The scoring system for 2015 and goals

Short update- Wayland is now telling me that they mailed it on Dec 24th. I have demanded a refund and will be reporting them to the UK trading standards if they don't. So in Short DO NOT BUY FROM WAYLAND GAMES.

Beware this is a wall of text.
I am planing on stealing the excellent system from the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge. So go check them out there is some excellent stuff there. For the purpose of clarity I have made it a bit easier for my use.

6mm foot= .5pts
6mm mounted, artillery, crew gun= 1pts
6mm vehicle= 2pts
6mm large/huge models= TBD

10mm foot= 1pts
10mm mounted, arillery, crew gun=2pts
10mm vehicle=3pts
10mm large/huge models= TBD

15mm foot=2pts
15mm  mounted, artillery, crew gun= 4pts
15mm vehicle= 6pts
15mm large/huge models= TBD

28mm foot=2pts
28mm  mounted, artillery, crew gun= 4pts
28mm vehicle= 6pts
28mm large model= 8pts
28mm super huge model=  16pts

Terrain= will be determined based on scale and size/complexity of piece.

Now for the Goals. Once again there will be painting "x" army goals, a spending, models painted vs bought and points. I have decided to pass on actual points because its to hard often to keep track, especially with all the edition changes that have happened across all the game systems I have.

So the painting goals first.
1. Paint all the tau stuff I have.
2. Paint at least 1 DZC force
3. Paint the 2 merc forces I have
4. Paint 400 points
5. Build/paint at least 2 pieces of terrain.
6. Paint more than I buy again. preferabley on the 2 to 1 scale

Now spending goal this year is a little different. I will only include cost of models and materials to make things. Not tools or paint this year. The goal is still $350 for the year.

What do you guys think? What are your goals for 2015? Don't forget the contest is still on and so is access to the painting table.

aruki

Painting Table #30-

Btw guys Wargame vault is doing a sale, including a lot of osprey stuff. It's 25% so not earth shattering but some great deals on there none the less. Here is what my desk currently looks like. Mainly I got the chance to organize stuff this past week.

The rest of the actual time was spent with my oldest fixing and building stuff. We built this LBX (see below), this is another great kit that doesn't require glue, clippers or paint. These guys also have interchangeable parts and a game built into the box. No idea how the game is instructions are in Korean and Japanese at the moment. So need to sus them out.

After I finish this post my oldest and I will be working on this snap fit x-wing kit he got.

That's it for now. I do have some vacation next week so hopefully I can get started on my new year of painting goals.
Oh it also seems I got some of the models wrong that I got in the mantic box. I actually received the Dreadball Dozer and I think Mellisandra MVPS. Not a plague tetraton (sp?) and whatever that other mvp was. Anyway  more as I get it done.
Aruki

A short rage

I am truly annoyed yet again by Wayland games. This year it caused me to have almost no gifts to open with my oldest... Getting gaming stuff is hard enough in South Korea without them screwing me over. I ordered from them twice in 2014. And will never again. Not when alternatives actually due what they say when they say. The first time they actually shipped the package more than a week after they originally told me they did. I will give them credit though, this time they have communicated better, but not by much.

Now let's put it in perspective. I ordered stuff that was all classified as in stock and ready to ship on November 8th. Wanting to beat the rush and such. They confirmed on the 9th. Then on the 20th they decide to tell me that they haven't shipped yet and will not be shipping because they hadn't received the product.... Why are you telling me they are in stock and ready to ship... Why does it take you 12 days from ordering to tell me this.... Next they tell me on the 24th that it has been shipped. Fast forward to today and I still haven't received it....

In comparison I ordered Mantics Sci-fi Crazy box on Dec 10th. It was shipped on the 12th. I received it on the 24th.. I also now from past experience when things haven't shown up from mantic in a timely fashion, ie 30days, if I drop them a message they fix it. I dropped waylands a message the other day (24th there time) lets see what happens. However, I think I will be canceling via paypal soon so I can at least get the money back. I am sick of them pulling this, it may only be the second time this year but its the 3rd time in the last two years and considering how large my normal orders are this is ridiculous.

