King Alrik and shieldbearers

King Alrik is another very nice dwarf miniature. This was my first real challenge with pinning, but it was nessessary because the fit of the hands were not too good. Also, the shield is quite heavy, so to be able to keep it all togheter pinning was needed.

I decided to keep the King separate from the shieldbearers, as it would make it a lot easier to transport the mini around for games and stuff. It might cause me a little concern when it comes to moving the mini on the table, but for display purposes it doesn't matter.

Some pictures promised long ago

Long time ago I promised to post pictures of lots of my minis. Now is the time to honor those promises. I don't think I can post everything today, as some pics need to be taken or re-taken, but lets start off...

Here are some dwarf miners. This is the most detailed boxed set I have built so far, with all the spare parts and extra stuff. The grudge ponies need to get new photos taken, so they will come later (promise!). There are two things left to do with this unit. 1: Find a battle mark for the banner and the banners for my other dwarf units. 2: Find a way to paint the horn to give it a good depth-effect.

The guards have risen...

I couldn't keep my hands off yet another army as I mentioned in the last update, and the Imperial Guards are on the move in my workshop. Originally my idea was to have a very small army using one or two Valkyries supporting my 2nd Ultras, but as I talked with what I assume is experienced players on the Warhammer Forum, it seems like this might not be such a good idea in the newest edition of codexes. Still I plan for the two armies to fight side by side from time to time, as it is a good concept for games of Appocalypse (but I am a long way away from having an army for that at the moment).
The first 5 guards are standing in attention on my workdesk, waiting to get based and get their unit insignia painted on. The insignia painting depends a little on how my success is with painting insignia on to my 2nd Ultras Space Marine force. I plan to make it quite simple so I don't think it will give me too much trouble. For the Guards I am thinking of using a unit number on one shoulderpatch and perhaps a unit insigina on the other. I will check a little bit to see what other IG-players have done with their troops as I don't want my units to disobey some unwritten rules of the game.
The fluff is far from finished on my Guard army, but what I know so far is that they are mostly based on Cadian figures (some exceptions for variation ofcourse), and that their uniform colors are grey and black. Dark grey pants, light grey jackets / coats and black boots, black armour and black helmets. Their lasguns are black and silver, and the insignia of the all-mighty Emperor is shining silver on their armour and banners.
The way I'm thinking now is that they might be the Royal 101st something-something Guards (something-something will ofcourse be replayced by a real name), and I will either paint 101 on one shoulder guard and a unit insignia (like a simple crown or something) on the other, or they will have unit numbers on one of their shoulders and 101 or a sign on the other. The tanks and transports will have the full insignia no matter what I decide for the troopers.

I plan to include some of the special characters from the codex, but since I have my own army I intend to give them new names. One of these will be Sergant Harker who will be renamed Gunny Highway (Gunnery Sergeant Highway) in recognition of Clint Eastwods character from the movie Heartbreak Ridge. Also I'm thinking of a Colonel Hogan and an Ogryn Bone'ead named Schultz (both from Hogan's Heroes). Lt. Fuzz (from Beetle Bailey) is already standing on my worktable getting combat ready, and the Ogryns Dawg and Mootch (former Beetle Bailey side characters) are laying in pieces as I haven't gotten my glue to bite on their giant bodies yet.
I will not name the individual troopers as it looks now, but I might name some if they stand out for some reason.

The entire army so far is restricted to 5 regular troopers with lasguns (painted), a 6 man Command squad (in painting) and 3 ogryns (one bone'ead) (still in pieces waiting to get assembled and primed). On the shelves I have two units of Cadian Shock Troops, yet another command squad (5 men), one box of 3 heavy weapon teams, and a Valkyrie. So it will take some time before this army is ready to see action on their own.

Back to everyday life...

My mother passed away a month ago, and life is slowly returning to normal (or as normal as it can be after something like that). 

