2015 Hobby Year in Review

Hello Friends!  This New Year's Eve, as I await to wake up my wife for the countdown, I decided to do a little bit of reflection on the past year in the Hobby.  I have now been involved with 40k for almost two years (in March)!  Time sure does fly.  I have learned a bunch from this wonderful community of bloggers and fellow hobbyists and I know that I still have a long way to ggo to get to the level that I want.

Get ready for some nostalgia as we look back at The Mad Mek's 2015! (Cue Flashback Music)

Close enough to Friday...

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has the best Christmas ever!

Grots! Grots! Grots!

Hello again!  Welcome to the Shop.  As you may know, I have been painting like a madman trying to get my army ready for LVO in February.  The latest addition to the WAAAGH! is a unit of twelve Grots plus two Grot oilers to go with Big Mek Buzzgob.  Well, this is embarrassing.  I seem to have skipped basing Grot number twelve and the Runtherder.  So here is eleven Grots and some Grot oilers!

Lunk and Nitnuckle, Buzzgob's Grot Oilers

LVO 2016 Big Mek Stompa (Buzzgob - TO DONE!)

From the shadows...

     Hello, Friends!  Recently the ITC (Independent Tournament Circuit) ran their quarterly vote to change/update some rules.  Reece over at Frontline Gaming really tries to have a 40k tournament scene that is dictated by the players.  The majority of this last vote had to deal with the new Tau Coordinated Fire rules, but one of the other issues was whether or not to allow Big Mek Buzzgob's custom Big Mek Stompa for the discounted points cost from the Dredd Mob rules.  Surprisingly, or not, the vote passed in favor of the discount Stompa.  What this means for me is that I need to change my planned list.  It seems silly to not take one of the most powerful tools available to Orks to the highly competitive Las Vegas Open.  The Big Mek Stompa has all sorts of tools available to it, the most impressive being the D6 power fields akin to a Void Shield Generator.  Combined with an amazing 12 hull points, this version of the Stompa is very resilient and hard to deal with.
     The biggest issue for me, is that now I have to change my paint focus to allow for these new toys.  My list has changed from the Tankbusta heavy Bike Star list to something else.  I am still running bikes but now I need to add in Buzzgob and his Stompa which requires some hefty conversions and painting.

Mad Dok Grotsnik TO DONE!

MOAR LVO PROGRESS!!!!!!!

The most badass of badass Badasses, Mad Dok Grotsnik is a killing machine.  I run this guy in a Trukk with 4 Meganobz for some super fearless, rampage, feel no pain fun.  This close combat unit is super killey and very fun to play.  Most things will not survive more than one round of combat with these guys, but Mad Dok is the glue that holds this together.

Trukk #2 -- To DONE!

Well, close enough for LVO.  I didn't do the driver or the gunner, but I will once (IF!) I catch up on my paint list.  Mad Dok has some real progress and I have started to base coat the first of the crap load of bikes that I have to do.  My last Trukk was the super rust bucket:

Meganobz TO DONE!

Moving right along!  I finished my three Meganobz for my LVO list.  I am running four, but I have my old Kromlech Juggernaut that I can use without having to repaint an old metal MANz.

Plenty left for me to do, but I am pleased with my rate of progress.  We'll see how that holds up when I start the next Tankbusta squad.  Check out some pics!

Warboss on a Bike with Big Bosspole TO DONE!

Short and sweet tonight.  Just like the Title says, I finished my Warboss for my LVO list.

A few more pics:

A Power Klaw and the Big Bosspole from the Ghaz supplement to give the bike blob fearless were pretty much the only conversions from the basic bike kit.  The head is from the Nob box (I think).

One step closer!  I have been working on the Meganobz so they should be done soon.  Thanks for checking it out.

Zhadsnark Da Rippa Scratchbuild TO DONE!

I have been lucky this past week.  I had a chance to play two games of Warhammer 40k and I have another one planned for Sunday!  I have been using the Bike list that I am taking to LVO so I can get as much practice in as I can.  I played a one-sided game against 'Nids (My Favor!) and a one-sided game against Tau (His Favor, Doh!).  Tau is a rough match up because of the ability to ignore cover that my bikes rely on and the low AP.  I got to see that new Tidewall so that was pretty cool.  I am gearing up for some Tau myself after I finish my LVO commitments.

One thing that I realized when I busted out the Orks for my first game in almost two months was that I am way behind on my painting for LVO.  February is just around the corner!  Halloween has gone and Thanksgiving (here in the States at least) is coming up fast.  I only have five weeks left of the semester at School!  I need to kick it up into high gear.