I know this is not an isolated problem as I have seen things like this repeatedly in the past. Unfortunately, I live in a country with very little in the way of mini wargaming resources.
The alternatives besides direct from the companies themselves are of course The Troll Traders shop and of course some other UK and USA based ones. The troll trader usually communicates and ships quickly in my experience.

Anyway, end of rage. How about you guys any online retailers you guys can recommend?

Aruki

Review of Mantic Sci-fi Crazy box

Lets start with the contents.

Battlezones:
1 connector sprue
2 accessory sprues
2 ruins sprues

Warpath:
1 maruader raptor

Deadzone:
1 Helfather metal mini
1 Plague Teraton
5 man enforcer troop booster
3 man plague troop booster
2 man maruader specialist booster

Dreadball:
1 Praetorian
1 Anne-Marie helder
 and what appears to be Ludwig

1 Kow poster

Now the pros and cons. Yes its worth the money overall value wise. I personally don't have much use for the dreadball stuff, and i cant believe I got another raptor, that's my 3rd from crazy boxes. However, out of all these minis this year they included only 1 base... 1 out of more than a dozen models. The only other sorta grumpy complaint I have is they one of the ruined sprues has piles of debris that you put together, I only have half of one pile due to there sprue selections. Other than that I like it and may actually buy another. I also received my set of acrylic deadzone counters, on first look they are nice but they seem to be rather small. Shipping was nice and fast though. I am considering getting another.

aruki

Ideas for next year

Here are some of the projects I am considering for this next year.

Tau- need a few models to finish the force and most of it is primed and based.
DZC- I have to starter forces to paint
Mercs- I want to paint my two starter sets
Terrain- battlezone stuff I have and other things.
Space marines- this  one I could work on more but cant finish till I get some specific bits for dreads and create/buy bits for 2 other squads.
Deadzone- I have 2 factions and extras to paint
Warzone, aka DKK- Got the guys and could easily start on building out the force.



So what are you guys thinking of doing? I'm still on the fence and trying to flush out my point system and goals for the next year. I also am working on a few reviews and figuring out how to create those tutorials. More as it comes up.

Aruki

Models I painted

So here is what I painted.

FSA Dindrenzi:
1 battleship
3 cruisers
1 carrier
6 frigates

Dw Brits:
1 bomber
6 tokens
6 excorts
1 aircraft carrier

Other:
1 random gundam
1 Gretchin
1 Betty mini from Bombshell

40k Tau:
2 heavy gundrones
4 broadsides
4 crisis suits
12 stealth suits
2 devilfish
1 shadowsun

Epic 40k:

First company :  

                Vetran Company

                Terminator Detachment

                Chapter Master

                Combined Dreadnaught Squad

                Landraider Detachment

Second Company: 

                Battle company

                Whirlwind Battery

                Landraider  detachment

                Bike squadron

                Chaplain

Third Company: 

                Battle Company

                Landraider detachment

                Whirlwind Battery

Bike Squadron

                Apothecary

Fourth Company:  

                Battle Company

                Whirlwind Battery

                Landraider detachment

                Librarian
                Thudd gun Battery

Fifth Company: 

                Battle Company

                Whirlwind battery

                Landraider detachment

                Techmarine
                Rapier Battery

Sixth Company: 

                Tactical Company

                Warlord titan
                Tarantuala Support Battery

Seventh Company: 

                Tactical Company

                Warlord titan

Eighth Company: 

                Assault Company

                Bike Squadron

                Landspeeder typhoon Squad

                Warhound titan squad

Ninth Company: 

                Devastator Company

                Whirlwind Battery

                Thunderhawk Lander 

Tenth Company: 

                Scout Company

                Warhound Titan

                Thunderhawk

Yeah that's a lot of stuff. My favorite for the year was the Betty mini. She was a lot of fun to paint and inspired me as soon as I saw it. More to come and don't forget to check out the contest.

aruki 

Changes and Painting Table Saturday

The look of the blog will be changing a bit over the next few weeks. Most of the points and stuff will be moved to its own tab page on the navigation bar. The bookmarks will also be changed and this is were the Painting Table Saturday part comes in.

I originally started doing it last year when Dark Sofia was running it on her blog. I thought it was a great way to not only see what other people were working on but to help me stay motivated to paint.

