And the clock is ticking...

With less than six weeks until the in-store Armies On Parade event, I figured it was time to get cracking on the display board. Much like last year, I'm planning on a processional feel to the army presentation. There will also be a few surprises I hope will be appreciated by everyone viewing the army : )

So, over the next six weeks I have to paint my Knight, my Admekrepairrume, 20 Bridge Guards, build and paint the display base, attend both Kublacon and WarGamesCon, host my parents for 10 days, and celebrate my 40th birthday and my 8th wedding anniversary! Should be a busy time ; )

Question: I'm painting the armor on my Knight in a Brassy/Bronze way, highlights quite bright and shiny, shadows very dark and grimy. How do you think I should paint the "steel" parts of the model, bright and shiny OR predominantly dark with bright edge highlights?

Cheers
Dave

Happy Birthday Blog, and a recap of 2012

Yes, the Dreadnought is almost finished, more shots in the next post.

Well, as f today, this blog has reached the grand old age of FOUR! I can scarcely believe it. It has certainly been a fun ride, and I'm sure she has many more years left in her. I figured I'd do another two-part post about what I did in 2012 (part 1), and what I have planned for 2013 (part 2), so just bear with me a bit.

First things first, thank you to all the folks who read this blog on a regular basis, especially those who have clicked on the Follow button, this year the blog cracked 1,600 followers (currently 1,623 at the time of posting). The blog currently averages around 30,000 page views a month, which helped to push it over the 1,000,000 page views mark since I started the analytics thing back in May 2009.

2012 was a little bit quieter on the hobby front, but not by too much. My two wonderful daughters continue to grow and develop and explore and I'm happy to give them more of my time : ) Still, I managed to paint up 441 models in 2012. Pretty good really, not 10 a week, but more than one a day. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep that pace rolling on through 2013, with all the many projects I'm currently lining up.

I also managed to cut back pretty dramatically on the number of models I purchased, which meant that when I felt a strong pull to convert something up (like the Adeptus Mechanicus plasma cannon servitors) I didn't feel guilty in picking them up. The vast bulk of the 325 models I did buy where purchased in three transactions: 180 Early Napoleonic French to help out my friend Alex, 44 Napoleonic Polish sculpted by Paul Hicks (because I wanted them), and 56 models in Dark Vengeance  (well, that's what I ended up with after I traded the DAs for CSMs). Amusingly enough I haven't painted a single model from those 280. The rest of the models (45 of them) purchased fit into some other project or other along the way and were certainly assembled and primed (if not painted).

So here's what I worked on each month:

January - Work continued on my Napoleonic British army for the Guns of April Adepticon event, as well as getting a decent number of models under my belt for my Army of Morr.

February - More Army of Morr, as well as quite a bit of Napoleonic stuff (including some Russians that really have gone no further).

March - Much more Napoleonic stuff, as by this stage I was helping paint units for the other side (inspiring in me a desire to build my own French army). There was also a sneak peek at the heads I sculpted for my Army of Morr.

April - Knights of Morr and some talk about competition painting was the order of the day on this blog, and I'm sure I was posting quite a bit on the Guns of April blog too, as we successfully ran our Salamanca game at Adepticon 2012!

May - This month was ALL about the Army of Morr (with plenty of repetitive puns). You got to see a little of the madness that goes into making a unique army like that (custom heads, arms, shields, and spears)!

June - Talk about paints, my new FLGS (Dropzone Games in Glen Burnie, MD), and an extensive look at the display board for my Army of Morr.

July - The in-store results for Armies on Parade, the scramble to finish off a few additions, and my entry in the diorama category for Golden Demon.

August - A review of what I took to Games Day, a plug for Infamy Miniatures, and a glimpse of my latest 40K project - the Lamenters.

September - More Lamenters, a few tales of my early games of 6th Edition 40K, and a look at the coolness in plastic from Dream Forge and Wyrd Miniatures (some of their Malifaux fun).

October - Puppet Wars in plastic, a few thoughts on building a horde of daemon engines, and more Lamenters yellowy goodness.

