April 2nd, 2010 by Missy

So, Anya has decided that she is ready to get into the world of miniature wargaming. We’ve got boatloads of old miniatures lying around that we’ve never gotten around to doing anything with and likely will never get around to doing anything with.. tyranids, IG, SoBs, etc, etc. Anyway, we gave Anya a box of Cadian shocktroopers to paint and told her that if she takes her time with them, really tries to be neat and takes good care of the brushes and paints, then we’ll let her keep painting. So far, she has been very good about taking care of the supplies and I think that her minis look great for a six-year-old! Honestly, her little guy (she calls him Mr. Injured) looks better than a lot of stuff I’ve seen out of adult painters. Such as the pieces I received today (more on that later). She could do with a little better paint coverage and a lighter hand with the wash, but all in all she did great! She was very careful to be neat.

She also appears to be taking after me! Notice the paint on her lip from licking her brush? Cracks me up.

Okay, later: The Empire army I ordered off of eBay arrived today and I am disappointed, I must say. Everything was just tossed into a box without any attempt to actually pack the items. An enormous number of the models are broken. I mean, some repair is expected when you ship Warhammer but this goes beyond what is acceptable. I’d say at least 1/4 of the models are broken, and not just snapped apart at join lines. The War Altar is smashed into several pieces and Volkmar is completely missing a hand. The 10 “master painted flagellants” (not that I really care about the state of their paint, it’s acceptable) are only 9 flagellants. Which I do care about.. now they look stupid sitting on a movement tray with a rank of four. It’s just like.. wtf.

And yes, everything that the guy painted (except for the 9 flagellants, which he didn’t paint) are terribad. Anya’s Cadian is definitely better. Not that I was expecting them to be well painted, (I was planning to strip them anyway) it just makes me lol.

March 30th, 2010 by Missy

Mm.. haven’t blogged again for a bit.

This whole house thing is starting to get frustrating. We just can’t seem to come to an agreement with anyone. The banks are huge pains in the ass to deal with (woah, big surprise!), but it isn’t just them apparently. We put in a bid (I think we’re up to four now x.x) on another house, owned by real people (investors). They’ve had the place on the market for just about three months now.. and they won’t budge the 1% we need to cover our VA costs. They bought the house for $70,000. We’re offering $127,000. I know that they put some work into it, but they didn’t put $60,000 in it. Is 1% really worth not selling it? It isn’t going to appraise for much more than we offered (maybe $131,000 if they’re lucky?). It doesn’t have a garage, which drags the value of the home down by a HUGE amount. Seriously. 1%. WTF?

Hasn’t anyone told them that this is a buyers’ market right now?

Anyway, Vampire Counts are moving along. I’ve got another 15 ghouls painted and based, so I am at 35 now. And may I say it drives me insane that you HAVE to make a champion with every box? Who fields 10-man units of ghouls? I don’t think I should be strong-armed into making a champion. 80 ghouls is four 20-man units (which is a much more common unit size, obviously). Why do I want eight champions for four units?

I’ve had enough ghoul painting for the moment. I have 15 more assembled, green-stuffed and primed but I just don’t have the will to paint them for now. I got started on my grave guard the other night (and whee, I lost a breastplate and another broke so I’ve got.. eight grave guard to paint). Hopefully they’ll be a nice change of pace and then it won’t be so bad when I get back to the ghouls. I’ll probably finish these eight and then do the other box of’em that I have. Going to try to order some breastplates on eBay so that I can have a full unit going on. I’ll just paint the two incomplete guys with the next batch, I suppose.

Then.. the corpse cart, I guess. Followed by Blood Knights? C’mon army, just be done already..

