Well, I wound up not watching The Life of Guskou Budori.  I wanted to watch a movie with dinner, so I watched Monster Squad instead.  Guskou Budori will have to wait until tomorrow, I guess.  I realized that I can actually embed videos into this blog, so I give you the trailer for The Life of Guskou Budori.  Looks interesting.

And while we're at it, I'll give the trailer for Wolf Children as well, so you have some idea of what these movies are like.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I am not looking forward to it.  I am looking forward to the end of the day though since I get Friday off.  I intend to sleep in and possibly do some cleaning.

I've done a bit more tinkering with my models today.  I was asked to post some newer photos of my Typhus proxy and his newly cut down scythe.  I've also added some nicks and scratches into it and his armor.

So yeah, it looks a lot better and more in-scale.  I've done further work on him though.  A little bit more sculpting, like replacing my ugly hand done cables with new ones made with my makeshift tentacle making tool.

A new pustule coming out of his armor was added to his right leg.

And some growths were added into the left arm's elbow joint along with a tentacle creeping out of it.

Yesterday I'd picked up a pair of tank models to use as test beds for painting techniques.  I was asked to post pics of those as well.

The GI Joe and the Death Guard are there mainly for size comparison.  The tanks are small, but not tiny.  The one on the right is a Zvezda 1/100 scale KV-2 Russian tank from their wargaming line and the other two are from Pegasus models.  I forget what model of tank it is, but it's German.  Both of those came in one box, so not too bad of a deal and all of the kits in general were very simple to build.  I really like that the Pegasus models were mounted on the sprue in such a way so as to not leave marks when you've removed the parts.  I'm going to try and test out a weathering technique that utilizes hair spray on these tanks.  We'll soon see if it works or not though.

Tuesday evening

Yesterday was pretty busy.  I was way too tired to post, but apparently I wasn't too tired to work on my Typhus proxy.  I worked on him tonight too.  Here's how he's looking now.

I actually completely redid the top of his armor.  Before he had a pair of horns and some fleshy growths on there, but I found a good tutorial for doing Typhus' exhaust stacks.  Here's what I was able to sculpt tonight.

I think I'm getting a lot better at sculpting.  Oh, I also trimmed his scythe way down, so it's much more in proportion.

Beyond that, my day has been pretty low key.  I applied for a job, went down to the yogurt shop near the apartment and got myself some green tea gelato, and watched a movie.

The movie I watched was Wolf Children:  Ame & Yuki.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Children_Ame_and_Yuki
The movie was released last summer and I'd seen ads for it in the hobby magazines, but never got around to checking it out.  A clip from it in Neogaf's funny pictures thread actually reminded me to give it a look.  The director, Mamoru Hosoda is actually pretty well known and has made some pretty good movies in the past like several of the Digimon movies, the Girl who Leapt Through Time (which I've heard is really good), and Summer Wars (which was pretty much one of his Digimon movies only without the Digimon).  He seems to do a lot of kind of Slice Of Life/Coming of Age dramas with elements of the fantastic like monsters, virtual online worlds, time travel, and in this movie, werewolves.  I'd agree with the reviews who say the movie is somewhat cliched and predictable, but it was still pretty good.  Maybe I'm just a bit of a softie, but I thought the movie was kind of sad, too.  I'd say it was kind of bittersweet.  We follow these characters over a period of twelve years as they grow up and eventually make their choices in life and go on their way.  I'm kind of annoyed at the character Ame though since he makes his decision and then pretty much disregards the feelings of everyone around him, ultimately putting his family's lives in danger in order to satisfy his own sense of belonging.  Eh, his choices in the end just kind of bugged me.  Still, the movie was decent and worth watching.

The next movie I have to watch is The Life of Guskou Budori.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Guskou_Budori
Yeah, I don't know what it's about, but I believe it is supposed to have a strong environmental theme.  And animal people.  That, I absolutely know it has.  It's by Gisaburō Sugii, who directed Arashi No Yoru Ni (aka One Stormy Night) and strangely enough, he also directed the Street Fighter animated movie.  At the very least, I expect the movie to be interesting.

