a happy girl

My dog is spending the weekend at my place.  I'm planning on taking her to one of the local dog parks tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post afterwards.  Look at how happy she looks though.

She watched Cabin in the Woods with me, too.  Well, actually she slept through most of Cabin in the Woods.  I'd heard the movie was supposed to be pretty good and, it was.  I actually rather enjoyed it.  Apparently it was written by Joss Wheden (or however you spell his name), the guy who did Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and the Avengers movie.  I loved the way the movie played with horror movie cliches and tropes.  There were some pretty good lines in it too.  Not to mention, the movie just had some amusing things going on in it, like the list of monsters during the betting scene with obvious references to movies like Evil Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Creature from the Black Lagoon, It, and just some plain funny ones, like a Unicorn and Sugar Plum Fairies.  There were also references to other movies like The Ring, Hellraiser, The Blob, and even some monsters from Left 4 Dead showed up.  Plus, after the elevator scene, the movie just plain goes nuts.  Well worth watching.

Some Menoth for ya!

Since I didn't have any pictures yesterday, I figure I ought to put some pictures up tonight.  I actually wasn't planning on getting any actual work done tonight.  I'd planned to watch The Wrath of Khan, but got sidetracked played Mass Effect 3's multiplayer.  So, since it was too late to really watch the movie, I figured I'd do some painting.  My Menoth forces have gotten some love and attention tonight.  I've got two Warjacks finished up.  First up is my Vigilant, the first one I completed.

Vigilant is obviously a defensive unit.  Unfortunately, I will not be using him in the upcoming game on Saturday.  I know it's something incredibly basic and you probably wouldn't even notice it most of the time, but I'm really pleased with how his base turned out.  The light Warjacks have slotted bases as I explained yesterday and so I wound up sculpting those cobblestones over the normal base.  I think they turned out pretty damn nicely.

Next up, the Crusader!

This guy is a Menoth heavy Warjack.  This picture makes his paint look a bit messed up on his upper body, but it actually looks just fine in person.  Hell, in my group shot I took, it actually looks better.  No sculpting on this base.  Just straight painting.  This unit will be in Saturday's game.

And a group shot of the units I have at my apartment that are completed.

Not much, I know.  I do have the Warcaster, Kreos completed at my parents' house along with one of my Knights Exemplar Cinerators.  I'll be bringing them home after this weekend.  I also have 2 more Warjacks that have been basecoated and are awaiting paint, 1 more light Warjack awaiting assembly, a Vassal of Menoth still sitting in his package, and several more unbuilt Cinerators and standard Exemplars.  I'd probably have more of them finished if it weren't for those damn mold lines all over the figures.

Also, I think I'm going to be taking a hiatus on purchasing miniatures for a while.  I'm going to grab some on Monday and that'll be it for a while.  I've got a lot of figures to paint still, plus vehicles.  Not only that, but I have 2 Kickstarters ending soon and a trip to Japan next month.  In June, I'm also supposed to be getting my Mutant Chronicles Kickstarter figures as well, so my plate'll be full for a while.  The biggest problem will be that I just won't be adding on to my Menoth army for a while.

No pics tonight, sorry.  It's late and while I have been working on models, it's just too late at night for me to photograph what I've done, format the images, and post them up.  Maybe tomorrow I'll take some pics.  For now, I've been slowly working on my Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtroopers.  Unfortunately, I only have 3 actually finished.  But, since squads are supposed to operate in 5 man units, I've got most of one squad done now.  I really like these guys.  I can't wait for Dreamforge to put out their Space Russians.  Supposedly they're going to have tanks.  It seems Dreamforge also released updated renders of their APCs for the Eisenkern and man do they look big.  Very cool looking, too.  Something else I've been working on are my Menoth Warjacks.  I'm going to try and have a test run of Warmachine with my brother this weekend, so I want to have all of my starter 'Jacks at least assembled if not fully painted.  Just one more to go as far as assembly is concerned though.  I'll get him built up tomorrow.  I might even get some of them painted up!  I also started an attempt at basing my Vigilant.  Since his base has a big ugly slot on it (and he does not have a corresponding tab), I had to fill it in.  I used a bit of cereal box and globbed on some Green Stuff to sculpt some cobble stones.  It's curing right now.  We'll see how it looks tomorrow once I've got it trimmed and painted up.