November - This month was all about two things - more yellow Lamenters (including my tutorial for yellow), and Movember. I was very pleased that our team was able to raise over $3,000 to go towards men's health initiatives around the globe. Oh, and a little converting for my AM army.

December - A real mixed bag here: you got to see more Lamenters, a good chunk of Flames Of War Germans, my ACW units so far, and even some ice blue Malifaux models.

So, quite a lot of stuff. Nowhere near the same number of posts as 2011 (75 posts vs 110 posts), but still pretty healthy, averaging just over six posts a month.

Anyway, next posts we'll see where things are going in the new year...

Cheers
Dave

Happy Birthday Blog! - and 2011 re-cap.

Ghazgkull Thraka vs Commissar Yarrick 

(painted by Mathieu Fontaine and Kirill Zhilkov respectively)

Well, it would seem that "happy" has been the intro to my last three posts (Holidays, New Year, and blog birthday). It has certainly been a happy time for me and my family as little Lucy keeps us all smiling (and awake at all hours). Not much hobby stuff has been done, hence the lack of solid content, but I'm sure I'll get back to more of the good stuff once we settle into a routine that doesn't involve waking up at 1am and 4 am etc.

Anyway, here's a bit of a look back at 2011's cavalcade of hobby goodness:

2011 saw another 346 folks join the "Blog Followers", and everyone got to see me reach my goal of two posts per week (110 posts in total, although a few of those might have been fillers).

My "Hobby Tracker" says that I painted 603 miniatures, not too shabby. That's almost 12 per week. I counted every single miniature as one model, so a 15mm German was 1, a Steel Legion Chimera was 1, and a Marienburg-class Landship was 1. I'm quite happy that I achieved what I did, but I'm completely sure I won't get anywhere near that many models painted this year, so I'm not even going to count ; )

2011 Month-by-Month

January - I added three new units to my Napoleonic British collection (Highlanders, Rifles, and Royal Horse Artillery), painted up a model for charity, and announced the winner of the Steel Legion Army List competition (which cunningly went on to be the list we used for the Heroes of Armageddon project later in the year).

February - I jumped into work on my Armies On Parade - the Artillery Train of Nuln, added another unit of Highlanders to my Brits, and showcased my Genswick Armored Company.

March - I got to show off the chariot I worked on for Gorgon Studios, and built a few Space Marines as part of a charity auction to help raise money for my flood-ravaged homeland. It wrapped up with a few work-related jobs - the building of Napoleon's Rearguard and painting the GF9 Fantasy miniature done for Adepticon.

April - Saw the launch of the Heroes Of Armageddon charity project with plenty of talk about what the benefits would be (and a guest post by FTW's Ron Saikowski), some painting done on Napoleon's Rearguard, and the Greatswords for my Empire army.

May - A showcase of the HQ units for my Genswick army, the artillery for my Empire army, and loads more work on the HOA Steel Legion army.

June - This month was focused completely on Heroes Of Armageddon and Armies On Parade, lots of tank weathering and final touches on Empire artillery.

July - So many posts about the Heroes Of Armageddon. They must have done some good as we raised over $31,000 for Doctors Without Borders. Wonder how much we'll raise this year?

August - A look at the HOA at Games Day, a closer look at the Golgotha and Landship, and a bit of a departure for me - a whole bunch of 15mm Germans for a Flames Of War collection. Oh, and some more Tanith models from my ongoing commission.

September - Tanith, Germans, Ogres, and some cavalry for my British.

October - More Napoleonic cavalry, some BIG Ogre models, and I started preparing for upcoming baby expenses by selling off a few of my models.

November - I finished up another unit for my Napoleonics, wrapped up the Ogre Thundertusk, started posting on two other blogs (Celebrity Dreadfleet and Guns Of April), and launched into my next Armies On Parade project - The Procession of Morr. Most importantly my second daughter was born!

December - More Morr, a start on the command stands for my British, and the sale of my LatD army and my Grey Knights army.

All in all it was a crazy, busy year with all sorts of things going on.