I want to paint my Empire! I won a great auction on eBay for some Empire stuff (it isn’t here yet) that pretty much completes my army. Once this lot comes in I will have:
Three brigades (which contains, all together)

• 120 state troops
• 30 great swords
• 24 knights
• 60 handgunners
• 15 pistoleers
• 3 great cannons / mortars

I will also have:

• A warrior priest
• Luthor Huss
• War Altar
• Deathclaw
• 10 more great swords
• 15 flagellants
• 4 wizards on foot
• 5 mounted wizards
• 10 free company
• Steamtank
• Hellblaster / Helstorm

So yes, my army is pretty much done.  Just need a few more free company for detachments.  I’m kind of hoping to kitbash those out of the bazillion extra parts that I should have, though.

March 17th, 2010 by Missy

As promised, pictures of the Varghulf and some of the completed ghouls. These aren’t all of the ghouls, as they don’t have a base of their own at present. Don’t mind the strange formation — I just stuck them on the Dire Wolves base until I get a chance to do theirs. I’m not really a big fan, but I’m feeling too lazy to try to come up with anything better. I do think I’ll go back and fix those eyes though, now that I see them close up. A few spots that need a little touch-up there, and I think the eyes really want a highlight. If you’ll notice, the ghoul in the front rank of the very far right looks different (slightly) from the rest.  He is the one that I painted months ago, and for some insane reason I wrote down everything about how to paint him except for the deeper red over his joints.  Unfortunately, I was unable to reproduce the effect.  Which sucks, since I think that he looks better / cleaner than the others.  Oh well.

I’m fairly happy with Mr. Varghulf here, except for a few small things.  He looks better on the table than in pictures, but I think that the pictures show pretty clearly that he needs some more highlighting on his skin. I also notice a few places on his talons where some touchup and darkening of color is needed.  His base, also, is subpar.  I already knew that one before the pictures, though.  As I believe I said in an earlier blog, I’ve got in order in to The War Store that should fix his basing inadequacies.  I still love his wings.  I suppose I didn’t show a closeup of those.. they still look the same as they did whenever I posted him last, though.  Anyway, enjoy.  Critiques are welcome.. nothing is varnished yet.

March 16th, 2010 by Missy

Our house inspection is today! I’m so excited to go in and see the place again, and hopefully get some window measurements and stuff so I can start making curtains. Er.. provided that the inspection doesn’t turn up anything nasty which would prevent us from buying the house @.@

The kids are also super excited. They want to see their prospective new bedrooms (Alex is an odd duck.. he has claimed “the smallest bedroom”, which works out well since Anya wants the largest.. ^^;) and the pool and fruit trees in the back yard. If I don’t totally suck and forget the camera, I’ll snap some shots and post them up here later.

Dan did, indeed, pick up green stuff on the way home from work yesterday. I’m planning to get to work greenstuffing those ghouls after I get back from the house inspection and post up the pics. Then I’ll prolly set those guys aside to cure and start gluing the other ghouls sitting around in boxes. I should probably wait until tomorrow to prime and paint the first batch but I don’t think that I will have the patience.

Right now I’m trying to fight off the urge to buy a Warhammer army on ebay consisting of two brigades, a war altar, Deathclaw, steam tank, helblaster, various mounted and unmounted characters and some flagellants. Oh, and extra great swords and some free company. For $350. Will not spend more money. Do not need more models lying around without paint. Bad. Bad.

March 15th, 2010 by Missy

Well, it has been a while but it would appear that we are back to painting Warhammer. I’ve finished 20 ghouls over the past few days (a record for me on painting speed, surely) and have 30 more waiting to be done. Well, 10 assembled and waiting for green stuff (which seems to have taken a walk..) and 20 in boxes wishing that they were assembled and waiting for green stuff. Hopefully Dan will pick up some more green stuff on the way home from work today and I can get these ghouls prepared. I should probably assemble the other 20 who are waiting in boxes and just green stuff them all at the same time, but I’m having more fun reading Empire tactics at the moment.

Ordered an Empire brigade from The War Store today, but I swear I’m not going to even open it until the Vampire Counts are finally done! I’ll post up some pics of the ghouls later, btw. Too lazy to bust out the camera at the moment. I don’t love them, but I don’t hate them either. I am.. content (..?) with them, I suppose. I can’t think of anything better to do with them, in any case.