Among the christmas preparations I am finding a little time to spend in my workshop again. Slowly the big group of Space Marines are taking steps towards being operative units in the 2nd Ultras. I have decided to go for the regular Ultramarine "patch" on them, but some tests done on previous Marines have showed that using watermarks is a bad idea (at least for me), so I have decided to paint the logo on to the shoulders of the Marines. I will try this for the first time one of the first days, and the result will be shown here when I feel it looks ok. I fear that a few troops will have a heavy blue coating on their shouldergards from where I've had the need to paint over bad U's. But that is some of the charm of the hobby. I am not now, and I will never be as good as some of the painters I see in White Dwarf Magazine or on the Warhammer Forum, but I feel that I paint well enough for tabletop quality, and I have been given credit for being accurate and good choise of colors (for my Space Marine army). 

I will try to to put together a fighting list of Space Marines from the minis I have finished and still have on my shelves, so that I can start to go a few friendly rounds at my local Games Workshop Store in the new year that is closing in on us. 

I also have an Imperial Guard army now, that has seen the light this autumn. So far 5 regular troopers are standing on my work table waiting to get their basing and unit markings done. As with the Space Marines I will go for hand painted markings, but I think it will be mostly unit numbers painted on to one shoulder guard. Perhaps a very simple logo on the other shoulderguard some time in the future, time will show...

What has he been doing?

Quite frankly not a whole lot!
I have finished my room and moved in. It looks very nice, and I will try to take myself by the neck and post some pictures of the finished room shortly. Come to think of it, I do believe I owe you readers a whole lot of pictures by now. I promise to read through the blog and post a big picture post one of these days as I have most of the pictures on my computer, I just need to post them here.
The hobbyroom didn't turn out quite the way I had thought, as the furniture took a little more space than anticipated in the "design" phase. The stone walls are also a little weaker than expected, so I don't get to put up big shelves on one of the walls where I had planned to do so for my dioramas. But in some areas it actually turned out better than my fears, and I am quite happy with the solutions I have ended up with.
I managed to get my old worktable in, along with a desk drawer where I can keep my diorama stuff, two glass cupboards with lights (for finished miniatures), and shelves to store the unfinished models. I also managed to get a rack for all my Citadel and Tamiya paints set up at the wall directly over my worktable.
I got my old and faithful desk down with me, so I have the old computer and some space to do paperwork and work with stuff that doesn't smudge too much (like finally getting to build some buildings out of cardboard and stuff like that).
I also have a filing cabinet where I will keep my sheet music, so my wife can get her linnen closet back. As a big band leader for about 10 years I have collected a lot of sheet music, and it still seems to drop in new stuff from time to time. This used to float around the house until it finally got stored in and on top of the linnen closet, but now it will get a good home in the filing cabinet. This piece of furniture will also work as a stereo table, so I have a place to keep my amp and cd player.

The worktable is now filled with a 1:35 diorama of a German self propelled flak gun from WW2 (don't remember the name of it right now), and it stands on a base along with a ruined farmhouse and some trees. The plan is to make some mud, so that the flak gun stands partially with it's tracks down in the mud. This is because it was the first model I made after starting up again and I was a little clumsy with the hot iron when I was supposed to weld the tracs tight around the drive sprockets. The result was that I needed to use staples to keep the tracks in place, so that needs to be hid. Also a soldier climbing up onto the firing platform from the ground has his foot a little bit above ground, so by adding a thin layer of mud he gets his foot on the ground.

Along with this diorama is a whole lot of Space marines in different stages of production and painting. Many of them are based on Dark Angels or other special chapters and will work as elite troops in my 1st Company. They will get the look of the 2nd Ultras, but still keep some of their special characteristics. They are all based on spare parts from the bit box or pieces bought on Ebay, and some of them also gets some modification work done to them.
Also I have a cowgirl waiting for the final stages of painting. She's a little larger than the usual miniatures I build, and the plan is to mount her in a small plastic box and make a mini diorama with her.