And now it's getting late, 2011 "Promises" to be reviewed in my next post, along with my 2012 "Promises".

Until then, keep painting and have fun!

Cheers
Dave

Happy New Year (and Happy Birthday) - 2010 re-cap.

What a crazy year! So much going on: lots of good things, some really unlucky things, and some really tough times for a few friends. Through it all I managed to keep blogging, and actually increased the number of posts from 75 in 2009 to 87 in 2010. I wasn't sure I was going to keep pace due to my lull in September, but a strong surge in hobby activity in October, November, and December saw that problem fixed. What follows in a bit of a recap of the year that was, and a few promises* for the coming year.

2010 - THE BLOG STATS

Thank you all for continuing to frequent this blog. In 2009 I primarily chronicled the creation of my Blood Pact army (along with a couple of side projects), but 2010 had no real defining project (although there were a couple of big ones in there.

In 2009 there were 437 people that had decided to "sign up" by following this blog, in 2010 another 555 people thought it was worth following too, taking the total to 992. I'd like to think that this is a reflection of the quality of most of the posts on this blog. Sometimes they might be few, but I like to think that every second post is kind of worth looking at.

Over 2010 the blog had over 317,700 visits, coming from 137 different countries. While I'm sure that plenty of those were automated bots searching for the next place to put their Viagra advertising, it's nice to know that some of the visits were from real people. And that number means an average of roughly 870 visits per day.

Thanks must also go to a variety of sources for referring folks to the blog, the top five (according to Google Analytics) were: Bell of Lost Souls, From The Warp, Warseer, Dakkadakka, and Bolter & Chainsword.

2010 - MONTH-BY-MONTH

As I mentioned earlier, there were no over-arching projects, but a mix of commissions, competitions, charity work, tutorials, and work on my own hobby projects. Here's the month-by month rundown of what was done in 2010.

January - My work: Blood Pact Locust & Hellblade, first units of my Napoleonic British. Commissions: Emperor's Children, Thunderwolves, Horus Lupercal. Tutorials: Freehand Chaos Star.

February - My work: Minotaurs and snow shovelling. Commissions: More Emperor's Children.

March - Competitions: Blood Pact Tattoos. Commissions: Horus Lupercal.

April - My work: Jabberslythe, getting tattooed, surviving car crash and cursing Icelandic volcano. Commissions: Tanith, Kor'sarro Khan, Rylanor.

May - Commissions: Tanith, Kor'sarro Khan, Abaddon.

June - Commissions: Tanith. Charity Projects: Storm Wardens.

July - Charity Projects: Storm Wardens. Tutorials: Building a Sternguard bolter.

August - My work: painting for the Golden Demons. Commissions: Big Bastion!

September - My work: more Napoleonic British. Commissions: Leman Russ. Charity Projects: Legio Custodes auction.

October - My work: Empire army. Commissions: Tanith. Charity Projects: Incursion boxed set.

November - My work: Empire army, Flames of War German Light Panzer company. Charity Projects: Incursion and Space Hulk auctions. Tutorials: Glass Portholes and Feathers.

December - My work: Empire army, more Napoleonic British. Competitions: Steel Legion Lists. Tutorials: Dark Eldar Warrior and Wyche painting tutorials.

Wow. Lots of stuff worked on, a lot of it for other people. Halfway through the year I realized I was spending all my hobby time working on commissions, so I decided to not take on anymore. I'm still honoring few that are longer term projects, but I can't see myself jumping back into it any time soon.

2010 - THE REVELATION YEAR

Following the support from you, the community, when I lost my car in an accident in April, I saw how important it is to give what you can, when you can, to help those in need. Thank for your kind words and donations. It helped me see that we can do a lot as a group. We don't all have to chip in for everything all the time, but helping out in some way not only makes you feel really good, but strengthens our community as a whole.

In 2010 this blog was part of a group that raised over $20,000 for folks in need, both near and far. Expect to see much more of this in 2011, with a wider variety of formats and opportunities for you to participate.

