All Vendettas and Colonel Straken's Command Valk now ready for action!

And only Valkyrie 07 to go! Vendetta 06 was quite a breeze to paint, I guess it being the final Vendetta in the squadron and all. And the good news is, I actually found those AirCav shield logos that were missing when I painted Vendetta 05. So I painted 2 of those and retrofitted 1 onto Vendetta 05. All's well!

With less than 4 days to go before I fly off on vacation, and with all kinds of RL work stuff getting in the way in these precious few days, I don't think I'll be able to finish the AirCav before I go on vacation. But I'll definitely be able to finish the last transport (Valk 07)!

But it's not too bad. I can finish off the 2 and a half squads left to go quite fast, being a dip army and all. Then I'll just need to paint some extra models for a bigger 1850 version, but the 1750 is pretty much nearly done.

Come to think of it, I could have gotten it done if not for the accursed xenos distraction (1 Crimson Hunter, 6 jetbikes, 1 converted warlock on jetbike)! But such is the hobby ...

Vendetta 05 ready for action!

In the on-going saga of Straken's II Catachan Air Mobile Detachment (AirCav), finally finished this on Friday, pictured above with 3 other squadron-mates. This Vendetta and 2 others have been at 70% done for months. Today I'll tackle 06, and then hopefully also finish Valkyrie 07 before I go on vacation. I had to go back to hand-painting the AirCav shield on the nose because I really couldn't find the pre-cut shields that Jeff made for me. The hand-painted one turned slightly smaller than the others, but I'll leave it for now till I find those shields (and then glue it over the smaller one), or make the time to repaint it.

After the game on Friday night I also went back to add to my kit-bash Warlock on jetbike. I'm happy with it so far. Just thinking if I should sculpt the eyes, or leave it blank-faced, or just paint the eyes on. Anyways, hopefully I'll come back with the Vendetta 06 update real soon. Happy gaming!

Second Windrider squad ready for action!

It's been 13 years since I last painted an Eldar jetbike (not counting repainting the riders in 2007), and it was great to be able to finish this squad last night. In fact, I finished the whole squad from the box to finish in one seating. It's been awhile since I managed to find the time to do that.

I tried to keep to the original color scheme, but only managed a best match. The 6 original jetbikes in my collection, along with 4 Vypers, Falcon and 2 Wave Serpents, were all painted using the old OOP Citadel range (the ones with the cool flat white plastic caps, and used to last forever). Anyways, the colors match my Fire Prisms perfectly, so it's all good.

The finish on the bikes' carapace ended up to thick. I'm not used to the consistency of the new blue pot - definitely heavier pigmentation that the old Ultra Blue. So it kinda screwed it up for me. But after finishing the squad, I don't feel so bad.

In between allowing for coats and sprays to dry, I worked on kit-bashing a second Warlock on jetbike. The original plan was to emulate what I did with the first Warlock on jetbike that I already have (just realized that I did that conversion 12 years ago!), which was cutting up a metal Warlock, join the torso to a standard jetbike rider's legs, and GS the robes. But when I got the Warlock from Iqbal, it turned out that it was the only one that I've never had in my collection - I couldn't bring myself to cut the guy in two. So, he joins my now expanded Seer Council on foot.

I eventually kit-bashed the Warlock from the bits in my room. Legs and arms from the jetbike rider (right hand cut and repositioned for effect), torso and cloak from Wood Elf rider (arrows shaved out and patched w GS), head from Hemlock pilot. I'll be adding hair on his helm, and maybe more flowing cloak bits from the Wood Elf frame. Quite happy with how it's turning out so far.

Anyways, tonight it's back to AirCav!!!!

Finally got this baby painted for the table ...

... but I must say I could have done a much better job. Well, I suppose I needed to get it done after 4 weeks of sitting on the painting table.

It's a lovely model, and I should probably get another to do it real justice. My original plan was to adorn the aircraft with lots of green and amber gems. But I did get lazy. Especially after I lost the pilot's head - the thing rolled off my table and mysteriously disappeared (it's probably lying right next to my Forgeworld Imperial tank searchlight which disappeared under similar strange circumstances some 4 years ago). So now, a hapless random Guardian is walking around without his head, as some files, glue, bits and paint created a new exarch's helm for the pilot.