I don't know exactly when all this will be finished, as my mother is terminately ill with cancer and is in the hospital. So at the moment most of my spare time is spent there. But I will return to my hobbyroom when I get the time and keep on working.

building update

jut a small update on the state of my room.
We got the walls and the door up yesterday, so now it looks like a room. All that is left to do now is to get the door to the storage room next door to my room in place, and build a new roof all over the basement. We will start on these tasks on friday.
Then after this is done, I can get the roof painted and put the carpet in to the hobbyroom, and then I can start to get my furniture back in. I will have to buy some new shelves, and I have an idea of what I want, but I will have to take some final meassurements before I go out and buy anything.
Then later on I will get the electrical work done, but this doesn't have to be in place before I start using my room.

Hopefully I can move in to my room in my holliday.

Why isn't there any updates?

These last few weeks have gone really fast. I have started on more Space Marines, this time it is a specialist Veteran force based on marines from the Dark Angels chapter. They will still fit in to my Second Ultras, as they have arrived to fill up the thin ranks and provide specialist expertise for the 1.st company. I haven't worked out all the fluff yet, but since they are mostly robed and mysterious looking and armed with either guns and chainswords or just with bolters they are probably there to provide expertise on hunting down a race that they know alot about. Don't know enough about the Dark Angels to say who that is yet, but I'm reading up on them and painting them in accordance with the secund Ultras fluff and adopting them into my unit. Hope the fluff is ready about the same time as the minis are finished.

If you are wondering about the picture in this post, wonder no more! This is the beginning of my new and improved workspace. The wife and I have been tearing down the old cellar walls, so all my miniature stuff (except for my mobile workstation with the above mentioned marines, two chaos knights and some paint and glue) is neatly stacked in our small sauna. I really didn't know how much 1:35 scale models and warhammer (Fantasy & 40K) miniatures I had until I saw it stacked in the sauna. Granted the sauna is small, but still it was a suprise!
Spent the last few weeks on clearing everything away and tearing down the old walls. The clearing things away is what really took time, 'cause where do one move it to? The solution was filling the sauna and neighbouring areas.
As you see, the re-building has started. My workspace will be in the room with the window (where the ladder is at the moment). It gives me a lot more space, and improved storage of both finished and unbuilt models and miniatures. The finished miniatures will be showcased in glass monters. I am looking to find a way to showcase the finished 1:35 dioramas as well. They do look really good in the glass monters, but because of their size that is out of the question for now. Guess I will have to see if I can get some glass doors on the shelves where I stack them (or something similar).

We start to install the walls tomorrow afternoon, and hopefully we will get quite a lot done on friday as well. Will keep you posted on the progress, and you can rest asure the new room will be presented properly in a post in here as soon as it is ready.

What's going on?

That is a good question, or as the group 4 non blondes said it so well " hey hey hey hey hey, what's going on". The answer is: Quite a lot actually, even though this blog doesn't reflect it.
I know I've fallen way behind with pictures of my miniatures in here. I hope I can do something about that this weekend.

I have finished my dwarf Ironbreakers. It took several weeks longer than stated in an earlier blog entry (mostly because I did everything but miniature painting), but they are finally done when it comes to the painting. All that is left is fixing the bases and I hope to do that this Friday or Saturday.
I have also built and finished my first SpaceMarine Rhino, and I think it came out looking pretty good. As usual when building by the instructions provided by Games Workshop, there were a few suprises. But everything came on the right way and fitted pefectly (so nothing like the Land Speeder this time), and I think it turned out very well. I have put the Rhino up on the spot where I usually take my pictures, so as soon as I get the second lamp back in the workspace I will take pics of it (this weekend for sure).

I have decided that using decals to put on markings is not the way to go. I looked over a few of the old markings and even though the model has been standing still on the shelves the markings are coming off. That tells me it's nice that I'm even further behind when it comes to putting on the finihsing coat of protective varnish on my miniatures. If they don't keep their markings standing on the shelf, then they will surely loose them while being used for gaming.
I have an idea to paint everything on, and I hope I will be able to try this shortly. The idea is to make a template in thin cardboard or thin plastic and paint it on by using that. Most shoulderguards are the same size and my biggest problem is applying the Ultramarines logo. Also I might need a template to add company markings and Ultramarine markings to vehicles, but the decals seem to stick better on thise flat surfaces. But I'll see what I can do with it.