Star Trek Nemesis

Over the weekend I saw the new Star Trek movie with my parents.  I'm not going to lie, I was never all that into Star Trek.  I always found the series to be somewhat boring and the lack of action kept it from really competing against something like Star Wars.  Hell, even Doctor Who had more action than Star Trek.  Now, that isn't to say that I completely hated Trek.  Deep Space 9 was actually a very good show once it got a few seasons in and TNG and the original series both had some pretty good episodes, so it wasn't all bad.  Anyway, watching Into Darkness made my want to re-evaluate my opinion on Trek and give it another chance.  I figured I'd watch some of the shows and the movies.  I know that with the movies, basically every other one is bad, but I figured I'd at least watch a few of them anyway.  At the very least, I'd watch the last of the Next Generation movies since I'd seen all of the other ones except Nemesis.   So, that brings us to this.

So yeah, I knew this had a reputation for being fairly blah.  It isn't the best TNG movie (that'd probably be First Contact) and it isn't the worst (Insurrection), it was just mediocre.  The movie had some aspects to it that actually could have been more interesting if they'd been fleshed out more and explored better.  I think the biggest fault of this movie though, is that it didn't feel like a movie at all.  Maybe it's just my tv, because I know HD tvs tend to make special effects really stand out, but the effects in this movie looked kind of bad.  This was a theatrically released movie and the cg barely looked any better than what would've been in the show.  Another problem is the sets.  They're kind of lame.  Every single set in this movie felt small, sparse, and kind of claustrophobic.  These were really the kinds of sets that they would've been able to make on the tv show's budget.  These did not feel like the kinds of sets you'd see in a big budget Hollywood movie.  Really, this just felt like a longer tv episode.  Just about everything in this movie was on par with what you'd get from the show.  There was no grand scope, no real sense of adventure or anything like you would expect from a Star Trek movie.  Honestly, this was just sort of a let down and it's kind of a shame that this was the final movie until 2009's reboot.

just one pic tonight

I got the other sponson done!  Since I don't have the larger magnets I needed, I had to do some improvising and, as such, the new right sponson cannot have its gun swapped for a las cannon.  Oh well. 
I'm not doing any painting tonight.  I want to take a little break so I don't burn myself out.  I'll probably do some stuff over the weekend though.

Went by the other dog park today after work.  The other one is actually really close to me.  Really, only a few blocks away.  This one wasn't as big as the one I went to yesterday, but it was actually open.  Plus, no Rattle Snakes.  Yeah, the other place has Rattle Snakes living around there.  Lots of big dogs running around though.  Not sure if I want to bring Kiki there.  A lot of the dogs seemed kind of aggressive.  I dunno.

Went by the gelato place after dinner.  I made myself a turkey burger, actually.  Putting that George Foreman grill to use.  I wound up getting a peanut butter mocha gelato.  It was pretty good.  Also, on a whim I grabbed an espresso soda.  I haven't had a coffee soda since I did a study abroad in France (Coke Black).

It was interesting.  Not as good as I remember Coke Black being, but not bad.  Certainly brings me back a few years though.

My Dad wanted me to post some hobby pics tonight, so I have a few for him.

I started assembling what will be one of the last of my basic Chaos Marines.  I had to modify his head a bit so it'll fit.  I kind of like how it looks now without his funky bull horns.  He'll be carrying a bolter with a drum magazine once he's done.  I'll probably prime him tomorrow or over the weekend.

I got another of my Defiance Panzer Grenadiers painted up.