This weekend was busy.  Went to my parents' house for the weekend.  Wound up doing the San Diego Zoo on Saturday, Sunday did an Easter brunch at the retirement home my Grandmother lives at.  My allergies have been wreaking havoc on my sinuses this weekend though.  That kind of cut down on my enjoyment of things.  I will see if I can get some pics up from the zoo later in the week.

It was definitely a tiring weekend.  In a way, it'll be nice to get back to the normal grind, it isn't quite so tiring.  BUT, this week will be come Thursday as at work we'll be clearing out a convention.  I'm not really looking forward to it.  However, once it's over, I get Friday off, so that's cool.

I've been waiting to head home today though because on Friday I got in an order of bits for my 40k stuff.  That includes the bits I'd needed to start converting my Terminator armored Chaos Lord into my Counts-As Typhus.  He's going to be the commander for my Chaos Space Marines once he's done.  I got a fair bit done on him tonight though.

It's hard to tell, but I've done some kind of subtle mods to the figure.  His arms have been magnetized for one.  I removed the spikes from the collar bit around his head.  His head itself is a modified Grey Knights Terminator head with added filters and horn.  I hadn't realized before just how much their helmets look like the Deathshround/Death Guard Terminator helmets.  All it needed was just a little bit of modding.  I've replaced his left hand with one from the Grey Knights Terminators that is pointing, so he can direct his troops.  The sorcerer's staff was removed from the left hand (that actually went on that arm) and attached to that right arm (had to remove a Combi-Bolter).  The Staff was further modified by cutting out a small notch into the top and adding a cut up rudder from a Dark Eldar Raider.  I know it looks ridiculously huge in that above pics, but I've already started trimming it down into a more reasonable size.  It'll still be pretty long, but not so large.  I also made a screaming face which I've fused into the scythe's blade that you can see above.  Its made from a combination of two Catachan heads that were included with the Sentinel kit's driver.  The heads were trimmed up after being fit together and it is being held on the blade with green stuff, which I used to also clean up a few of the cut lines leftover from the fusion of the two faces.  Further modifications will be to either add some horns or tentacles to his back and probably the hardest of all, adding some hoses to his chest piece.  I'll post more images as I update him.

Tuesday evening

 Tonight's dinner:  Gnocchi with Marinara Sauce.

This is actually the first thing I've made on my own since I've moved in that wasn't instant or leftovers. 

I got a bit of bad, but not unexpected news tonight.  One of the Kickstarters I was backing, Thon was officially canceled.  It's a real shame, the gameplay actually sounded well thought out and varied.  The miniatures looked great, the stretch goals were great, offering huge expansions of the troops and the designs all looked really cool.  I don't know what the deal was with the funding though.  All of a sudden, about a week or so ago it just started bleeding backers.  This happened about the time the first stretch goal was reached, then the thing just started backpedaling like crazy.  At the very least, the creator said he will try again at a later date once he's smoothed out some of the kinks that cropped up, like the issue with the miniatures' scale.  I hope it does come back though, because it was a project I was really looking forward to.

Now, I think I mentioned that over the weekend, I got shelves put up, my display cabinet anchored, my tv cabinet built, and a tv purchased and set up.  Well, I've got pics!

Here's my new shelving/display/work area.  This is in my bedroom.  It's cozy, but it works.   I had to move my computer table to the left of the cabinet since the painting table was a bit bigger than was initially thought.  But, everything fits perfectly, almost like it was planned that way.  Shelves are obviously pretty bare right now, but that'll change.

My new TV with the Xbox already hooked up.  I kind of forgot to grab some games, so Saint's Row The Third is still in it.  I played it a bit last night and it got me totally sidetracked.  Well, that and painting did.  Speaking of which....