Future workspace

My wife and I have decided to do something with the basement this summer. The general idea is to make it look a little more like regular rooms and a little less like a basement just used for storage.
I have a small workspace in the basement today, and this is shared with the storage of paint used around the house, all the daily stuff not currently standing around the house (like a small pizza oven, flowerpots not currently in use, servingplates, and so on).
The idea is to remodel so that we get one room that we use for storage of "stuff" and one room that will be my workshop. The workshop will be brighter and more comfortable and inviting than the workshop is today. I will get almost three times the space of my current location, double the deskspace and a lot more shelves than I have today. Also I will get a glass cabinet to display the miniature armies in, and I'm working on finding a good solution to display my 1:35 dioramas that I work with from time to time. Hopefully in the new workshop it will be easier to work with my scale models alongside my miniatures.
I will document the work as it progresses, but it won't start up until late june/early july. But still I've already bought some of the stuff to go in the room. Arrangements for the glass cabinet is made, this will be bought second hand and I'm currently awaiting the owner to be home so I can collect it. Also I have bought and assembled a shelf to keep my paints in. This is really a large wardrobe drawer for ties and belts, but when I set it up against a wall it will give me plenty of storage space and easy access to both my Citadel and Tamiya paints.

So, what has been going on?

There haven't been all the time in the world to work with the miniatures since my last update. I've been busy with work and other activities, but that's just how it is when you don't have any specific deadline to work toward. Still, the Easter hollidays have been very good for me when it comes to miniature work.

The Dwarf Ironbreakers are almost done, they will be done by Sunday at the latest.
Joseph Bugman is finished, based and ready to go to battle (or to the closest watering hole to test the local brew). He doesn't look too intimidating with the crossbow on his back and a mug in one hand.
King Alrik and his shieldbearers are based (well, only the shieldbearers really, as King Alrik stands on the shield they carry) and ready to lead the dwarfs in battle. They have been standing ready painted in the workshop since the last update.
The old sculpt of the Dwarf Engineer is comming along nicely, and is close to completion. I just need to paint his pick and helmet.
The dwarf cannon and crew is almost done, just a few details and cleanup left before they are ready to follow King Alrik into battle.

Since I removed King Alrik and his shieldbearers and Joseph Bugman from my mobile workstation I had to add something new. So I went down to the basement and found myself a Dwarf Thunderer Lord sculpted by Avatars of War. I hope this mini will fit nicely into my dwarfs and be a great leader for my thunderers in friendly games. I might not be allowed to use him in some tournaments, but for most of the time my minis will be standing on display or being used for friendly games so I think he will be ok.

I've also added a new Space Marine Captain to be painted up. This is a captain from the Black Reach box and he looks relly powerful and fearsome. In a lot of ways he look a lot more like a commanding officer than my Commander, but I guess this can be explained with the fact that the commander has been more of an HQ type and not been in as many battles and therefore not decorated as much as the Captain.

The Devastators that I have painted have also been based, but I need to decide if they should have all-black gravel on their base or a mix of black and yellow-brown. I reacon I'll end up painting the brown-yellow black as this probably will look better than the mix.
I will make a decition on this in the near future as this will give me a little extra work. But everything to make the best look for the Marines...

I also based a small bunch of night goblins. Two squig herders, three squigs, a netter. the first two goblins of my second core unit and two figures that I suspect really is Chaos followers (one looks like a Goblin has been attending the KKK and the other look like a snotling walking on a new pair of stilts). Also I have finally based my Goblin King (an Avatars of War miniature).

Status update monday March 16th

There has been a long time since my last update. I admit (again) that taking the Pledge didn't work as well as I'd hoped for the update frequency for this blog. But it has helped when it comes to stockpiling miniatures, so all hope is not out. I haven't bought a scale model set in over a year (because I started buying miniatures instead, if I should tell the whole truth), and it is now about a month since I bought a miniature.