So here is how I am going to run it. I will create a separate blog roll on my page for people who wish to take part. The rules are as follows.
1. drop me a message with a link to your blog.
2. Post at least once a month with a Painting Table Saturday tittle.



That's it, I don't care what you paint. Models, busts, dioramas, model cars etc etc. I want this to be a way for people to find new things and maybe learn a thing or two by looking at other peoples blogs. So join up if you wish. Let's not only motivate ourselves more but also motivate others.

 Don't forget to check out the contest as well.
More later.

aruki

The year in review

Let's start with the goals for the year.
1. paint or sell more than I buy
2. finish off the core of my epic marines army
3. Finish off my FSA Dindrenzi force
4. Do a review a month
5. Paint 350 points worth.
6. Spend $350 or less.
7. Paint 1000 models
8. Paint at least 5000 actual points
9. Finish off the DW naval stuff.

Now let us take a look at  how I did.
1 and 7. This I did well on. I bought and had traded in 284 models. I painted and sent out 1140 models. So all in all a great job.
2. I finished off not only the core of my marines but also all of the detachments.
3. I finished off all of the FSA Dindrenzi models.
4. I tried to do this but honestly just didn't have the time and I got bored reviewing osprey stuff.
5. I actually painted 360 points, so I made my goal. The point system will be changing next year.
6. I ended up spending just over the $350. I spend a total of $377.80. I don't feel to bad on this one I did even better than last year. This will also change a bit next year in how I calculate.
8. I painted well over my goal in fact I think I painted four times my goal. I know I painted at least 15000 but I have a feeling I may have actually gotten over 20000.
9. This I finished off quickly at the beginning of the year.


So all in all it was a great year. Besides the spending and reviews I did very well. So that is that. Between this week and next I will reveal the plans for next year and set some new goals. Don't forget that I have a contest running until next month, to celebrate my 2nd continuous year of blogging.  And yes I am working on the how to for my earth shaker cannon with carriage.

Aruki

The next contest aka the big 2 year celebration

My blog is much older then 2 years but the end of this month marks the end of my 2nd continues year of blogging. To celebrate I am giving a way a whole box of goodies. There will be 3 choices. A box of fantasy type stuff, a box of sci-fi type stuff or a mixed box. The box will contain as much stuff as I can pack in it.


The details:
1. Respond to the post saying that you are in, also include your choice of box.
2. doing the above will get you 1 entry into the contest
3. If you are a follower of the blog you will receive an additional entry
4. The contest ends on January 23rd.
5. The winner will be announced the 24th.
6. The winner will have 2 weeks to contact me to get there prize shipped to them.

Best of luck to all.
Aruki

Progress is progress

So first off, I sold off my Romans. So that adds an extra $140. Then again I also went and spent more money, but what you gona do, so that's -$54.70. Mainly I picked up the sci-fi crazy box by mantic and the acrylic token set for deadzone. I love the mantic idea of crazy box mainly due to price and its sci-fi focus this year. Great for all kinds of interesting little bits.

Then we have what I meant to post on Monday but was too sick to do so.

So I pretty much wraped up the priming of my scratch built earth shaker on carriage. Primed the manta, finished off the last of the epic detachments and started working on the 28mm marines again.

Soo that is not only my epic goal more then complete that is all of my current epic stuff complete. I think I may have a rouge warhound somewhere to paint but everything else I have is extra marine stuff.

Points wise that's another 9.75 points and 22 more models done.

More as I get it done. 

Aruki

Painting Table Saturday #29

First off, Hudson you have until next Friday to contact me to claim your prize. Otherwise the prize gets rolled into next months give away.

Still working on the last set of detachments for the 2nd company, will probably finish them off this weekend. My son also started working on his raptor from manic games. Overall it went well. I will also have more announcements this coming up week. So stay tune.
aruki

Painting table Saturday # 28 and contest result

First off the winner is Hudson. So congratz and drop me a line so I can get your package out to you. If you missed this  contest don't worry I will be doing another at around the 300th post count which should be in a month or so. That will be a larger contest.

As for the painting table nothing has really changed, the 2nd company is still sitting there. Most of my hobby time this week I spent teaching my oldest how to prep his models for building and talking about how to clean them and why.