Ah yes, and I also finally finished the Varghulf! I ended up going with black fur. Can’t recall why I didn’t want to do black fur before? It looks nice. I’m waiting on an out of stock base to come in from The War Store before he is officially finished, and I suppose I should probably go over him one more time and just brighten up his skin highlights a bit. And, of course.. repaint his freaking talons and wing tips AGAIN before varnishing him. Along with the base from The War Store, I shall also be receiving a few VMCs that I am missing (namely turquoise and emerald green) and then I can get going on the Grave Guard. I’m hoping to have all of the ghouls finished before the new colors come in (depends on how long my base is backordered, I suppose). If I finish them with enough time before hand, I’ll probably get started on a corpse cart. Then the Grave Guard. Then..? I’m not really sure. Perhaps the 5 other dire wolves that I have assembled and primed (bringing me up to a unit of 10, should I so desire) and then I guess I can start working on blood knights and characters. I have a gorgeous limited edition CMON mini that I’ll be using as one of my vampires who I’ll either be saving for last (or second to last, after my BSB).

I suppose I’m feeling very energized (which is a nice change of pace from my recent state of the blahs which is, unfortunately, still in effect so far as exercising goes) and excited about painting. I know that I still have the vast majority of my army to paint, but getting the ghouls done is so refreshing. They aren’t fun, there is no paint scheme for them (that I’ve seen / can imagine) that I LOVE, they’re finicky and horrible little models, they hate ranking up, etc, etc, etc..

So yes, feeling like they’re moving along quickly (and thusly, will be done quickly) makes me excited! Once they’re done, it is just fun stuff, right? Grave Guard are annoying and a bitch to put together with their stupid little spindly skeletonness, but at least they look fantastic. I absolutely adore the thought of verdigris on the armor and I am happy to have them coming up soon. I still haven’t figured out if I’m going to paint them the blueish that I like, or go with a more traditional red. I love the blue, but I think they might end up just looking out of place? Not that I know what color I am painting the Blood Knights either. I was thinking blue for them too, but I saw some blue BKs on ebay that were painted well and I didn’t like them at all.

Ah, choices, choices..

February 1st, 2009 by Missy

Well, we finally sat down and started doing some painting tonight. The black and red are just blocked in with some base colors at the moment, so ignore those. The only thing even resembling “done” at the moment is the gold. Unfortunately, I think it is looking rather.. rough. And it does NOT photograph well with flash so Dan and I had to spend about forever finding a decent setting to take the picture with sans flash.

Anyway, I’m not sure if this is going to stick or not. I really like the idea of the gold armor with the black cloth and maybe some red accents but.. yeah, don’t know if I can pull it off.

January 27th, 2009 by Missy

Sosleepy. Honestly, I’ve been sleepy for like two weeks now. Dan and I started P90X on January 10th and I’ve been tired since then. The problem, I think, is more staying up too late than the working out. It feels like we have no time anymore. By the time we workout, cool down, eat dinner.. the day is almost over! We generally stay up fairly late anyway, but we’ve been staying up later lately (yes, I know saying later lately sounds stupid) and I’m.. so.. sleepy!

I should just take a nap, but once again it just feels like a waste of day. Not that I am really doing anything at the moment (aside from posting this blog and staring at my monitor), so I’m not sure what the opposition to napping is, exactly. I do have things that I could be doing..

I have a dress that I want to sew for Anya, but I need to go to JoAnn’s to get a zipper and some ribbon or edging. I could be painting some Warhammer figures, but I’ve decided that I’m only going to paint when Dan is home (I don’t want to keep hobby swapping.. so daytime is for sewing and Dantime is for painting).

Speaking of painting — I’m in the mood to paint some Sisters of Battle models. I stripped down my old ones (well, Dan did actually.. he says I am too delicate to touch paint thinner ^_-) and they’re just kind of.. staring.. at me right now. I have absolutely no idea how I want to paint them. Everyone and their mother paints red / black / white for SoBs and I don’t really feel like going with any of the color schemes in the book. I’d kind of like to do red and gold, but gold power armor (and gold tanks QQ) would just be AHHHH. I could paint red power armor (and, thusly, tanks) but then where does the gold fit in? I don’t want to give them cloth of gold habits or anything. I suppose they could have red armor, white habits and gold accents (gold inferno pistol? LOL).