I haven't been that good when it comes to painting my miniatures either, but at least I paint a lot more than I did before. I have great plans to end up with more models painted than bought when 2009 gives way to 2010.

At the moment I am working on my first Ironbreaker unit (I guess there will be more of them in the big dwarf army I hope to build over a period of many years to come). The armor is painted, and all the minis are standing firmly and steadily on their bases courtesy of Green Stuff. The Ironbreakers have been a pleasure to work with so far, although I must admit I prefer working with the plastic models over the metal ones. One of the main reasons for this is that I feel the paint sticks better to the plastic. Given time it sort of chips off the metal if they stand a long time before they get coated. But after they are coated they are just as robust as their plastic counterparts, and a lot of the metal minis are more detailed and I love details (except at the exact moment when I try to paint them).

King Alrik and his two shieldbearers are done. Miraculously I managed to get the shieldbearers to hold on to the shield by only pinning one of them. I know how I can pin the second if he decides to drop the shield at a later time, but I hope he will hang on to it by the GW superglue he is attached with. At the moment I am trying to decide if I should glue (or pin) Alrik to the shiled or not. The advantage of glueing/pinning him to the shield is that he stands a lot better when played with, but if I don't glue or pin him on the miniature is much easier to carry around to tournaments or games. And I hope to do some of that in the future.

I have also added an old metal sculpt of a dwarf engineer to the workspace along with a unit of a plastic cannon with three crew. I'm told the latter is from the Battle for Skull Pass Boxed set.

Hopefully some pictures of finished models wil follow in the near future!

Dwarfs

I got a sudden crawing to paint up a bunch of dwarfs. As I've written earlier I found my box of King Alrik and his shieldbearers. They're almost done, and I'm working on pinning them together.
I finally finished and based the tall chandeliers with the caged goblins from the dwarf miners boxed set. The next plan with that boxed set is to find some way to base my grudge ponies and their miners carts.

At the moment I am working on two boxed sets of Ironbreakers; the command squad (5 minis) and the regular squad (5 minis). The idea is to make the Ironbreakers the elite forces of King Alrik, and then use Hammerers as the elite forces of the High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer.

I've aslo almost finished my model of Josef Bugman, just a few minor details left on him now.

I also started on a Bretonnian questing knight. I didn't quite like the knight himself, but I really liked the horse. So I decided to make it a test model for my comming bretonnian knights.

more Terminators

Here are 5 more terminators for my 1st company.
Four of them are from the same box of Terminators as the terminator I have posted earlier, and the one with the grey base came with an issue of White Dwarf last autumn.

Chapter Masters, Master of the Arsenal

As the Master of the Arsenal, this Chapter Master has a lot of work to do. The 2nd Ultras have been given what equipment the Ultramarines could spare, but they also need to get some spare equipment from other chapters. The Master of the Arsenal keeps track of what the 2nd Ultras have and what they have on the way from other chapters. He works closely with the Techmarines that maintain the big equipment, but also keeps control over the smaller things like blasters, chainswords and rifles.
This model originally came with a swordhand holding a sword with the tip touching the ground in front of his boots, but while cutting the pieces from the sprues I had an accident and managed to damage the sword beyond repair. So I added a chain sword instead. His helmet has black eyes as all the communications are tuned off since the helmet is in his hand.

Chapter Masters, Master of the Watch

This is the Master of the Watch, with his powershield and axe.
Not much to say about this master yet, except he has a very important positition and he takes his duties very seriously.

Chapter Masters, Master of the Recruits

The Master of the Recruits is probably the most busy of the Chapter Masters in the 2nd Ultras. The chapter has a lot of seasoned veterans, but they also rely heavily on new recruits. But because they do not have their own gene-pool and also need fighters to be battle ready as soon as possible, they need to recruit from other chapters as well. So the Master of the Recruits liasons with other chapters and makes sure that the ranks get filled with good, solid fighting marines.
If you look at his head, you'll see that he lost his left eye in battle so he has got an augmented lense implanted there. Also he's been shot in the right side of the head and has a titanium implant there.