Hopefully I can finish off the 2nd company this coming up week and then spend the rest of the month preparing for the new year.

Anyway more as it happens.

Aruki

So close I can taste it

I have finished off the detachments for the 1st and 8th companies but first a reminder. My free models give away ends this Friday.  All you have to do to have a chance is go to this post and say you want in on the contest.

So that is 48 more models painted. That is also another 17.75 points.

Next on the table is the very last set of detachments I have at the moment. The detachments for the 2nd company. That's a whirlwind battery, a bike detachment, a landraider squadron, and a command stand and rhino.

More as I get it done and remember to sign up for the contest. At the time of the writing of this post there is only 1 entrant. 

aruki 

Painting Table Saturday #27

Today on my table are the detachments for the 1st and 8th company. That is a dreadnaught, land raider, terminator detachments and a chapter master with rhino. They are all for the 1st company. The 8th companies detachments are a land speeder and bike detachment.

After I finish these off there will only be 1 more group of detachments left.

Now remember I have a contest that ends on the 5th. Details can be found on this post, just remember to say you want in on your comment. Best of all it is free guys. Don't forget to grab deals to guys. This year is better in my opinion for mini deals comparied to any in the past 3 or 4 years.

Till next time.

Aruki

Ouch goes the wallet

So as many might have noticed I have been checking out a lot of the sales that are going on. Well I bit the bullet and ordered some stuff. Unfortunately it has destroyed my spending goal but the deals are too good to pass up. So here is what I got.

Mercs- I got the winter bundle. Which is a rule book and 2 starters. I picked texico and ISS. They seem like fun and the price is crazy low. I encourage you too check out this deal if you have wanted to get into the game and just hadn't pulled the trigger.

Then I hit up miniature market. There sale is crazy, I could have easily spent $500 but I restrained myself and picked up things I had wanted for awhile but just hadn't bitten the bullet and bought.
From them I picked up a Mantic Battlezone Urban District and the FSA Aqua dreadnought group. I got both of them for less than the cost of just the dreadnought group normally.


Nov: -$148.02
YTD: -$463.10



So guys now is the time to strike while there is still time for some of the sales. Good luck and you can see the ones I found here.
Also look forward to more new content with these models.

aruki

The contest and such.

Just trying to clear up some confusion. The painting idea and the contest are separate things.

The contest can be found here.

The painting thing is basically trying to keep the whole idea behind painting table Saturday going. It seems the original driving force has been dark for a while. So I want to keep it going. What I will basically do is get a list of everyone wanting to be a part of it and pointing people to your blog once a week.

I hope this clears up some confusion on the hole contest versus painting fun.


aruki

Black friday and holiday miniature deals

I have found some sales/special holiday deals recently while roaming the net and figured I would post them up for you all. So here you go. I would like to preface this by saying these companies have given me nothing and I have no deals with them, these are just for your information. So without further ado in no particular order.


Anvil Industries-  30% off their black ops stuff on black friday and free shipping on orders over 35 pounds.

Victrix - is doing deals on some of their Nap stuff until the 30th.

Mercs- are doing some crazy starter deals. These even have me thinking about buying in.

FFG- are doing a bunch of deals. The 28mm terrain for dust caught my eye and are crazy cheap.

WWP- Have deals on Empire of the dead stuff. Yet another thing I have been eyeing up for awhile.

Secret weapon miniatures- Secret Weapon Miniatures (kick ass bases and weathering stuff) are doing 20% off starting the 27th- thanks albert

Kromlech- no idea what they are doing but they are doing something on black friday.- thanks greg

Wargamma- is doing a 22% off sale till the 22nd of dec with a code on there website.

Wild West Exodus- is doing a sale from the 28th to the 1st with a 35% discount according to there webpage.

Greebo Games- from the 28th to the 25th of dec they are doing a 25% on models. Not sure how many but thats what I here. They make great alternative blood bowl figs by the way.

Wyrd- is bring back some old stuff, doing some limited stuff and doing a few special gift for spending x deals.

Coolminiornot- is doing a sale until dec 1st.

Miniature market- is doing a massive sale until dec 1st

and that wraps it up for now. If you guys know of any others drop them in the comments and I will add them to the list for everyone else.

