Welcome Hobby Zoners!

I have some news! I managed to order a really useful paint storage rack for my Army Painter/Vallejo paints.

It was a UK based seller and they have lots of interesting MDF products and hobby accessories.

I was really impressed with the quality and the rack also came with very clear photocopied instructions so it was simplicity itself to put together in 20 minutes using Mitre FAST (industrial super glue). 

Shipping was fast (2 days) and free and the item was packaged securely wrapped in bubble wrap and in a sturdy box. So overall I was 100% happy with the service and product.

The rack now holds all of my paints/washes with a little space for additional colours, (the new rack can store 120 paints).

I also ordered a new paint set by Vallejo. The Panzer Aces set No.1, I wanted some more realistic muted colours for my Dropzone Resistance and these fit the bill nicely.

Ebay link

I will have more updates later this weekend... Till then Hobby Zoners farewell! :]

Hello Hobby Zoners!

I do hope you are all having a great weekend. I am catching up on hobby projects this weekend and just completed the build on a Tamiya 1/35 JGSDF LAV. 
It is a lovely kit to build and is incredibly detailed, right down to individual door handles and headlights as well as internal detail.

I will be using the LAV in games at my club as a stand in for the GW Taurox. (though I will probably create some custom rules to take advantage of the unique nature of the LAV) 
It is a rough equivalent to the Taurox in its role though I will need to add some GW details to it at some point so right now it is almost but not quite finished.

I included a photo with some GW Scions for scale purposes.

Till next time Hobby Zoners, Farewell!

Welcome once again Hobby Zoners!

And here I have something very special, it is the Kinetic super detail 1/35 RG31 US MRAP utility vehicle used in overseas operations by Canada and the USA and some of its Allies. 

The kit is one I had a for a little while and I wanted to build it to honour my friend Gene who passed away a short while back. 

I intend to pull out all the stops and make a careful and meticulous build and then paint the kit up to as close to display standard as I can manage.

I will be posting up regular updates on this build until completion, so wish me luck!

Till next time Hobby Zoners! :]

Hello Hobby Zoners once again!

I hope you all enjoyed a great weekend and are facing your week with renewed vigour. 
I have been looking at some of my Dropzone Commander (DZC) units with the aim of refreshing their paint schemes. 

In this regard I will post two of the units I intend to complete this week.
One is the United Colonies of Mankind (UCM) Broadsword super heavy MBT.

It is a frontline battle tank armed with a Heavy Rail Gun as its main armament (and machine guns) and is extensively armoured with a sophisticated composite/alloy weave on a dual tracked chassis.

It is quite an imposing vehicle on the battlefield and I use them with Condors which are Dropships used as bulk lifters in the game which provide tactical mobility.

This one was initially painted with dark green Army Painter spray, then washed with GW Biel Tan Green. I then drybrushed the vehicle several times mixing a lighter green to the base colour then finally adding a little yellow to achieve the highlights I wanted.

After this I picked out other details like grills and vents as well as the tracks. 
I still need to do lights and the sensor domes but overall I feel this one is coming together quite nicely.

Next up is my UCM Phoenix Command Gunship. This is the heaviest Dropship the UCM field in frontline missions. It is a formidable aircraft armed with various sensor payloads and advanced radars as well as some ECM gear. This Dropship co-ordinates the rest of the UCM force on the ground during the battle and makes use of various advanced long range encrypted communications and data links. 

The weapons on her are six UM-86 'Punisher' missiles that are perfect for destroying large structures or emplacements, two triple-barrelled heavy chain cannons, which can lay down a harrowing weight of fire against the enemy and these are paired with AA Point Defence Launchers capable of deterring any aerial threats that may want to threaten the Phoenix.

But back to the painting. This was a model I painted for a competition ran by the lovely people at Asylum Wargaming. I actually placed joint 1st and received a lovely parcel of Dropzone related loot as well as a custom printed t-shirt in XXXL. 

The painting on the Phoenix was a little bit more complex than my usual efforts. I used two Army Painter sprays to achieve the basic scheme. Spraying first with a dark green, then I used the Anarchy Digicam Stencils on parts of the model. Then masking areas off with cling film I sprayed with a bone white colour over the top. Once dry I removed the masked areas which would be painted a different way to tie them in with my existing units. This was a tri-colour WWII Flecktarn scheme I will talk about in more detail on another post.

After applying washes of AP Soft tone over the model. Then painting the rear portion in in my custom Flecktarn scheme I went back and picked out the canopy and other details like the engines thrusters, chain canons and missile pods.

I am particularly proud of the work I did on the Phoenix and to this day she remains some of my best work. But having been used in countless games and at three Invasion Events over the last few years the model is a little chipped in places and so needs some care and attention to get her looking her best.

Keep an eye out for more updates later in the week Hobby Zoners!

Till then farewell... :]

Hello Hobby Zoners!

So onto business, I was able to crack open the Scions Kill Team Boxset and I managed to build these. The kit is a bit fiddly and certain weapons and arms go together a certain way, also some of the legs are in two parts and go together in a specific way too. 

This being the case and as per usual for me without using instructions I put them together in around an hour or so. My usual prep method was in place so I clicked parts off sprue then went through them with a scalpel knife and scrapped mould lines and any flash. 

Funny thing was apart from some mould lines there was no flash present on these at all. Also the models have very crisp detail and the sculpts are lovely. I did not expect anything less from a current generation Games Workshop kit mind you.

