end of week update

So here is what I have been up to.

stealth suit assembly 

touched up and almost repaired imperator titan

broadsides, pathfinders, drones and 2 fire warriors

the rest of the drones

As you can see I have finished cleaning up all the currently striped tau models and started assembly along with assembling new models. At the moment there is a bunch of drones, a pathfinder box, cadre fireblad, darkstrider and 2 broadsides ready to be primed and  base coated. Along with all the FSA Aqua ships. I will probably start on that tonight. I have also spent time fixing up the imperator titan in the pic. When I got it it was in rough shape and a lot of the paint was messy. I have gone through and fixed it up except for the legs which I will need to pin.

I am still assembling the stealth suits and also starting to work on the 2 devilfish and crisis suits. The only thing left for the tau is that I still need to strip the other fire warriors and pathfinders, clean them and then re assemble. I may do that before I start priming and basing all the other tau but I would like to get the FSA primed and based before then. Just so I have more space. I have also recieved a bunch more epic so I will have updates on there assembly next week along with priming and base coating pics.

Like I have said this month will not be really productive towards my painting score but will lay the foundation for a lot of future painting.

Till then

Aruki

Striping with pinesol

A lot of stuff on the net says to only use pinesol for metal models and to leave it for 24 hours. I have found that if you leave plastic models in for an hour it strips 75% of the paint. Most of my plastic I have done two rounds in the pinesol and had no problems with the plastic losing detail. I have had to do it 3 times for a few models but most after two dips are about 90% stripped its usually in the very hard to reach places that remain left.

As a side note  I use the pinesol undiluted, many people say that it works just as well diluted. I have never tried it diluted. This is also the  best option by cost and availability in South Korea for striping models. I have done it with FW resin, GW plastics and Gw metal. Recently at Lotte mart you can buy two bottles for around 5000won. I have used 4 bottles in total to do all of the striping for my tau basically and it is reusable.


update tomorrow as promised.
Aruki

Striping and assembly

The past few days I have been working on trying to strip and assemble my tau.

Mainly I finished off 2 devilfish and a bunch of stealth suits and crisis suits. The box on the right is mainly kroot which I still need to deal with.

This is the last chunk of tau to be stripped and then cleaned up. Basically its all fire warriors.

Also started assembling some new pathfinders mainly the rail rifles and ion guns.

I also cleaned up the new Aqua carrier and will be assembling it tonight. I plan on assembling stuff the rest of this week and spending most of next week base coating.

Another update on friday.

till then 

Aruki 

Spending update

Just a quick update for spending. Even though I am way over budget for my goal I will be selling stuff soon to fix that. Anyway I picked up a new pathfinder box and an FSA Aqua carrier this past weekend for 38.02. The carrier I just wanted because I don't have 1. With the pathfinder box not only do I need a few more bodies but I really wanted it for the special weapons so I have more options with my tau.

I also won an auction last week for a bunch more epic figs that should bring me closer to completing my goal. It gave me more marines, assault marines, bikes, termies, scouts and some characters I needed to help round my force out. Still need more termies and scouts but it helps some. I got it with shipping for 29.49. So
that brings my totals up to.

June: -$67.51
YTD: -$419.34

Suffice to say I really need to unload some stuff to get back below the $250 dollar mark. I should be able to do this without a problem.

Hobby update on Tues or Wed. Until then.

Aruki

Painting Notebook

Today, I wish to address something that many of the people I personally know don't use but that I think everyone should. A painting notebook. About 10 years ago is when I first started using one. Because I had painted up 3 armies and when I went back to add units I couldn't remember what colors I used where or what company I had used.

In mine I keep track of all the paints I use and there company. Along with this I keep notes such as base coat, primary colors, shades, inks etc. And also the technique I used for application. Sometimes with even what brush size I used.

Now I know others have wrote about this in the past but if you haven't seen the articles or have never considered this I highly recommend it. Especially if you work on multiple projects at once or have more than 1 army.


Below is a picture of my current notebook along with the first page. Which is the one I have used for years for my romans and updated as paints have changed. This list I have used for about 4 years.

Anyway just a though for you all if you haven't done it already.

Aruki

Dindrenzi finished

As the title says I have finished them off. That is 2 battle ships, 3 cruisers and 6 frigates. I may come back to it in the future once I figure out the best way to do the lining but every attempt I have made has failed. Overall, I do like the look of them but as I said the lining is the thing. I think if I can figure out a good way to line them the cruisers and battle ships will look amazing. I also want to buy some stencils in the future so I can do names on them. And maybe find or make some sort of graphic for the larger ships. To put on one of the engines.

So for June that brings me up to 10 models finished.

June: 11 points
YTD: 252.75 points

I am continuing to work on striping and cleaning up tau to base coat.


