So Wot's Gitkikka Bin Doin', Den?

Good question. Been a while, my dear imaginary viewers!

Unfortunately, I have had a crapton of things come down in life over the past few months, and they have kicked my desire to paint right out of me. Truth be told, I have started at least 4 different projects, but I ended up stalling out on each of them. Part of the problem might be the fact that I am now using readers to paint, and it's not been easy to adjust to them.Hopefully, there will be a noticeable improvement in my finished products, but as usual, I'd just be happy with decent jobs done quickly.

Now, if this was the only issue, I'd have shamed myself into finishing at least one project, but when it rains, it pours. My job (Radiologic Technologist, a.k.a. X-ray tech) is kind of kicking my ass these days. Over a month ago, my ankle started aching to walk on - still able to walk, but had to limp. With a brace and a doctor's unhelpful advice of "Keep off of it!", I persevered. At least until all the limping caused my hip to start aching too.

Lovely.

For the past couple weeks, I have been taking it as easy as possible, meaning no sitting at a desk for too long, and keeping my hip rested and happy. Of course, my three 12-hour work days would roll around and mess up the process all over again (that, and I'm incapable of sitting idle for too long. I managed to install the flooring and baseboards in my bedroom at the beginning of the month, as well as move and reassemble all the stupid, heavy-assed furniture that my wife insisted that we needed. That was an agonizing few days...)

But, I pushed through. Things are healing and feeling better. Realizing that I'm not so young any more, I finally started the process of applying for MRI school, which should keep me off me feet better than being a RadTech. Seriously, this is my day for 12 hours  - take X-rays in the ER. Now run upstairs with a portable and x-ray some fat-arse's pelvis and risk destroying my back. Now back to the ER. Now run up to surgery and stand around for a few hours, taking shots for the surgeon. (truth be told, surgery is my favorite part of my job. I wear about 10 to 15 pounds of lead gear for protection, which strains my back, but it beats giving barium enemas any day).

But my life isn't all whine-worthy. Certain unbloggable things are changing/have changed in my life, one of the results of which is that I finally get to take over the front office room in the house as my hobby area! Yaaaassss. Now that I'm feeling better physically, I'm slowly moving the stuff out of that room, and moving my stuff in. Unfortunately, the office was being used as general junk storage for a year and a half or so, so it's going to take a while (so an even longer interlude from painting. It will be so very worth it, though...

Where Da Swamp is now.

Looks cosy, ya? Sure, except I am standing in the kitchen to take this picture. The white door leads to the garage, and to the left, out of frame is the back door to the yard, and the living room passage is further left from that. In short, I'm in the middle of everything here, and don't get the peace and quiet I like from a work area. Plus, being wide open like this means that the cats are constantly fucking with stuff, as well as getting hair all over my work table.

Where Da Swamp is going.

This used to be my wife's office area, mostly needed when she was a massage therapist. She let that lapse when she became a full-time nurse, so this lovely little space (which is really about the same size as the current area, it just has 2 more walls) was being misused as crap storage. She always does her paperwork and bills at the kitchen table, so this room wasn't even used for that. So now dis old troll is swooping in. Of course, I'm not being helped by anybody so it's going to be a while before I'm up to production speed.

Hopefully a faster speed than previously...

Now, if I could really have my way, I'd leave TX entirely, but that's getting into the unbloggable territory. Gotta take those victories where you can!

PDF Tarantula

Almost didn't post this one - this pair of miniatures gave me all sorts of shit during the painting process (see "Sometimes We Hate Our Children"), and I couldn't get a decent picture of them no matter what I did. Yes, yes, I'm still using my phone camera; but the Galaxy S9 takes good pictures of everything ELSE, just not my miniatures.

As much as I wanted to dump these assholes back in the Drawer of Shame, I'm trying to push forward with the "Fuck it - Just finish" mentality, just to say I'm getting shit done.

So here you go, imaginary reader - a dual lascannon Tarantula with operator for my Planetary Defence Force (of planet Frumunda):

Pictures like this just make me want to quit the whole thing...