My Aspiring Champion's current state.  He's received a completely new paintjob and is actually further along tonight than he was yesterday before I'd stripped it.  I've decided against giving him a patina finish and will instead copy the scheme I used for my Adeptus Custodes model.  He'll wind up being a fair bit cleaner that way, unfortunately, but I suppose I don't need all of my Nurgle affiliated troops totally filthy.

Speaking of Patina finishes, here's a couple test runs.

As I mentioned, the other Aspiring Champion was stripped as well.  Unlike the other figure, this one will receive a patina.  The figure on the right was actually originally the yellowish colored model I was testing wash-based paintjobs on.  I kind of wish I had a marble pillar to mount him on.  I'd like to use him as a statue, I think.  He's actually received a second patina wash and a bit of drybrushing just to see how the two techniques would look on him.  As it is, I suppose it looks pretty good.  Now, unfortunately, because of the way the Aspiring Champion is posed, he's kind of hard to get a decent picture of, so you can't really see the patina on him.   I did manage to get a decent pic though...

There we go.  Now you can really see it.  I actually really quite like how this turned out.  I'll go back and add the details he had previously, like the glowing eye in his chest, the fleshy hoses, the green loincloth, etc.  I'll be making his guns rusted though.  He is part of a Plague Marine warband after all.

I've also been working a bit on my Barzam Marines.  The second member is actually fully finished now, other than a little bit of touchup and highlighting.

I've also been working on the team's special weapons guy.

The camera didn't want to focus on him, but I've got all the blue bits done.  Up next is the gold, the funky weapon, and highlighting plus adding his backpack.  The other two members of the team are also being worked on, but somehow I've lost one of their shoulder pads.  I need to find some way to replace that.

One other item I worked on today (this was all done tonight, btw) is this Death Guard Marine I'm doing for my father.  I didn't do too much to him today, but I got those horns on his right shoulder painted and I painted all of the little hoses on him.  Next up will be to add some rust to the speaker on his chest, paint those straps, paint the chainmail on his left shoulder, and those embedded faces on it as well.  Oh, and I need to finish the rust on his weapons.  not sure if he'll be receiving any eyes or not.  I kind of like how he looks without any detailing in his eyes.

Not much of an update.  I haven't uploaded any of the pics from this weekend due to getting sidetracked by the Xbox.  Yes, I got my TV cabinet all built, a TV, and finally hooked up the Xbox tonight once I got it home.  It works, no problems at all.  That being said, it is actually quite noticeable that the TVs speakers are actually on the back of the unit.  Kind of weird.  I think I may need to invest in a proper sound system eventually.  Bleh.  Can't wait to get a wireless router though so I can get my Netflix back!

I started messing around with some new paints tonight.  Thought I'd try experimenting with trying to make a verdigris wash with the intention of using it on my Aspiring Champions to help bring out their detail.  Needless to say, both figures are now taking a Simple Green bath.  Yeah, this is like, the second time I've stripped these models.  Well, third time's a charm.  Really all I'm going to do though is swap the brass color scheme with a copper one.  So the order of painting will be primer (black), basecoat (copper), wash (patina), drybrush some copper back over the patina, prime hoses and growths, add purple wash followed by red wash to hoses and growths, paint details like loincloths, weapons, and decorations.  So yeah, hopefully this is the last time I strip these two models.

In other news, I picked up a Chaos Terminator Lord kit.  Now I get to try building an HQ for my troops.  The idea is to create a "Counts-As" Typhus.  I'd like to have Typhus, a unique character for Death Guard, but there's two problems: 1)he's expensive, and 2)he's only available in either metal or Finecast.  Neither material is one I want to work with.  So, I'm going to try and make my own.  I have an idea of what I want to do, but it'll require some sculpting and probably scrounging parts from online.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have pics for my update.

Thursday

Guess who I found outside my front door this morning?  Yep, my bat is back.  Apparently he must really like my front door.  Though, today he was on the wall next to it.  I'll have to see if I can get the Humane Society to take care of him tomorrow.