2011 - MORE CHARITY GOODNESS

The "Friends of the Storm Wardens" group of bloggers will be back with something much more grand in scope. Very exciting stuff that will hopefully blow last years project out of the water. John and Mike from SCWH are nothing if not visionaries!

I'll also be working with Rob Villnave and others in the Delaware office of Battlefront Miniatures on a great charity project that should see the light of day come Spring.

Only a much smaller, but no less important, scale I'll be doing some more fundraising for my friends John and Justin. Infact, just before Christmas I received a box of goodies as a thanks for the promotional support I've given to my friend Alex who recently opened his mail order business, Battleroad Games & Hobbies (Alex has a sale going on right now, go and check it out). You can see pics of the box and it's contents below. The idea is that I paint up the rather eclectic contents of this box to sell or auction off to continue my fundraising for the guys. Should be quite a bit of work.

Space Marine Vindicator

Space Marine Landspeeder

Eldar Farseer and IG Techpriest

Cygnar Battlegroup for Warmachine

A creepy bust from DFB Studio

and some figures from a company I'd not heard of before, HiTech Miniatures.

2011 - THE PROMISES*

So, with lot's of stuff accomplished in 2010, I'm going to try and get the following done for 2011.

• Participate in the huge charity project with the "Storm Wardens" team.

• Finish my Artillery Train of Nuln army at some stage.

• Add a few more units to both my Blood Pact Army and Genswick 33rd Rifles army.

• Complete another 120 models for my Napoleonic British army.

• Add four more tutorials to this blog over the year.

• Participate in four painting competitions this year, with some models that are specifically for competition.

• Attend a Masterclass seminar by Mathieu Fontaine.

• Get elbow-deep in the potty training process of my lovely daughter.

• Continue to have a fantastic time working on Wargames Illustrated (and talk about it more often on my blog).

• Paint another Flames of War army, with infantry this time, and play some games with it.

So, I hope your 2011 is a great one. Rule #32: Enjoy the little things.

Take care of your loved ones and hobby as much as you can!

Cheers

Dave

* Note: Promises not valid if made from a basement in the state of Maryland.

Happy New Year (and Happy Birthday)

So, a new year is upon us and I must say I'm in a much better "place" than I was at this same time last year.

I've got a great job, working on Wargames Illustrated (the world's best wargaming magazine) with the lofty title of U.S. Editor. I get to co-ordinate articles and photos with U.S. contributors, visit wargaming conventions in the role of roving reporter, layout six or so articles each issue, and play an active role in the content planning for future issues. It really helps that I work with some great guys in the U.K. (and around the world).

I have some great friends (that I had at this time last year too). This blog and "social networking" activities have helped me stay in touch with them as well as reconnecting with many more. Huzzah for the internet!

And best of all my family has grown. Emily has been loads of fun! Watching her grow up has been a real treat. Although it has really eaten into my hobby time, I wouldn't have it any other way. Even now she's practicing pulling up on the couch and chewing on the edges : )

And my blog has grown quite rapidly (the Happy Birthday bit was for this blog, one year old today). I must thank you all for your support. It's great to know that folks enjoy the stuff I do. 75 posts in 2009 (just under 1.5 per week) was a pretty good pace, and 437 followers for the year is great too. I have a fun competition planned for when the blog hits 500 followers, so make sure you point it out to your friends ; )

Anyway, on to the toy soldiers! Last year I finished of a couple of commissions, including this trio of Pre-Heresy Emperor's Children Space Marines. A Chapter Standard flanked by Chief Apothecary Fabius Bile on the left and Captain Lucius on the right.

I realized I hadn't posted a close-up pic of the Standard Bearer, so here he is.

And although my original projection of five hobby days over my break has dwindled to around three, I did manage to get my Chaos Hellblade into it's cleansing bath. With only 12 pieces to it, it should be pretty simple to get it assembled, as soon as I straighten out a bend in the right wing.

Something else the keen-eyed among you will notice is that the Locust vector-fighter that Thomas and I are working on is a a bit bigger than the Hellblade. Mmmmm...

More Rapid Assault updates next time.

Cheers

Dave