Marines have a name from somebody that can only it the target 5 out of six times

Neophyte.

Not the actual quote but it isn't my quote. A friend of mine served in the USMC for years and he always is annoyed that snip err rd in 40k always seem to be standing on a skull or doing something that would make them less accurate.

He says all snipers should be in the prone position, he doesn't like it when you call it doggy style bottom by the way.

Anyway I converted this sniper in the prone position for him.
A fun project that was a bit challenging.

Let me know what you think.  Also I now know I need to turn off flash on the camera to improve pictures.

Khorne lord on Juggernaut in two parts.

Totally forgot to post updated pics of the Khorne lord.
Steve beat me in the competition.
You can see most of the other entries on his blog.

Below is my finished Khorne lord in our version of 30 for 30

In other news the gift was well received.
The new figure cases from GW are awesome and I can attest to the fact that no models were damaged in the journey from Memphis to Nottingham.

As I said earlier I really pushed to improve painting on this one so any advice is welcome.

It takes a village

To raise a child according to some.

Apparently it takes a small army of friends to bring me a primarch.

Thanks to everybody who helped get me the new Leman russ model so fast.

This is the best forge world model I 've ever purchased in terms of manufacturing. Almost nonexistent mold lines.  No mold shift. Only two air bubbles easily filled.

That is the picture of my Lehman russ.
No cloak yet as I learned from angron.
Also no head as long hair is lame.
More on that later.

Khorne Lord on Juggernaut in three parts. Part one

So i'm in a heated blog-o-tion with Mr. Mini-Soldiers. Painted soldiers are due by the fifteenth of September.  And because that clean shaven, gingery villain has me beat in not only raw talent, but has achieved super speed (he cheats and uses an airbrush), I legit my work cut out.

I'm going to push my self and try to paint my best model to date, my precious being this Angron which I was pretty stoked to get a first cut at the last Memphis Games Day.


I m not very imaginative so I 've decided to emulate the 'Eavy Metal paint scheme pictured here. I love the two different reds.

I've enlisted ace painters Tim and Matt as technical advisors and they've already given me some pretty helpful advice some of which I 'll be sure to use.

I'm painting the model in three parts. First the Juggernaut, second the rider and finally the base.

So without further ado here is the Juggernaut.

I'm still not great at taking pictures so any advice on that front is welcome.

This is the first time I've tried glazing based on Matt's input, not sure about the finished product.  Tim helped with the color selection.

This is the second time I 've attempted zenith highlights and I m not sure it's going to be enough to beat Mr. Mini-Soldiers without a lot more work.

next step is to bring him around and get some feedback about what to improve, once changes are made I will post an update.

Let me know what you think.

Khorne the Betrayer 11 months in the making

Followers of the Eight Fold path love Kharne.

Most people however seem to have very mixed reactions to his
depiction by Adrian Smith.

(I stole this version of the picture from a much better blog The Eternal Hunt)

People with fancy pants art degrees say rude things and use fancy words like perspective, anatomy and some other stuff I don't understand.

Most people say "What an awesome picture. That guy is rad and clearly the most badass guy ever,  I need to find out all about him (If that's what you said and you like to read check out Betrayer if you're more of a listener check out Butcher's Nails or Chosen of Khorne).

I love this picture and have tried to replicate it as a conversion no less than three times unsuccessfully. So many little parts of broken dreams in a box of unfinished hopes.

Then something changed! Eleven months ago GW released the Skullgrinder and I thought "Khaaaaarne!" I knew I'd finally be able to create the Kharne of my dreams.

So after eleven months of working on him on again and off again I finished my homage to Jes Goodwin and Adrian Smith, enjoy!

Parts used: skullgrinder legs and right arm.  Kharne head, backpack, left arm, shoulder pad and wwf belt. CSM torso, back and plasma pistol. Skullcrusher chains and skulls. Grey/red stuff is apoxie sculpt from Aves Studio.

The putty work is a bit rough and not as consistent in thickness/width as I'd like but for my first attempt at this type of trim/arrows I m pretty happy. 

I recently sent some pictures of my work in progress wraithmongers and skullreapers to my buddy Steve from steve's mini soldiers.

He was kind enough to post them and then remind me that I had my own blog which I hadn't updated in months.

He then challenged me to a blog painting challenge, which I immediately accepted, which in hindsight was pretty stupid of me.

While I am much better than Steve at most things in life (growing a beard, being American and getting things off higher shelves to name just a few), Steve is much better than me at the important things in life like painting well, painting fast and being a father. I'd say we're tied on talking poop and making hasty depictions So I may have rushed in a little to fast.

As Steve has recently acknowledged the one true God of toy soldiers we each decided to paint a Khorne model (advantage me). The model needed to be straight from the box with no conversions. In a strange turn of events I selected my model from the Age of Sigmar range Khorne Lord on Juggernaut and Steve picked a classic 40K villian, Kharne The Betrayer.

Painting must be completed by 9/15/16 and we'll post the models on both blogs. I'm not sure how we'll determine the winner or what the prize is going to be but you can check in here over the next month to see how I m doing on my Lord.

Blue ribbon winners

Thanks for everybody's participation and voting for your favorite models.

I m starting with the most important award which is our first time painters, welcome and congratulations on doing these models and yourselves proud. A big internet round of applause to Juha, Brian and Austin.

By popular vote Brian's skink priest is our official winner for best first time painter.

A strong appearance from team UK with the popular vote propelling Dave's witchhunter to the best in show for team UK

Team USA did themselves proud with many participants adding a speed painting element to the challenge. By popular vote (yes a single vote separated them.) Thomas pulled out the win with his painboy.

In the end the winning team was decided by two votes!
Congratulations to each and every member of team UK for pulling through the win by getting the most total votes!

Treasure was mentioned and treasure their shall be.

Each of our winners will indeed receive a blue ribbon.

In fact the best blue ribbon ever.

A Pabst Blue Ribbon

 

Team USA finishers will all receive a 12 oz bottle
Team UK finishers will all receive a pbr fan can.
Individual recognition will rewarded by the ultimate in PBR selection the 40oz

Thanks again for participating I had a ton of fun and a lot of help along the way thanks to Zaki, Steve and Dave for championing this and making it truly international.

Thanks to Andre for his help motivating people to finish for Team USA.

Some people have expressed an interest in doing another international challenge I'll check and see what level interest there is in June.  If you have some ideas on what that challenge might be please post them in the comments below.

I'm thinking conversions specifically Demon Princes could be interesting.