Anyway, uneventful day at work except that IT messed up our mail server for pretty much the entire day, though it didn't affect me too much and the agency director sent us his want list for the upcoming Spring community service day.  He actually wants even more stuff this time than in the past.

I've been feeling antsy to get home all day today.  I've just been wanting to get back and bust out the paints.  I just did a little work just before posting this.  Here was tonight's dinner though.

Kimchi Ramen with a side of white rice.

Believe it or not, I actually have a hobby update.  As I mentioned, yesterday I was experimenting with painting using just washes.  I'd like to share the results of that experiment.

I tried out two washes straight and one combo.  Each figure was base coated in white and then received several layers of the wash over that.  Black and green received just the single color, the bottom one received two layers of yellow followed by a red.

Black turned out pretty good.  I got the idea to try this from a poster on Dakka Dakka who mentioned he paints his Black Templar marines using this method.  It isn't bad, but it certainly wouldn't win me any awards.  I'd say this is pretty decent for tabletop standards though.  I'll probably go ahead and finish him up as a Black Templar.

The Green turned out surprisingly well.  This is only two coats of the Biel-Tan Green wash.  I really like how this looks, but I'm not entirely sure if I want to keep him like that.  The colors remind me of the Death Guard.

Yellow/Orange.  I suppose this turned out okay.  This is my least favorite.  I was hoping it'd get more of an Imperial Fists shade of yellow, but it didn't.  It actually looks a bit better in the photo than in person.  I'll definitely be stripping the paint off of this one.  Future plans for this figure is to try and do him in camo.

Some of the other things I was working on were my Aspiring Champions.  I've got three, but only one is actually finished.  These guys will be going with my Plague Dogs Chaos Marine chapter and squad leaders.  The idea is that since they're big bad officers, they try to go for more opulent armor than their troops.  Only problem is, as Aspiring Champions, they hold favor with the Chaos Gods and since these guys are dedicated to Nurgle, that means their armor is going to be in a constant state of decay and mutation.  These guys probably have armies of slaves working to keep their armor nice and shiny.

Here's the first I've completed.  He's uses Sanguinary Guard legs, an Anvil Industries backpack (not visible, obviously), a Chaos Terminator's trophy rack, and the head, torso, and arms from the Chaos Marine box.  He's had his topknot removed, big goggle eyes sculpted on (to match the hazmat gear wearing troops), had his arms repositioned using Green Stuff, and received a pair of extra hoses on his chest which came from a GI Joe.  Oh, and the base is an Anvil scenic base.  His colors do work fairly well with his troops, but I wanted him to stand out at the same time, so the gold/brass scheme actually matches up fairly nicely.  Oh, and you'll also notice, I sculpted tentacles coming out of his right leg and there's Nurgle growths on both lower legs and some nice, shiny slime running down his legs.  This guy will likely be in command on my Havoc heavy weapons team when I get around to making it.

Of the two still being worked on, he's the closest to completion.  I really like the sculpts on GW's newest monopose Chaos guys, but I think they're a bit too detailed for their own good.  He's covered in all kinds of details and if I started painting them in, he'll just look too cluttered, so I decided to try and keep it simple and just pick out certain details, like the fleshy hoses, the demon face, the horn, his loincloth, and eventually also the chain and insignia hanging from his belt, his rifle, the rifle's strap, and probably I'll add more details to his Power Fist.  He has an eye sculpted into his chest, so I painted it to look like it's giving off light.  I think it turned out fairly well.

I REALLY like this guy, but he suffers from the same problem of being over detailed and it's really apparent on him.  I'm going to try and take a minimalist approach to him too and just pick out certain details.  Both this Aspiring Champion and the one above will be receiving rusted equipment too, so that they'll fit in better with the troops they'll be commanding.  Also, he has no base unlike the others because his is a scenic base unique to him and I will probably work on that last.

Had in interesting surprise waiting for me above my front door on Tuesday night when I got home.

This little guy.