Aruki

Blog roll and plans

My blog roll has been getting thinned out as many of the blogs I used to follow have been inactive for a very long period of time. So I am looking for new blogs to follow. If you think I would like your blog let me know so I can check them out.


As for plans I want to finish off the 1st, 2nd and 8th company detachments. Then my epic sm force will be complete.
After that I am unsure. I am thinking of working on the Tau more but I am also considering my 28mm marines.
In the smaller scales I also have a few space ships, boats, prussian naps and dropzone commander stuff to paint.
I am already thinking of next years goals and scoring. I think I am just going to take the scoring system from Analogue Hobbies. And the spending model from some challenge website I cant remember.

Anyway thats the general plan at the moment. Input is always welcome. I would also love to get more bloggers on the idea of painting together much like Sofia did before she went quiet. The one other announcement is that I will be doing a random box of goodies giveaway. I have a bunch of random stuff from trades and such over the years and would like to get it out and hopefully to people that will paint it. Rules are simple:

1.Comment on the post so I know you want in.
2. Include a link to your blog if you have one.

If you post about the contest on your blog include a link to it, then you will get 2 entries for the contest. This contest will run until Dec 5.

Good luck.
Aruki

Painting table #26 and other odd/interesting things

So as you can see the detachments are still there. but I have finished them off. So that is 22 more models and a total of 9.75 points.  I have also added a bunch more draws to the desk and sorted and filled them. They are mainly full of things for current or my next projects. 

Odd things 

Now for the odd things and this comes with the normal clause of my Korean is no where near perfect but what I have gathered. From what I have figured out the only store in Korea has been banned by the government the ability to sell any metal or resin blisters basically of less than 30 pieces. Due to not being safe for children of the age of 12. There are some exceptions to this but even with those this is an interesting and devastating for the shop itself. From what I was able to gather one of the main problems is the government doesn't consider the actual recommended ages by the manufactures but goes off their own age brackets, also that the reason this matters is because these models are all classified as toys in South Korea. The main things this really effect it seems are GW blisters, Spartan games blisters infinity blisters etc and etc. The only way this really effects me personally is it means I have no chance of buying a number of things in South Korea and will never see a large number of games ever enter the Korean market.

Interesting things

The merger for FFG is one fore me. I know nothing of the french company but I hope it means great things in the future. 

KOW2 kickstarter is doing well but after backing the original one I really don't think it is worth it, especially after the lack luster support post KS for KOW last time.

I am still eyeballing the anarchy model stencils but also still very undecided. 

There have been many interesting realeses recently though from many different companies and I look forward to buying more stuff.

More next time and WAHOOO thats 350.25 points. Also tomorrow there will be some an announcement so tune in.

Aruki

On a roll

Got another update today. I finished my second devilfish. Here is a pic of the two side by side.

thats 5 more points and 1 more model.
Nov: 46 points
YTD: 345.50 points
Models painted: 1052

I am now working on more detachments for the epic space marines.
More as I get it done.
aruki

Another quick update.

I managed to finish off the detachments for the 9th and 4th companies. That's 2 whirlwind batteries, 1 landraider squadron and a librarian and rhino. That's 15 more models and 6.25 points more to the total.

Dont have a picture at the moment but I also made a lot of progress on the other Devilfish, it is a bit more then halfway done. Which means I should polish it off this week. After that I am not sure what I will work on next. I also update total points as best as I could, It is still missing a few tau models.

Nov: 41 points

YTD: 340.50points

Models painted: 1051

More as it is finished.

Aruki

Painting table Saturday #25

This week is a big milestone for the year. I managed to finish off the 9th company. Which was the last company for the epic space marines. The models I have left to paint are all detachments now. Which means I have completed another goal for the year.

I am really happy now that I finished off the main parts of this project. The last few detachments should be easy to finish off. I even think I found a source for non legit but model accurate reaver titans. Points for actual points painted I still need to sit down and figure out again for the past few projects.
Other things are easy to figure out. It's 105 more models painted and 28.75 points.

In total I am now at:
Nov: 34.75 points
Ytd: 334.25

models painted: 1036

The current plan is to continue working on tau and epic models and maybe a few other odd models here and there. More as I get it done.
Aruki

Wahoo progress

So I finished off the devilfish and shadowsun.