Markings place this unit in 7th Regement, B Company, 2nd Platoon

Black and blue? Why not? Back in 1989, this color scheme was going to be for my Imperial Guard army, which I shelved after painting an entire squad worth. (I really hate painting large amounts of black, it turns out.) About 5 years ago, I started another IG army out of the now OOP Wargames Factory Greatcoat soldiers (also shelved), so I just said that these old Guard guys were going to be part of a PDF somewhere, probably with a Squat force attached as allies (it all counts as a Guard force, games-wise).

The Tarantula itself came into my possession loooong ago, partially broken and caked in green paint. The operator only had a couple areas painted on him, so he wasn't in bad shape. You may notice that the parts that hold the lascannons are a little shorter than they were when the model was new - that's because the broken part had to be trimmed down, so I did that to both sides so they matched.

I had to drag out one of the finished guys so that I had a reference:

So yeah - new paint job vs. 30 year old one

 - he's from the 1st platoon though.

Sometimes, I think I was a little better back then...

Troops That Battle - Draconis Combine Officer

Another quick slapping-on of paint - this time a teeny-weeny Battletroops miniature from Ral Partha. Way back when the game came out (1989 or so), I bought into it pretty hard; the original rules, the Clantroops (Clans, *puke*) expansion, and both boxed sets of miniatures, Kurita and Steiner. Well, my group and I played about three games and decided we didn't like it, so into the footlocker of shame they went.

Nostalgia being a thing, I recently dug the miniatures out and decided to actually paint one, just to see how the uniforms as presented in the sourcebooks look in 3-D. The Draconis Combine (House Kurita) being my absolutely favorite successor state in the Battletech is what pushed to choose this guy. That, and the Steiner uniforms are hideous.

Officer with SMG. Three blue stripes
denote a Lieutenant.

Now, the descriptions in the sourcebook describe the undersuit as being tan, but the pictures all show it as being a closer-to-orange color. Interestingly, I have an old Ceramcoat paint that is almost an exact match.

From FASA's House Kurita Sourcebook, circa 1987

It has been a good long while since I painted something with the tiny scale/proportions of a Ral Partha mini. Going from chunky Citadel to this was a great challenge to my poor old eyes - needless to say, the paint job is a bit, er, abstract, and I didn't even think about HIS eyes.

How 'bout that scale creep?

One thing we never tried in the three games we played was to use the rules for 'Mechs in Battletroops. Yes, 'Mechs. In an infantry game. Not too sure if we were worried about how hard that would be, or if we were just bored by the fact that the 'Mech is represented by a flat, square templare. Yaawwnn. Me being a dumb-assed kid at the time didn't realize that I had a few 'Mech models at my disposal in the form of Robotech toys (which I e-bayed off quite a while ago ;/). Nostalgia still continuing to be a thing, I recently bought a little buddy to go with my Battletroop miniatures, should I decide to continue with them:

"It's behind me, isn't it?"

Extreeem zoom-out! Ignore the minis
behind the curtain.

Yay! Another large-scale painting project! D:

;)

Thug Lyfe - Bob and RAEG

Next up are a couple of old Citadel Chaos Thugs from the 80's. I didn't actually own them back then - they are both somewhat recent acquisitions from Ebay lots. Naturally, they have ropey proportions and just an overall odd feel to them, and that's probably why I like them so much! So here you go, Bob and Raeg (spelling intentional) - Chaos Thugs for lyfe.

Bob on the left, Raeg on the Rihgt.

Butt shots - my pics show me SO MANY mistakes!

Shields. Raeg is a full-on Khorne fanboy. Bob is still uncertain.

RAEG

Oddly dramatic shot courtesy of my dumb phone camera. 
Yes, I see the missed lock of hair.

Both thugs have the appearance of "just joined Chaos and got our first attributes" recruits. Raeg here obviously got "Brightly-Patterned Skin" for his, and boy-oh-boy is he pleased that it's RED. This miniature's cartoonish, over-exaggerated ANGERY (spelling also intentional) pose could only land him in a Khorne warband (that, and I am also a big Khorne fanboy). I mean, he's screaming at the ground for fuck's sake! It's like he saw a spider on his foot, and now he's all, "DO YOU CHALLENGE ME TO A DUEL SIR?!?!" Being a worshiper of the Blood God, he won't miss a few absent toes; especially if he rolled a couple Personaliy Losses too.