 He was just sitting there, right above the door.  Didn't move or anything.  I wanted to snap a photo of him, but I figured it'd startle him and the last thing I needed was a crazy bat flying at me.  When I went to leave for work this morning, guess who was still there.  Exact same spot, still not moving.  I don't know if it was dead or sick or what, but I remember hearing waaaay back in elementary school that if you see a bat out during the day, chances are it's probably sick.  I notified the staff at the front office.  I'm not sure if they called Animal Control to deal with it (I hope so) or what, but they said he was removed.  I wouldn't have minded the bat hanging around (no pun intended), but I've always heard that they're pretty much just flying vectors for horrible diseases.  I didn't need that right above my front door.

In other news, here's my meal for the evening.

Leftovers from the weekend!  This was a macaroni based casserole with some onions, olives, meat, and obviously brocoli on the side.  After I ate, I got my paints all set up on the kitchen table.  I actually managed to get some work done on some of my Chaos guys.  I also picked up some cheapie mono-pose Space Marines to try an experiment with.  Basically I'm going to paint them using just washes.  They're turning out actually, no so badly.  using the Biel-Tan green paint wash actually gets me a color scheme that works pretty well for Deathguard.  No pics now, but I'll see if I can get some up tomorrow.  Also, I tried painting up the blue bits on the new Code Geass kit, the Alexander.  Buuut, my plan didn't work out so well and now I think I'm going to need to get myself some Simple Green to strip the paint and start over.

Monday

Today was a bit of a waste.  At work, we were supposed to be picking up donations from a Vons in Brentwood that's closing.  Usually, when we do this, we need pretty much the entire department and these jobs can take pretty much the entire day.  Not so today.  I've not been looking forward to this at all.  I was in the second group that was heading there which had the big trucks.  As I was heading down to the drivers to get going, my supervisor got a call that the Vons personnel had already loaded everything onto pallets before we even got there.  We all had to go anyway, but once we were there, all of the work was already done.  We didn't need 11 people, 3 trucks, and 2 vans for this job.  We probably only needed 3 people and 2 tucks.  So, I spent a good chunk of the day with nothing to do.  On top of that, our IT department took my computer because the thing has been nothing but a pain in the ass for me all last week, so I didn't have anything to do when I got back to the office.  Basically all I did today was unload a truck and put all of the frozen goods into our freezers.

I wound up leaving early since there wasn't much I could do.  The evening thankfully has been pretty calm and relaxing.  I ended up finishing off the Pad Thai leftovers I had from last week.

It was pretty good, I have to say.  I spent most of the evening just relaxing.  There's a gelatto/frozen yogurt place right next to the apartment complex, so I figured I'd go try it out, especially since it was a pretty warm day.  The owner seemed pretty nice, too.  They actually had way more food than I though, including sandwiches and crepes.  On a whim, I asked if they had red bean crepes, and she told me they did.  I'll have to try that some time.  I wound up getting a Oreo Gelatto and took it back to my apartment.  I ate it on my balcony as the sun was going down.  Very nice and relaxing and pretty decent gelatto, too.  I think tomorrow I may have an evening coffee on my balcony as that was rather enjoyable.

Can't say this weekend was too exciting.  I spent the weekend at my parents' place, saw Oz The Great and Powerful, and had our Saturday night dinner with the family.  I brought some more of my junk over on Sunday and my Grandparents got my some house warming gifts, namely some dish towels (which I needed), a nice little pillow for my couch, and a pretty good sized George Foreman Grill.  I was planning on asking for one of those for my birthday, but now there's obviously no need.  I haven't busted it out yet, but I'm sure it'll be getting quite a bit of use.  On Sunday I went to the West Coaster toy soldier show with my Dad, Uncle, Grandparents, Nephew, and Cousin.  I bought nothing.  I didn't see much I was interested in.  The old lead toy soldiers don't really do a whole lot for me, though I am a fan of the old Britain's Space line.  Sadly, not many dealers have that stuff these days and the prices were pretty ridiculous.  Brukhurst Hobbies had a table where they were selling book for Osprey Publishing.  They had some Bolt Action WWII miniatures, buuuut, while I was interested, they were charging way too much considering that they'd had the Bolt Action Soviets marked down to $20 at their store not that long ago and were charing $45 at the West Coaster.  I did buy a tv stand for my currently hypothetical TV.  Haven't assembled it yet though.

