about how slow the shipping is for 3 weeks what do I do when the bitz arrive? Immediately order another $60 worth...


There's 4 warbuggies in there somewhere I swear.
I should be able to make quick progress on them this week.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Progress Report #4

Nine Orks completely built, One more Nob finished and a bit of work on a few other things. I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get more work done on the trukks this week but I'm stuck waiting for bitz that have yet to arrive. But I've made alot of progress on the basic boyz which is great, it's actually a bit of a load off my shoulders.

Not much picture worthy though. I drilled the attachment points for the magnets on my chopper and added a few armor plates. I also lucked out and found enough good looking big shootas for its armament. If I push it I can finish it this week but I don't think I will. I don't want to burn myself out again so soon.

I've started coating the styrofoam eggs for the blimps with acrylic primer. I'll explain the full process in a future article when I figure it all out.

This is the Warboss's final pose. Still a bit of work to do here and there including finishing up his backpack. I'm happy with how the grot and the gun turned out though. It was a really pain in the ass.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Somedays you just a need a break

When your hobby starts to feel like a chore it's a sign you're working too hard. That happened to me this week, needed to take a break. I was working on some figs just trying to get them done and was out of inspiration and incredibly frustrated.
I took an evening off and sure enough I was back in action the next day, so I'm going to take it easy this weekend.

Still I managed to hack apart some Orks from the starter set into some not so stupid poses. I think it will be nice to have a few boyz here and there that are quite different from the rest. It adds to the uniqueness of the army.
and yes the berets are part of the master plan.

Monday, February 7, 2011

How to Finish an Army in a reasonable amount of time

Well the unwelcome scenario has occurred. The tournament that I'm getting ready for has been moved up from July to April of this year cutting the amount of time I have to get everything ready in half. Despite this I have a fair bit of confidence that I will be able to get the majority of my army ready. People have asked me before how I'm able to get as much done as I do in such a short period of time so I've decided to share with you my technique.

The biggest things that you need to worry about with my system is encouragement, time management and efficiency.

Be willing to invest the time
First of all you have to be willing to invest time. I put in an average of 3-4 hours a night on my army. Now you might be thinking "Whoa, there is no way I can put in that kind of time" but in reality most of that 3-4 hours is spent playing video games or watching tv. I pull out my figs during the cutscenes, load times and commercials adding a bit here and there. Once sometimes twice a week I'll put in a solid 2-3 hours straight on my army. It's not until I start to paint that I start putting in long hours because I find most of that process tedious and want it over with. The more time you invest obviously the more you'll get done. Only putting in a couple hours a month won't result in much progress

Have a dedicated work area
Building an army can be so time consuming that whenever you have an idea or the urge to build something you should have a setup that allows you to just go work on it without interuption. Over a decade ago when I first started I was living with my parents and the only space I could carve out for painting and assembly was in my dad's workshop. This meant that anytime I wanted to paint I had to pull out all of my stuff, paint and then clean up afterwards. This made working on my army for any less than an hour or two at a time impractical. Whereas if you have a dedicated painting area you can always leave your tools out ready to go. In my case I just need to fill my water dish and I can paint, that way I can put in 5 min or 5 hours whenever I feel like. You shouldn't have to waste time setting up or tearing down your painting area.

Prep time is also key
For alot of people building a fig out of the box is the entire process, but for me its only the begining of the conversion process. I actually find this part tedious as often I just want to get to the conversion work, the 'fun part'. To help with this I like to put in two to three hours every once in a while just to build basic figs. Once I have a suitable pile ready to go I can just pull them out one at time and always have 'raw materials' for my conversions. This includes having all your materials ready to go. There is nothing I hate more than having to stop a project because I forgot to buy glue, or because I decided I would wait before buying those extra bitz on ebay. If you have all the materials ready then you're able to just work whenever it suits you.

Work on a couple things at a time
I like having a couple projects on the go at once. I realize that some people can't do this because it can make it hard to concentrate but I find it helps me immensely. I'll frequently switch between a couple different projects while waiting for glue or putty to dry or while I wait for inspiration. The last thing you want is to sit idle while you're in the mood to assemble and paint.

Display your army
 I have a smaller desk next to my painting desk that has my entire army in progress on display. I like having it there staring at me. In addition to encouraging me to work on it I also get a sense of accomplishment. Everytime I look over at it there is that many more completed figs. When I start to paint I work in reverse. Everytime I finish a fig I put it in the case so I see my workload ever shrinking.


Don't paint or assemble the cool stuff first
Painting or assembling a cool fig should be thought of as an award. If anything it's to encourage you to paint basic troops. It happened to a friend of mine where he painted all the cool figs first and then didn't want to bother with the normal men so the army never got finished.

Paint 4 at a time
As a rule thumb I try to paint more than one fig at a time. This makes your painting more efficient as well as giving you something to work on while the paint is drying. Instead of painting one pair of boots, one set of goggles, one gun etc you can paint 4, 8 or even 10 at a time. It saves you time by not having to constantly switch between colours, keeps your figs more consistent and it feels like your making fast progress.
Generally I will prime an entire squad and do the base colours on all of the them at the same time. In my case the skin and base coats on the metal. Once I get that out of the way I find its alot quicker to go back, clean up the figs and add detail. Again the 'fun part'.
Another trick I like to use is to paint my base coats with a 1/4" wide flat brush. I dilute my paint with acyrlic extender to make an even coat and this way I can paint the base colours and washes on a fig in seconds. I find its alot faster to do that and clean up after then trying to paint on the base colours the old fashioned way.
As for spray basing? It works great and I wish I could do it but my figs have too many random colours to make it worth while.

Have a backup plan
Whenever possible, have a backup plan. It's one thing to try to get things done for a tournament, it's another to rush. I am willing to put in a tremendous amount of effort to get my army done but I want it to have the best result possible. So to prevent myself from rushing I have a backup plan. I have another army that I can take if I have to, I have some old figs I can put in to fill points and I have a couple high points cost units that I can use if I'm really stuck.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

I love it when a plan comes together

It's just so satisfying when something starts to take shape. I'll have alot more of this done by the weekend and hopefully most of the Warboss and some more boyz too.