Bob

Smug old Bob.

Bob also has his first attribute - Horns. He's probably worried that they'll affect his chances with the ladies. Unlike Raeg, he's not sure that Khorne is right for him (he probably joined just because Raeg is his drinking buddy/frat brother), so he just has a Chaos Undivided star on his shield. Come on Bob, commit! You know how everyone sees Chaos Undivided types:

Blood, Sex, Disease or WTFBBQ. Choose one.

Bob is hoping that he can sneak away from Raeg to join a less noisy (psychotic) warband. "Didn't I hear about a god of excess or something? That would be cool." 

Up next on the painting desk? Who the hell knows? I'm pretty much going as my fancy takes me until I make myself work on one of my aforementioned projects (you know - I mentioned them last year :/).

Sometimes One Thing Follows Another

...as did this bit of terrain from GW's graveyard set.

Dig that attempt at visual interest!

As with most of my terrain, this was just a lot of drybrushing up from a black undercoat. A light wash of Nihilakh Oxide (had to look that up to spell it) on the statue for the patina.

Ok, you got me - that's a blue towel.

Fun thing to slam out over a couple hours.

Well, THAT'S Done...

Finally finished the last of the BB Skaven. Actually, they've been done for a week or two, but my back started giving me grief about then, so hobby-related activities have been pretty far from my mind since then.

These bozos.

What passes for my photography backdrop bit the dust a while ago too, so you get ugly painting desk pictures until I can be arsed to cobble something together. Quite the eclectic gathering in the background.

All da rat bois.

So yay, they're done - until/unless I get my hands on the four variant sculpts that I lack, as well as the 2 star player skaven (Hackflem Skuttlespike and the single-headed, 4 armed mutant from this era).

Safe to do Paint-y Things Now?

Sorry, imaginary readers - I've had little drive to paint lately (mostly thanks to my family getting me a PS4 with Fallout 4 - that's like giving a crackhead a free pass to the crack house). Also, this was a very wet winter, meaning that I've not been able to prime or seal any miniatures for quite a few months, and my miniature "holding area" has been full.

Fortunately the painting itch always comes back, and last night I made headway with some stuff that I will be posting in the coming week.

"They Were Once Men..."

Super-quick one here. This here fella is my dismounted version of the Ringwraith that will lead my 500 point Mordor army for GW's Lord of the Rings game. The learned reader will note that he began life as a Citadel C18 Night Horrors "Wraith With Sickle".

"Eyyyy, batta, batta!"

A simple weapon swap with a plastic GW Empire soldier, and a paintjob that didn't even take as long as the swap did, and he's a done deal! I drybrushed some brown around his hem to represent mud on his robes (but especially to break up the monotonous black and grey scheme). Great miniature - absolutely full of menace.

His sword. Good for Hobbit-chopping.

So what will I do for the mounted version? Well I've had the old Fiend Factory Wraith on Zombie Horse for YEARS now, and he's a perfect fit for the job.

Not my pic. Mine is just undercoated black ATM, and impossible to get a good picture.

Still not 100% sure how to actually paint the horse (it's why I was scared to paint the miniature since I got it in the 80's), but I'll figure it out.

For Reference...

Just putting a couple pics of my old Conqueror robot (painted circa 1989) up, just to host them for another site...

Three More BB Skaven

Not much else to add, two linemen and a cool-looking blitzer from the Jes Goodwin Skaven era.

I think I'm getting a little heavy with the orange highlights.

I love these miniatures, but for some reason it feels like a chore to make myself do them (and it shows in the work). Oh well, I only have four left (another blitzer, thrower, and two linemen) and this project will be done - except for the cheerleaders that I need to convert from old Ral Partha ratmen. And a couple other specials. And I'll need to paint the four variant figures that I don't have (if I ever get them) as well as the Hackflem Skuttlespike mini (if I ever get that).

So yeah! almost done! :)