Anyways, it was painted up, some basic decals put on, spray varnished, dried, and went straight into battle vs some mon-keigh in blue armor. Happy to report that while I'm not entirely happy with the paint job, the aircraft did extremely well, with the exarch dancing in the skies and picking off mon-keigh at will.

Next up will be the final push to finish the AirCav.

Happy Daddy's Day ... and other hobby odds and ends ...

Had to put this drawing up which my daughter did for me for father's day. I thought it was pretty funny with the smiley faces and the neck tie liturgy scroll.

I've been struggling through hobby this past few months, stealing time here and there to get my fix of hobby goodness. Doesn't help that there's been so many cool stuff lately - Eldar, Langton 1/1200 ships, Napoleonic resurgence, Ravenwing, FoW, BFG ... jeez.

Finally had my first game with the new Eldar, using the latest reincarnation of a "purist" Alaitoc Ranger Force - all foot, no vehicles. Against Faizal's Space Wolves, it was quite a blast. The Alaitoc have become deadlier than ever. Crazy. Will need to try the other new Eldar toys in the next game.

Talking about toys, I'm about 30% done with my Nightshade fighter. Decided to do an Exarch's aircraft. It's been awhile since I painted Eldar, and clean lines and bright colors are such a pain after a long spell painting IG and Ravenwing. My AirCav is on a break - got 2 Vendettas and 1 Valkyrie at about 40%, plus 24 infantry all black and ready to paint. When I get back to these guys next month it's for the home run! Other stuff on the table include 6 new Eldar jetbikes and 6 Ravenwing command squad bikes.

Lastly, Kill Team is a blast! As the pic below (actual in-game) will tell you.

Throwdown Day - 55% done!

The final Throwdown came and went last Friday. There were some really nice models there, but only 1 army was complete. And that of course, was Iqbal's brilliantly bright Eldar! Kudos for that purity seal dude.

My own AirCav came in at 55% complete. And I'm really glad for the Throwdown to get my ass of the ground and get some movement going in this project. Now that the Throwdown is done, I'm going to focus on finishing the army to the original 1750 pts, and then to the expanded 2000 pts.

For 1750, these are the models that need to be finished:

2 Vendetta - status: OD base coat done
1 Valkyrie - status: OD base coat done
20 veteran infantry - status: black under coat done
1 standard bearer - status: base coats 80% done
2 advisors - status: black under coat done
1 priest - status: black under coat done

For the extended 2000 pts, I need to add the following:

6 Ogryns - status: unassembled
1 Chimera - status: MIB
1 Marbo - status: unassembled (kitbash - parts already set aside)

And last Friday also saw the return of Ahriman and his dust boys. After 2 months of playing an all-foot Eldar, I must say it was a huge change - especially in rediscovering how easy Rhinos pop to concentrated fire (when I was playing the all-foot Eldar, that was a great way to gain First Blood. Guess I'm giving those away now).  But Thousand Sons is huge fun! All that magic. So cool.

Of course, in the very first time they come back to Legio battlefields, they go up against armies that ignore their AP3 bolters - Deathwing, and Blood Angels Honor Guard. Typical. The fight vs Deathwing didn't turn out too well. While Belial's uber 10-man Deathwing Assault Squad was wiped out in a single round of shooting, he actually held on in the ensuing close combat till battle's end. And the squad that could have saved the day for the Sons outflanked on the wrong flank (my mistake to assign that squad to the sorcerer with the blindfold - of course he couldn't see where he was going! lol), and the Deathwing carried the day. The fight against the Blood Angels was bloody. At the end of the battle, only Dante, 1 of his bodyguard and 1 Stormraven was left, and only 2 Terminators and 5 Thousand Sons survived (Ahriman died in Turn 2 - rolled a 1 for LOS, and failed his save against a melta shot). But they held the objective and won the day. The Sons are back!

Um, Colonel sir, I'm afraid we have bad news ...

... AirCav Detachment, II Catachan will not be ready for deployment by tomorrow evening as scheduled, sir! Yes sir, I have assigned myself to special punishment detail, sir! What is that sir? Yes sir, I will add self-flogging into my list, sir! Yes, sir, I will use the torture implements as used by the Arco-Flagellants bunking in at base camp, sir!

Sir? Paint faster, sir? Sir, yes sir!!!!