Sigh.. hopefully something will come to me when I break out the paints. Maybe I’ll just paint them pink -.- And use a fluffy bunny as their Order symbol. Ordo Lepus or something.

September 27th, 2008 by Missy

I suck so bad at blogging, seriously.  Honestly, life has been fairly boring recently.  Most of my time has been taken up with reading ratforums and sewing rathammocks and other things involved with rat obsession.  I actually registered a new domain name yesterday for ratblogging!  Don’t worry, I still intend to blog here, the rat page will just be for rat related items.

So, Dan and I have played a bit of WAR.  We’ve both got level 21 characters, mine is a Warrior Priest and his is an Ironbreaker.  The game is fun, but I’m having a little trouble getting into it.  Don’t get me wrong, it would be all too easy to get into it (we played basically nonstop for three days when we finished downloading), but as I’ve said about a million times before — I am an all or nothing person.  If I’m going to do something I am going to do it.  I don’t really want to get sucked into MMOs again, it just eats up so much time and I’ll admit that when I’m playing I kind of lose track of the world, and I don’t particularly feel like sinking back into that mire.  For that reason, I’m having trouble getting into the game.  I make myself not play as often as would be my natural inclination to do so and because of that I feel a sort of disconnect with the game.

Dan really enjoys it and would, I think, like to play in the longterm but I guess I’ll have to see where things go.  If I can find a comfortable equilibrium between playing all the time and not playing at all then I think that we’ll continue to play, but with the way I’m currently feeling about the game.. well.. I’m just not sure.  Only time will tell, I suppose.

August 31st, 2008 by Missy

Well, I’ve finally finished one but I’m not really very happy with it. The flesh isn’t pallid enough for how I imagine my ghouls living, and there isn’t enough contrast on the model. There’s no place on him that is really dark, but I can’t seem to work anything dark in..  I tried getting a nice deep black or brown on the ribs, but I couldn’t get it to look right and just ended up going reddish instead and I am not happy with it.

The bones also look like crap.  They look too brown and not enough like bone, but further attempts to highlight them are producing a very unsightly streaky appearance.  I think I just need to set the model aside until after dinner and see what I can do with it further.. x.x  Right now, I think it will be much more pleasant to just sit around and dream about a cute little ratty.

Now if only that damned pot roast would either finish cooking or stop smelling so tempting and out of reach ;-;

August 31st, 2008 by Missy

So we’ve decided that if Anya is a good girl at school and doesn’t get any notes sent home, then on the 12th of September she’ll be allowed to get a little pet.  The preschool class next door to her kindergarten room has a guinea pig and she is quite jealous.  We don’t really want a guinea pig, they’re a little too large, but we managed to talk her into a hamster instead.

It appears, however, that we’ve actually decided on a rat. We’ve contacted some little ratty breeders and fallen in love with the blue one in this picture. You can’t really just have a single rat, however, so we’ll be getting a second ratty as well although we haven’t decided on one. The breeder is going to move this little girl in with a group of other young rats and see who becomes her best friend.

The problem with this is.. now if Anya isn’t good at school I’m going to die. I think I want the rat more than she does QQ I probably shouldn’t have started looking until closer to the “good until” date, but with pets that are uncommon (rats, degus, certain birds, etc) it can take a while to locate a reputable breeder with good little pets. I managed to find one quite quickly, however..

Oh man, she had better be good!

On a Warhammer note, I’ve started work on painting my ghouls. I’ve actually tested out a few paint schemes and hated them all like.. utterly. The one I’m working on right now will actually be using the same pinkish flesh as the wings on my Varghulf and I will (hopefully) tone it down to be a bit more greenish on the larger bits of skin. Anyway, we’ll see how it comes out.