Chapter Masters, Master of the Fleet

Here is the Master of the Fleet. The fleet of the 2nd Ultras is small, but it still packs a real punch.
The 2nd Ultras came to their new home planet with a few large cargo barges and some of the older combat ships of the Ultramarines and some ships that has been captured as spoils of war or been bought from other chapters.

Chapter masters, Commander of the Chapter

Here are the 5 masters of The Second Ultramarines, or 2nd Ultras for short. There are four chapter masters and one commander.
I chose to use the regular commander set since the fluff for the 2nd Ultras is that Marneus Calgar decided to use some of his forces to create a new chapter to be able to answer more of the assistance calls that gets to the Ultramarine HQ.
So the leader of the 2nd Ultras would naturally be a high ranking commander from the Ultramarines.

I gave him a golden helmet to raise his status above other commander figures. Each company needs to have commanders or captains in charge, so it was ok to make this point. I have planned to buy a Command Squad for him, so the banner he is carrying is his own. In worst case I'll replace it with a golden halo.

The first LandSpeeder in pictures

Here are some pictures of the infamous landspeeder I have blogged about a few times.
These pictures show the long and rocky road from the simple beginning to finished model.
I have bought another LandSpeeder, and will use all I have learned from the first one when I'll assemble that. Aslo I have some transports and other vehicles to assemble.
Without further ado, here are the pics:

Long time, no blog...

I have to admit taking "The Pledge" didn't have quite the effect I thought it would... I was sure it would make me turn out minis like crazy so that I could buy more, but it hasn't turned out quite like that.
However my local toystore that also had Citatel Games Workshop miniatures are clearing out their entire stock at 50% off. Not a lot of units for my armies really, but a litte look through their boxes made me buy a box of 5 marauder horsemen, a unit of 20 nightgoblins and a unit of 16 (i think) dwarf thunderers (or quarrelers if you prefer that configuration) adding up to the total of 41 new models.
This leaves me a lot to do if I want to get on top with the painting. But hey, I have 16 almost finished minis in the mobile workbench, and also the almost finished "landspeeder from hell" (as described thoroughly in earlier posts). Since the speeder is a lot more work, I've decided to make it count as 3 minis and why not as there are a pilot, gunner and the speeder itself.
Also while looking through the shelves I discovered a box with a dwarf king standing on a shield carried by to other dwarfs. And when I took that out of the shelf, a blister pack with Josef Bugman came out with it, so at the moment there are 4 dwarfs in the mobile workbench coming along nicely.
I've started on washing my Space Marine masters of the chapter and the big man himself, as well as my four remaining terminators. I'm also washing my champion of chaos and the evil looking chaos sorcerer and his weird looking snakey follower.
I hope to get some pictures taken in the near future of the finished minis (probably without the basing though, as that will be taken care of on thursday or friday when I have a few days off from work).

Landspeeder update #2

Could I bring my Landspeeder to the local GW store and claim that it is cursed? It surely isn't even close to my finest work! It has taught me a lot of "what not to do" tings that I will take with me into the further work on Games Workshop minis.
The first rule of building the miniatures from now on is : Don't trust the assembly manual that is provided with the box. The more expensive the set is, the more important it is to follow this simple rule!
I had planned to write something about assembling the set after building this one, but I have decided that I will wait until I have built my next landspeeder. This will be started as soon as the first is completed.
The latest bad news for this model, is that I found out that I assembled the tail backwards, so the flaps are at the front of the tail and not on the back. Also I have learned that once you have assembled the top, it gets really hard to assemble the arms on the pilot and gunner. This is a problem, since you have to connect the arms of the pilot to the equipment on the controls, so he will have to go in after the controls are assembled (and this is done when attaching the top).

The assembly is getting along, and everything that is missing now is the searchlight and "gatling gun" and the heavy bolter. These parts are assembled, but needs painting before they are added to the finished model. After that is done it is just a matter of washing the entire model.