Well...crap.  That's a lot!

Ork Trukk Progress

After I finished the first 10 Tankbustas, I decided to paint up their ride.  A little bit of progress during mid-term examinations never hurt!

Vroom! Vroom!

Painting More Tankbustas

Well I sure am falling behind!  I have had a very busy month with work an school, but I did make a little bit of progress.  More Tanksbustas!

Scratch-built Tankhammer

Quick Tankbusta Update

The 2015/2016 Hobby Season is in full swing!  Now I just need to balance work, school, fantasy football and the hobby.  I have been making some progress on my Tankbustas.  I have been doing all of the base coats and have been more or less keeping to at least an hour a night.  I do have a paper to write this weekend but if I get it done quickly I will squeeze some more painting in.

Dakka Dakka Dakka BOOM!

The new 2015/2016 Hobby Season is here!

Ahhh!  The new season approaches!  The end of Summer is coming ever closer,  Christmas decorations are already showing up at the major stores, and the string of 100+ degree weather is now nothing but a sweaty memory.  Autumn is coming and there is a sweet smell in the air.  The smell of super glue and acrylic paint that gently wafts on the breeze tells us that a new hobby season is here!

Hello!  Thank you to all of the wonderful people who check out my blog.  For those of you who have just found it, here is a big thanks as well:  THANKS!  Last time, I wrapped up my year in hobby as a part of the Dave Weston 2014/2015 Hobby Season To Do List.  Now it is time for me to make some commitments for the upcoming season.

2014/2015 Hobby Season Results

Its that time already!  An entire year has passed and many models have been built and painted.  I have been checking out everyone's progress in the Dave Weston 2014/2015 Hobby Season To Do, and I have been really impressed!  Great job to everyone who is waging war against grey plastic.  The more models we paint the better!  Thank you to everyone that has been following along.  It got a little choppy for me after my father died, but I think I am finally getting back into the swing of things (I know I have said that before!).  Let's check out my list verses what I accomplished:

Finished Painting Bloodletters of Khorne

Our Summer League is almost over at my FLGS after being extended for one week to give a little more time for the newer players to finish.  We did a small escalation league starting at 200 points week 1 (Kill Team Rules)  and finishing at 750 week 4 (Regular CAD).  I have not done well in the games I played but I am very happy with how the two units I needed to paint turned out.  I wanted to have a few demons on hand in case I wanted to summon with a Weirdboy list so I picked Demons for the league.  It was a nice change of pace from the Orkz.  However, no that I am finished with my League commitment it is time to get back to the Waagh so I can have enough stuff painted for LVO (HOTEL BOOKED, BABY!).  Lets check out the finished product!

Finished painting the Pink Horrors

This Summer sure is going fast.  Our FLGS held a samll escalation league over the past 5 weeks and I have been busy trying to paint some demons.  One of the rules to our new army league was that we needed to have our initial two units painted by the end in order to be eligible for prizes.  My record isn't good enough to win as of now but I think  I am the closest to being finished with the painting (some people haven't even started!).  With a little over a week to go, I am sure I will finish on time.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

I'm back after a long break from work and hobby.  Well, I have worked since my last post... and I did do a little bit of hobby stuff.  I just failed my blog check or something (natural 1!).  I have a lot to cover from the past month so I better get cracking!

Patriotic for the 4th of July?

Hobby Challenge Failed

Well, that happened.  I did not finish my IC's Hobby Progress commitment for may on time.  The Deff Dread is still a ways off (so much detail!), and the Avatars of War Shaman hasn't seen a brush since my last post.  I did go to a FNM (Friday Night Magic) at my local store and drafted some cards.  It was a lot of fun.  I had no idea what any of the cards were going into it so it was a surprise.  I played some EDH (Commander).  It was weird.  Magic was my hobby before Warhammer and it feels like revisiting an old girlfriend.  "Will 40k be jealous?"  That's actually a bit of a stretch, but it was a good distraction.  I did do some Hobby Progress.  Two of my Weirdboyz are complete!

Painting Warhammer 40k Orks in 7th Edition 40k Battle Report style. WAAGH! (or; how to leverage keywords).

It sure has been a while.  Sorry to be gone so long.  Thanks for checking in on me.  So. What's new? Me? Well, Uhhhhh.... Hmmm....  Oh!  I have been working, slowly, on my May commitment for the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge.  I almost forgot what it was it has been so long.

2.5 because I base coated that guy a while back.