Moving back a bit to Saturday, I wound up playing Bioshock pretty much all night.  My dog stayed with me while I was playing.  She fell asleep pretty quick though.  I absolutely had to take this pic of her

I couldn't resist, what with her tongue hanging out.  I think I managed to play through about half of the game that night, too.  Good game, highly recommended.  If you're  a fan a System Shock, yeah, it's pretty much the same game.

Since I meant for this to be a hobby blog, I figure I should put something hobby related up here.  I put this guy together back around Christmas. He's my first proper Warhammer 40k kitbash. I don't know if he's game legal, but I probably wouldn't actually use him anyway. Really I just made him because I liked the modelling aspect of the hobby. Anyway, he's an Iron Warrior Chaos Sorcerer kitbashed from a Warhammer Fantasy Battle Chaos Sorcerer with a random Marine's backpack, pistol holster, and the odd, tiny head from the Warp Talons boxed set. He's pretty simple, but I think it turned out pretty good.

trying the local cuisine

Today was pretty uneventful except... oh wait!  My internet is working!  I'm not wireless yet, but I don't really need to be at the moment.  The speed seems pretty decent too.  Unfortunately, no hobby updates. *sigh*  I accidentally left my camera at work.  I'll put up an update of a couple of miniatures once I get it back.

Tonight I planned on going out for dinner.  There's a sushi place near my apartment complex I was planning on trying, but the Yelp reviews said it was only so-so and kind of pricey.  I asked at work if there were any decent, affordable places around.  I was recommended a place that no longer exists, called the Burger Bar.  Turns out there's a new burger joint that replaced it called Boca Burger With a Touch of Argentina, or something to that effect.  I believe its a family run place and has a decent sized menu.  Prices were alright.  Upon asking, the proprietor recommended the cheeseburger.  I guess it's one of the more popular items.  They had other stuff like empanadas and even some pasta too.  Despite what name of the place is, these aren't really veggie burgers, though they do have a veggie burger.  I wound up getting the Double Bacon Cheeseburger.  Naturally the most expensive item.  They offer sides other than fries, like salads.  I'm actually kind of surprised by the size of the salad.  It was pretty big.  So, here's what it looked like.

Not bad, eh?  The meat tasted pretty fresh to me and I'm pretty sure that the patties are hand-made.  They absolutely didn't have that mass produced, pressed patty that you get from regular fast food.

Just look at that.  That's a fresh burger.  Quality was pretty good I have to say.  I think if I feel like treating myself again, I'll stop by once more.

The weekend has ended, and I am moved in.  Unfortunately, due to a problem with internet installation, I cannot actually post from my apartment yet and also, I cannot post any pictures.  But, I am pretty much moved in, I have all of my furniture and most of my clothes moved over.  Tomorrow, I begin my first day entirely on my own.  That should be interesting.  Supposedly I'll be getting my internet situation sorted though.  Hopefully it won't be too much trouble.  The strangest thing to get over is that I won't have my dog with me.  Shame.  Maybe before too long I'll get lucky and land a job with better pay that will allow me to get get a furry companion.

Well, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to put up some photos of my new place.  Until then.

Hello

As I type this, it is about 1:30am, moving day.  Today I will begin the move into my first apartment.  It's a little daunting, but I'll get over it.  The purpose of this blog is to act as a record of my hobbies.  Over time I'll gradually try and post pictures of the various models and whatnot that I work on.

Of course, there will likely be the occasional (or frequent) posting of other everyday odds and ends on here.

So, for now, adieu, and I will leave you with a closing image of my sweet, sleepy dog.