Landspeeder update #1

I have now assembled the main body and fuselage on the Landspeeder.
It took a lot of cutting and sawing, but I finally got it together in what looks to be an acceptable way (though experts on this model will see that it is slightly amputated in some places).
I plan to use thin layers of Greenstuff to fill and close the small gaps that has occured because of the assembly problems. For some of the larger gaps I will have to decide if I should use Greenstuff or some other cheaper putty (will probably end with Greenstuff).
Then I'll do the used car trick, and give it a good paintjob and simply paint over all the bodywork to give it the usual finish. I will have to decide on how to do the two-tone colorsceme of Midnight blue and UltraMarine blue of the 2nd Ultras, but I have a few ideas that I will play around with.

After I got the top glued to the rest of the main body yesterday evening, the assembly seems to work fine. The only thing I am a little sceptical of now, is positioning the arms for the pilot and gunner in such a way that it will look natural now that the controls and weapon mount probably are a little closer to the pre-assembled feet compared to what was the plan when the model was cast.
But if it should end up looking too "crappy" I guess I will have to try to do some more modifications. I have some spare arms that I can experiment with if the worst should happen...
I will try to take some pics of the way the speeder looks now, and keep you updated on the progress along the way.

As for the 4 remaining terminators, they got the remaining coat of Ultramarines blue yesterday, so tomorrow I will start on the shoulderguard details in Boltgun metal and Shining Gold, and Boltgun metal and Scab red for the weapon. Aslo there are a few details on the powerfists that need some painting.

Beware of the old Landspeeder...

My main problem with minatures is that I want to do everything at once.
Yesterday evening I started to work on a Landspeeder model that I bought a little while ago. This is the most troublesome kit I have built so far in the Warhammer range.
I haven't built much transports before, but I have quite a lot of experience from building 1/35 scale models. Plenty of hulls being assembled, and the difficulty level varying from very easy to quite hard. So with this in mind I cut out all the pieces for my Landspeeder and got to work thinking that this should be a quite pleasant build. Boy, was I wrong!
After painting up some of the interior details, I started to assemble the Landspeeder according to the instuctions provided in the pack. It went ok until the top piece was to be glued on. Nothing would fit at all! The middle section was too long, and after assembling the controls the front did not fit at all! Then when I finally got the front to look almost decent, the middle support section was suddenly too long and would not fit at all.
Obviously I must have done something wrong with the assembly even though I followed the instructions provided, so now I am sitting with a hobby knife cutting and filing small pieces off the fuselage to get the top piece on to the speeder. When that is done I think the speeder will need some greenstuff to cover up a few minor glitches in the fuselage that appears in some places.
It might not be the prettiest Landspeeder in the 2nd Ultramarines, but I won't quit working on it before it looks fairly decent. Then I will buy another one next time I am at my local GW store and see if I get the same problems with that model...

status update Monday January 26th

New week and new chances to build miniatures.
There has been so much going on in the last few weeks, that I haven't been able to keep up my tempo in building and painting. But there are some progress...
Space Marine updates:
The first two terminators are still standing on the bench in the workshop to get their bases done. I found some things that needed to be fixed on one of them, and that's taken care of now. The plan is to do the bases when the remaining four Terminators are ready. At the moment they are fully assembled, but there are some painting remaining and then they need some wash.
Beside the first two finished Terminators stand the first of my Scouts on motorbike. The plan is to make the remaining two scouts on motorbike that are laying on the shelves to create a unit.
The 4 Chapter masters are as good as done, they just need a little bit more wash on some of the colors, and one of them needs some Greenstuff to get him to stand correctly on his base.
The Commander is also close to complete, except for his personal banner that still needs some work to get the correct layout.

Chaos update:
There hasn't been any new models painted, but I have started to wash the Chaos Champion on foot, and I like the way he's turning out so much that I have decided that his colorscheme will be the base for the chosen warriors, champions and Lords to follow. The common warriors will get almost the same treatment, but with a little less gold and probably simpler capes.