Update again on striping and stuff next week. Maybe something else this weekend.

till then
Aruki

the best laid plans

Just going to address the plan for the next 3 or so months. In about 2 months I will be moving. Not a long distance move but it will have a rather impact on me being able to use my airbrush. Therefor, for the next few weeks if not the next month a lot of my updates will be in the form of assembly and base coating with the exception of my FSA Aqua force which I need to do a bit more airbushing with. This also means that my rate of completing new models will fall quite a lot. This is where my epic project will help fill the void and why you have seen me basing so much of it but not painting even half as much. So my revised plan is:
1: base coat/layer some colors on my FSA Aqua force
2. Reassemble and base coat/prime my tau force.
3. assemble and base coat my remaining marines
4. Base coat my remaining Romans
5. Possibly base coat my epic sm
6. Finish striping tau and titans
7. If I have time assemble and base coat/prime my Dropzone commander stuff
8. Sell or trade of my mantic dwarves (just don't have space for the force), Infinity stuff(just never really got into it like i did other skirmish games), high elves (no space or interest), misc extra epic and extra space marine stuff (rhinos, attack bike etc.)
9. ????

Honestly if I get that much done in next two months I will be impressed. I hope to complete as much of that as possible and then really focus on my painting again. Speaking of that I have a question for you all because I am having a hard time deciding.

What is your favorite titan legion?


Anyone painting update most likely tomorrow. Comments welcome especially on the titan legion question.

aruki

Painting update

Well I have almost finished off all the FSA dindrenzi. All thats left is painting a few guns, gun decks and touch up. Should have them done this week.

On the epic chapter front I have made some progress. I have decided to use most of the devastator units I built for doing battle companies instead. I have two complete yet to be painted battle companies and 2 that need more assault marines to be finished. I also have most of the devastator company ready as well. The main thing holding back this project besides time for all the painting is my massive lack of assault marines (still need about 25 bases worth) along with the need for more tanks of all types, except land raiders. I could also use more termies and scouts. But the project goes on. On the bright side I have all the required plus extra command bits done. This will make it so that if I can play, EA, NETEA, and NETEPIC with all of these units. The main problem as I said is tanks and assault marines. I even now have an imperator titan, 2 warlords and 3 warhounds to go with this chapter. I want to acquire another warhound and 2 reavers (maybe 3)as well. I should probably get a few thunderhawks to but that I may proxy just because of the crazy prices these days for them.

Another update in a day or two.

Aruki

So much progress

In the last few days I have assembled all of my aqua prime forces and attached the pieces for the omni stands. I have also un-based and then re-based a bunch of epic stuff. With what I have done I almost have everything i need assembled for 3 battle companies. Instead of using all those devastators that I painted for a devastator company I am going to use them for the battle companies instead. On the dindrenzi front I have been mainly working on engines and other little details. I have also been busy striping more tau. Sorry for the quick photos better ones later this week.

aruki

Thoughts on upcoming GW stuff and update

Overall, I am not really excited. The rumors of a new apocalypse and models for it don't excite me in the slightest. This maybe because of my local playing environment and available play time. Here I usually see 1 big apocalypse weekend a year. The rest of the time you never see it. In fact even when they did planet fall and such I never saw any of the games played. As for play time I have spent whole days playing games before but it was usually multiple 2500 point games. Not one giant game. As for everyone having super heavies that's great but I am not going to drop the money on them when I will basically never use them. As it is the local scene seems to be dropping in points because people want more quick games. This is even scene by how popular a lot of other companies games have become here.

I know this is a bit contradiction when two of my current projects, epic sm chapter and Prussian 1812 army, are rather large. But they also take up almost no space. And both are fulfilling some long term goals I have had even if I never play them completely.

As for the books being available on more platforms. This I do like, since I am considering picking up the new marine codex when it comes out as a digital one, mainly due to space. Though I still thinking the prices will be a bit crazy.

Now their are no pictures for what I have been working on because I have basically been testing different paint strippers, though now I have pine sol, most of the tested cleaners just don't work. Even when left in them for a week. I have literally spent about 10hrs this week at night scrubbing my tau and some epic trying to get them ready to paint up. I dream of being able to buy simple green and just making my life much easier.

I should have a post either this weekend or on Monday with pictures of all the stuff I have assembled and hopefully some almost finished dindrenzi, if I can squeeze some painting time in this weekend. Either way normal painting posts and such will start up again next week.


later
aruki

May round up and what to expect for the next week or two

Alright May was a great month for painting with a total of  74.25 points done up.  This puts me at almost the halfway point for my 500point goal.

Spending wise it wasn't so great. I spent $182.54. A large amount of this was on epic  stuff trying to get what I need to finish off my space marine chapter. Thanks a lot GW.


So the short of it is I have made a lot of progress on painting and really need to sell of some stuff because I am well over my $250 goal for the year. And I still have a lot more I want to buy.



This week I am taking it a bit easy and will mainly do some model assembly. So not much painting to be seen. I will post some pics of the stuff I am building later this week. This is partly because of the insanity that was epic last week and partly because I just want to do some other things.


Next week I hope to finish off my firestorm armada Dindrenzi and convert and paint up that razorback gun. Then move on to more assembly of epic and FSA aqua prime.


Anyway have a good one and see you later.

aruki