So here are the finished models. The Scions do look very nice however I did not add any additional things like grenades or pouches. I felt these models are already quite ornate and there is little space available to add extra details without the models looking very busy.

Hope they look OK.

Till next time Hobby Zoners! :]

Hey Hobby Zoners!

I did forget to post my T'au for Kill Team, I wanted to revisit them and maybe add some more details and finish the other squad. They were painted very quickly for a game and I did not spend too much time making them look pretty.

However as with all my model making I was sure to make the posing of the models dynamic and realistic. Also how they were modelled with various T'au weapons and equipment to ensure they were fluffy and characterful units.

These T'au are seasoned Veterans and are used for specialist missions. They are known among their Fire Warrior brethren as Var'Sha'La Strike Teams.

I went with dual wielding Pulse Carbines and Pulse Blasters on some of them. The others are armed with a mix of Pulse Rifles and Pulse Carbines.

I had used this T'au Strike Team in many games of Shadow War and 7th Ed. Kill Team so due to the repeated handling and dropping the models a few times some of them did lose their helmet coms antenna. This wont be a problem for much longer as I have a boxset of Pathfinders on order with my supplier and I know for a fact the T'au kits have a wealth of parts including spares of such things.

The Pathfinders will be great as I will be able to arm them with Ion and Rail Rifles as well as Pulse Carbines. Their armour is a little worse than Fire Warriors but the other options more than make up for this.

These are to be used in our Kill Team League/Campaign Play at my local club, First Founding Gaming. So if you are ever free on a Friday evening from 7pm-10.30pm please head down to Hook (Surrey UK) and pop in for a tea or coffee and choice of snacks as well as an opportunity to meet our awesome gaming community.

MY partially complete Var'Sha'La Strike Teams.

Till next time... :]

Hail fellow Hobby Zoners!

I have a small update, I was working on a custom Dark Angels Specialist Unit. They are my Deathwing Stormguard and can be used as *counts as* DA Company Veterans.

They will be armed with pistols or special weapons and on the left hand holding the firearms they will have a small Spartan style shield. The right arms are brandishing a double chain glaive. A very potent and dangerous weapon from the Horus Heresy. These shock assault troops are directed to the most desperate and dangerous war zones and are used to break through lines and assassinate Enemy Leaders.

In my DA back story they are recruited from the Deathwing formation so all are members of the Inner Circle Command structure within the DA hierarchy. Sometimes they accompany high ranking DA Leadership as Honour Guard or are assigned on other sensitive missions.

I was going for the same bone white colour scheme of the Standard DA with these guys.

I used Army Painter Skeleton Bone Spray, then touched up the models later with the bottle version of the same colour. Then a wash of AP Soft Tone was applied as a single coat over the whole model. This created the depth I was looking for and then I will either build up the highlights by blending or using layers of progressively lighter dry brushing.

I really am looking forward to seeing these various projects through to completion in the hope of bringing together a fully painted Dark Angel 3rd Battle Company combining elements of the Ravenwing and the Deathwing as well as Heavy Support such as Land Raiders, Predators and my ace the Ancient Relic Deredeo Sniper Dreadnought.

He is quite formidable in games and has single handedly taken on multiple enemy units including flyers and bikes as well as heavy tanks and prevailed. 

so till next time Hobby Zoners farewell... :] 

Ave Imperator -][-

Welcome Hobby Zoners to the Uplink... and I mean the Netrunner players among you...

Season 3 Organised Play for 2018 has been announced from FFG today! Rejoice, the game we love so dearly has not been completely abandoned just yet... (we still have until mid October this year when all support for Netrunner by FFG ceases but till then lets keep running!)

FFG Season 3 Netrunner Organised Play 2018

Till next time Hobby Zoners! and remember Netrunners... always be running...

Welcome once again my dear Hobby Zoners!

So I was restless tonight and wanted to build another kit. So I went through my unbuilt kit stash and found some Tartarus Terminators from the Games Workshop 30K/40K range.

The kit is pretty easy to build and components are laid out in GWs usual logical manner.

One thing I will note is the legs come in two pieces and each set of legs goes together a certain way. 

So when you clip the parts out and put them on the worktop make sure you group them according to how they were on the sprue. This will help you put them together without mistakes later. The detail as I am used to with GW kits is crisp and precise with zero warping or defects.

You will need to prep them in the usual way (using a file/clippers and a sharp modelling knife, i also used superglue to facilitate a faster build), as there will be flash and some minor mould lines. 

These kits are some of the more recent from GW so exhibit more options on sprue.

Otherwise these were a pretty easy build and I put them together without instructions.

I tend to go for more dynamic or realistic poses and I feel that with multi part plastic kits, specifically infantry you need to take some time to ensure your models look realistically posed.

I feel it spoils the model to simply slap them together with no thought as to how a model should be standing and how it is holding any weapons and equipment.

I thought I would include a brief description from the GW site on these particular models.

Tactical Dreadnought Armour, or Terminator Armour as it is more usually known, is the most resilient form of personal protection available to the Adeptus Astartes. Originally developed during the closing years of the Great Crusade, and adapted from the heaviest of industrial gear, several types and patterns were developed concurrently. Perhaps the most advanced form is the Tartaros pattern, allowing for greater mobility than other examples of Terminator armour with no loss in durability or protection. (Copyright Games Workshop 2018)

Tartarus Terminators from GW

Till next time Hobby Zoners!