This picture really brings out the flaws in the sculpts.  The WIP of a second Chaos Lord is in the back.  He'll be sharing the basic gold/brass scheme my other commanders have.  He'll also have a loincloth and cloak with (eventually) magnetized arms.

Lastly, finished up my Menoth Vigilant.

A dark photo, I know.  I didn't really feel like going into the kitchen to take a decently lit photo.

Playing with my minis.

No photos tonight, sorry.

I didn't really get much painting done tonight.  I actually spent most of the evening playing Doom.  I picked up the Doom III BFG edition a few weeks back, but hadn't actually even opened it until tonight.  It's a good deal, too since it gives you the original Doom with the fourth episode, "Thy Flesh Consumed", Doom II, as well as the updated Doom III, and a campaign expansion for Doom III to boot.  So really, you're getting 3 games and DLC all for about $20.  Played right through the first episode and unlocked a good chunk of the original Doom's achievements.  Unfortunately, two of the achievements are for online multiplayer.  I tried to do online and there was NOBODY.  So, this'll be another game I don't get all of the achievements for.  I forget though how much fun this game was.  It's so simple and straight to the point, too.  Not bogged down by story, scripted events, or puzzles that are any more difficult that "find the blue key."  It was actually kind of refreshing.

Other than that, I picked up Metro: Last Light from Gamestop and probably won't get to it for a while.  Also went by Target to pick up some stuff.  Found out they're carrying Iron Man 3 Heroclix singles in the trading card area.  I grabbed a couple, got Iron Patriot and The Mandarin.  I'm sure neither one is rare or anything.  I also drove down to one of the two local dog parks to check them out.  I went to the larger of the two and while it does look like it's probably pretty nice, it was closed down for pest control.  Supposedly it'll be open tomorrow.  Next time I borrow the dog for the weekend, I think I might bring her by there, let her meet some other dogs.  Who knows, maybe I'll even find an attractive girl while I'm there.

a gold knight and a purple robot

I kind of got myself depressed tonight.  I had a really old Boston Terrier that had to be put down back in October.  I've been trying to work on my mother to get a new dog, but she won't budge.  My dad is all for getting a new Boston Terrier.  Anyway, I was showing him some of the Boston Terriers that were available for adoption on Pet Finder.  Some of the stories on there are depressing as hell.  I had to stop looking, but the damage was already done.  To try and focus my mind on something else, I did some more painting tonight.

I've got this Bones knight figure from Reaper that I've since before I moved and he's been sitting in a box unpainted.  I decided to finally get to him.

I might take him to work.  I like how he turned out.  Supposedly Reaper is going to be releasing some of their sci-fi space marine type guys next month in the Bones line.  If that turns out to be true, I'm going to be grabbing a few.  maybe I'll use them as survivors for Deadzone.

The other thing I worked on was my first Menoth Warjack, the Vigilant.

He's not entirely done, obviously.  But, he is mostly done.  I need to do the top of his exhaust, repaint some of the exhaust pipes on his back, and obviously paint the shield gauntlets on his arms.  I also have some highlighting left to do and I need to seal the non-metallic parts so they don't scratch when I handle him.  Somehow I need to figure out how to cover that slot on the base.  I also changed my Menoth paint scheme on this guy.  Before, I'd been doing an ivory/white combo with purple and gold.  Pretty much it was the studio paintjob for Menoth, just replacing the maroon with purple.  Well, I hate painting white.  One of the worst possible colors to paint.  I've been contemplating changing the scheme entirely so I wouldn't have to paint it.  Last weekend I stumbled on a bone colored paint and my prayers were answered.  It's sooo much easier to use.  It's still a bit thick, but covers way better.  I basically changed the scheme from white/ivory, purple and gold to bone, purple, and brass with an ivory highlight over the bone and shining gold over the brass.  I think this looks pretty good.