Getting back into the swing of things.

A big thank you to everyone who commented on my last post.  It has been a very unreal experience for me but I feel like I have been getting back into a "normal" rhythm.  I have been slowly keeping up with my IC's Hobby Progress Challenge commitment, which is the Dakka Pod for the month of April.  Other than that...

Life Marches On

Hello, everyone.  It has been a while since my last post, and I feel kinda bad about it. #realworldproblems.  These last few weeks have been very hard for me.  On April 1st, my Father passed away.  He was in the hospital for CHF about a week prior to that and things went rapidly out of control.  During his last hospital stay, he was to be placed in Hospice care, but that didn't work out.

Dad's Dakka-jet 2.0

Scratch Killa Kanz

Still working on my Stormboyz, but I decided to finish up one of my scratch Tiki Kanz.  Just need to add some rust and he will be 100%.  Thanks for popping in.

Hobby Progress Challenge Progress . . . or Painting Stormboyz

I have been steadily painting a bit here and there on my March commitment to the Independent Characters 2015 Hobby Progress Challenge.  10 Stormboyz have been mostly base-coated and really just need some wash and some detail.  I did miss a bit of time over the weekend, but I have until the 31st to finish, and I only have 6 to go.  Way easier than those pesky Dark Eldar!

This is like 30% finished!

Kromlech Juggernaut in Mecha Armor

I love me some Kromlech!  Beautiful models.  While working on my Stormboyz for the IC's Hobby Progress Challenge, I kept looking at the Juggernaut my wife got me a while back.  I had started to paint it but I never finished.  So while I was waiting for a wash to dry on the test model, I finished!

The Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge

I finally did it!

DONE!

Finished the Dark Eldar and just in time!  My friend is sending the painted stuff along with some people who are driving into Las Vegas early so he doesn't need to take them on the plane.  Finally a huge sigh of relief!  Now I can get back to doing some Orks!

Woah! Flash is way too high.

Last Ravager

So the last Ravager that I needed to finish was an eBay acquisition that had a pretty rough paint job.  I needed to make it fit with the rest of the army so I had a bit of a challenge.

Not exactly like the rest...

Dark Eldar Progress

LVO is rapidly approaching and I still have quite a bit to do. So far I have finished 30 Kabalite Warriors, 6 Venoms and 3 Ravagers.  All I need to do is 3 Raiders and 1 more Ravager.  I can't wait to finish this!  Switching to a 3 color (well 4 really) minimum has allowed me to speed up my progress immensely.  Anyway, wish me luck as I go down the stretch.

3 color minimum

Welcome back to the Workshop!  I have been furiously painting away trying to get these Dark Eldar finished in time for LVO.  Things are looking pretty grim.  I decided to change my approach and concentrate on getting everything done in a 3 color minimum and then fix what I have time to fix.  Otherwise I will not finish on time. 

*Cough* 10 down *Cough*

Blast!  I got really sick these past few days.  I even had to call off work.  Needless to say I lost a bit of painting time.  I did manage to finish 10 of the 15 kabalite warriors but I really can't afford any more delays.  I did manage to get the base coats on the first venom and I should have it finished in the next day or so depending on how tired I am.  Wish me luck!

  

5 Down

Five finished. The other 10 have been washed and all the weapons have been base coated.  Should have all 15 done by Sunday night.

Dark Eldar update (test warrior)

LVO is rapidly approaching and I have a lot of spiky space elves to get painted.  The bright turquoise primer has been a bit of a challenge to work with but I think I have figured it out.  Definitely an interesting project so far.  Here is the test model.  I think the process will go much faster now.  I plan of having 15 warriors done by the weekend.  Thanks for checking it out.

Painting Commission?

It has been a while since I last posted, personal life blah, blah, blah.  Anyways, I got the Stompa primed and I was all ready to start when my good friend Big M, asked me to help get his army painted for LVO.   I was very flattered and of course I said yes.  So now I have 1850 points of Dark Eldar to paint up. 6 Venoms, 30 Warriors, some Ravagers and Raiders (I still mix those up).  They were primed in a bright turquoise color but some detail work will really make them look good.  I will post some WIP shots.  Wish me luck!

2014: Hobby year in review

Hello Friends!  A new year has begun and I was inspired a bit by fettFace over on Back on the Battlewagon to do a review of my blog over the past year.  I also wanted to take a peak at where I stand on my 2014/2015 Hobby goals and decide if I want to scrap anything or add anything.  Time to break out the Way Back Machine and take a look at the Mad Mek's year!