Goblins update:
The first two nightgoblins of my second core unit are done. I will try to see if I can give them a little wash to make them look a little more gritty, but apart from that they are ready for basing.
The tree netters that will probably join this unit (at least two of them) are also done, and one of them is already based and ready for the gaming table.
The standard bearer for this unit is almost ready, except for the ornaments on the top of the banner that needs painting and washing.
I have also finished the first unit of Squig herders (not sure if I mentioned that in my last blog entry), and they are now awaiting basework.

The Terminators are comming...

Here are a few pics of my first finished Terminators. They are still missing their bases, but I plan on doing them shortly. First I will finish the remaining 4 Terminators standing in my mobile workshop.
The terminator with the bolter and powerfist is a free model that came with White Dwarf magazine along with a space Ork. The other Terminator is from the Terminator Boxed Set. I relly enjoyed the look of the Chainfist, so I will use as many as possible for my Terminators. It's a shame the boxed set only comes with two of these as they look really mean.
While painting the chainsword on the fist I remembered seeing some in an old rulebook painted yellow with black stripes. I liked the idea, and decided that all chainswords in my army will be painted this way. Hopefully the stripes will get thinner and more symetric as I get more practice, but for a first attempt it didn't look half bad.

some pictures

I didn't feel like going down into the basement where I usually take pictures, so the light is a little bad as these pics has been taken without extra lighting. The models were just put on a white box beside my mobile workshop. This is the Dreadnought i have shown off earlier, but now the entire model has been washed with Badab Black for the metal parts, Gryphonne Sepia for the gold, and Asurmen Blue for all the blue parts. This is the washes that will be used for all my Marines and vehicles. Also I will use other washes on other colors (like Devlan Mud on brown parts).
This is a picture of my Scout bike. It is almost ready, but I need to make the base. I hope to get this done in the near future.

New Year, new models to paint...

We have entered into 2009, Happy new year everyone!

At the official Warhammer Forum I have taken a pledge for 2009 to paint more miniatures than I buy this year. Hopefully this will lead to more posts with pictures of game-ready miniatures, and less posts with the all too usual "nothing has happened since my last post"-content that I have become known for in 2008.
I know myself well enough to say that I will keep buying miniatures, so that means I will have to get better painting them up.
The status so far for 2009 is perhaps not the best, but it will soon get better. So far I have bought 11 minis (5 terminators, 5 fast attack marines, 1 drop pod), and painted 2 minis (both terminators). The 2 terminators will be followed by 9 more. 4 of them are in the making, the last 5 are still in their box. I have planned to make 1 full terminator unit (10 terminators), and then I have one terminator left that I haven't placed in a unit yet. I will probably end up with buying one more boxed set (5 terminators) and find 4 on ebay or through blister packs at Games Workshop (the last option is preferred). That will give me 2 units of 10 Terminators for my 1st Company.
The single terminator came with the "Space Marine release issue" of White Dwarf Magazine, along with a space ork (anyone want a free Space ork?).
Since I had fun assembling that, I started on a terminator from the boxed set that had been sitting on my shelf for a while. I had even more fun assembling that, so the rest of the boxed set was moved to my mobile workshop.

I'm also working on a Space marine Scout on bike. He is also almost finished.
I just have to decide what wash to use on some of the parts that are painted Bleached Bone.
I had an awakening when it came to using washes, so some of my finished minis will get a round with washes before I give them the final layer of protective coating.
When I was at my local GW store in Oslo, I had some of the finished Space Marines with me and they were very positive to the way they looked. Still they showed me how washes could make them even better, and I decided to give it a try. I feel that they look more battle hardened after the right ammount of washes has been applied, so I will work on improving that in the future.

The 4 masters of the chapter that I have been working on for so long (don't know why it has taken so long) are as good as finished (3 of them is ready for base work), and I am also nearly finished with the Chapter Master. He is really a Captain (I think) but with a gold helmet and a battle standard he looks a lot more like a Chapter master. I guess I will have to have a command squad along with the Chapter Master, and one of the members of that is my apothecary. It is a metal blister of Apothecary Corbulio, and I will try to add him into a command squad for the Chapter Master.