Finished Rhino

I guess it's done.  I added the tracks.  Really I just need to paint the bolter on it, but that's no big deal.  So, I've got some pics of the final product with my troops.

About that Rhino...

Yeah.  About that Rhino.  Remember how I said I kind of ruined it?  Well, I think I kind of did.  The pics from yesterday looked waaaay better.  I never should've messed with it.  When I get onto the second tank, I'm not going to mess with it any further once I get the chipping done.  So, want to see how it looks now?

 This picture make it look okay.  As I said, my attempt at detailing the rust just plain ruined it.  I went over it with the silver to look like the bare metal underneath as a way to clean it up.  This is.... eh.  I'm not that big of a fan of it, honestly.  But believe me, this looks WAY better than it did.

I think the biggest problem here is that it just winds up being too busy.  Less is more and I should've followed that rule from the start.  I'd tried adding some graffiti to it also, but it made it look even worse.  Thankfully, one of my yellows (actually a brown, if you can believe it) is a nearly perfect match to the yellowish orange I used on the tank, so I was able to at least cover that up.

You may also notice that there's no tracks on it.  Well, that's because my super glue, which I just bought last week, decided to crap out on me.  It didn't turn all goopy like my brush on stuff did.  Oh no, this stupid thing decided to not only glue its cap on, but it somehow sprung a leak somewhere in its plastic bottle that just got all over my hands and on my clothes.  I was not pleased with that.  Plus, now I can't actually build anything until I get more glue.  Why does the brush on Locktite glue have to be so damn impossible to find?

Anyway, I did manage to do some work on my troops.

My heavy support Havoc team has at least two of its members pretty much finished.  The guy in the back is one of four autocannon equipped Havocs.  He'll be receiving a wash to that cannon, so it won't be quite so shiny.  The guy in the front is the team's commander.  Like my other officers, he gets a metallic golden-ish scheme to help him stand out from his troops.  Plus he gets a neat kitted out bolter.  All five Havocs have those funky targeting scopes attached to their helmets, too.  Since not all of the soldiers in my warband are favored by Nurgle with his "gifts," I figure that gives me a little bit of leeway to make some of the non Plague Marine troops cleaner, hence why these two are not totally filthy.  Not sure if I should add anything to that base though.

Got the Rhino nearly done tonight.  I took these pictures after removing the liquid mask and salt.  Tracks still haven't been added.

These were taken though before I thought "Gee, this'll look great when I add the rust detailing."  Long story short, no.  No it did not look great.  In fact, I kind of ruined it.  I've managed to salvage most of the tank, but the top hatch and side hatches are pretty well botched.  I'll probably respray them tomorrow.  I might be able to save one of them as-is, but not the other two.  Shame, because it actually did look quite good as it was.  I should've just left it alone.  Well, lesson learned.  On my next tank, I'm not going so crazy and I'm certainly not going to try and do the rust effects on it.

Tonight is another lame update.  No photos.  I've been playing Sleeping Dogs lately and its been soaking into my hobby time.  Well, sort of.  I've been doing a lot of spray painting.  My Rhino is all base coated.  I've just finished applying the liquid sealer to it.  I'll be adding some salt for smaller paint chips on it.  Tomorrow I'll be applying the yellow paint to it.  Hopefully I don't screw it up, because I did manage to screw up my test model.  I got too much yellow on and gunked it all up.  Byond that, I've been assembling some figures and priming several.  Like I said, this is a lame update.

not much of an update Wednesday

Sorry, no pictures in tonight's post.  I didn't really finish anything tonight.  I just did some work on the first of my tanks, getting more of it magnetized, cleaning the conversion parts and attaching them, etc.  I also did some further experiments with my new liquid mask.  It seems to work alright, but it only seems to work when I get it wet.  Maybe it'd be better to either glob it on so I've got something to pry off once it's all dry or maybe I'll spray the paint over it before it's dried.  We'll see.  I intend to try using it again on another test model.  So really, yeah, that's about it.