That's:
2 more models painted
6 more points painted

and I have to figure out what actual points I painted.

So:
Nov: 6 points
YTD: 305.50 points
models painted:   931 models

More as I get it done.
aruki

Painting table Saturday #24

I know it has been a long while but updates should start becoming more frequent again. Anyway here is what I have been up to.

This devilfish only needs  more paint around the side and rear door and then it will be finished.

I also built my R'vanar. The arms and upper part of the torso are unglued at the moment and I may actually not glue the arms since they sit well without it. easy to put together actually and overall a sweet looking model. Makes me want to buy the new one too.

More as soon as I can since I am still pushing to finish off a few more goals for the year.

aruki

Update and my bday

So been a while but here is some of whats been going on. First off I cleaned and organized all my hobby stuff which is the picture above. Next is a bunch of models I got for my bday this week. I got a xv107, 2 xv9 with fusion cascades that brings me to a full squad of 3 and of course commander Shaso ralai. This together will add a great amount of firepower and should be fun to paint as well.  More as I get it painted.
aruki

That's also 2 more models for the year.

Boom goes the 180 marines???

I know strange title, but I honestly couldn't think of anything better. I haven't updated since my last post because I have been working and painting and just not writing about it.

Here are the epic space marines 6th and 7th companies finished off, hence the 180 marines. That is 36 bases between the two companies.

That is a huge 45 points for done ... And getting me soooo close to my points goal,

Points
Oct: 57.50
YTD points: 299.50

Models painted: 929 models
So A nice chunk of stuff done and I am very close to finishing yet  another goal for the year.

Some more epic finished

Managed to finish off the rhinos and the command stands for the 6th and 7th tactical companies.

I am also working on the 36 stands of guys to go with them. This will leave me I believe with only 1 company left to paint. And then detachments. Anyway that is 30 more models finished.

Oct : 12.50 points

Ytd: 254.50points

Models painted: 749

Picture of the desk tomorrow with everything I am working on.

Aruki

Stealth Suits

I meant to do this post, yesterday but ran out of time. I finished off the last 6 stealth suits, painted more of the devilfish and did some work on shadowsun.  Here is a pic of all the stealth suits together. That's 4 fusion and 8 reg guys.

So that is:
Sep: 6 points
YTD total:  242  points

Models painted: 719 models

More as I get it done.
aruki

Review: T.J.H. Models asteroids

So awhile ago I backed this kickstarter. Here are what they look like.

They are good quality rock and I love the color. I do wish they were a bit bigger but not the end of the wold. They will work well for x wing, not sure how well they will work for FSA. They may actually be just the write size to give a bit of scale to the ships. I will figure it out when I get around to doing new group pics of stuff.  Delivery was cheap and fast, the only down size I have found is I need to varnish them. But as different people have different tastes when it comes to this it was a smart idea. The stands are normal fare and the places to glue them in are solidly glued. Overall I am quite satisfied with this purchase and wish I had gotten more.

aruki

Biostrip 20: review 3/3

Today, will be the final part in this review series For the first two parts follow the links below.
Part 1
Part 2

front

backs

The subjects of todays experiment are 3 dreadnoughts I got. I wanted to test Biostrip 20 on a larger surface area and 1 of the models appeared to have had a non standard spray paint used on it, in fact it seems like a latex paint. So was a good chance  The one in white on the left was the one that I could tell had strange paint on him. I have found well testing on the minis that for normal acrylic paint the sweet spot for them seems to be in the 5 to 10 minute range. Due to the nature of the paint on the one on the left (with the white paint. I did him first but only let the Biostrip sit for a minute or so. The other two where in the 5 to 10 min range.

first round of striping front

first round of striping backs

 One round was enough for the other two dreadnoughts, there was a little leftover paint in areas that where hard to reach with the tooth brush and where the paint had been covered or mixed with super glue. But a little clean up work was all that was needed.

The picturess below are after the first model was done again with a 10min time. It came out mostly good. The gold paint you see on the front is strange and will need more time, no idea what it was but it turns into more of a soup, the same with the black paint that is in many places still on the model. As a side note this dreadnought appears to have been based with something strange,

Not sure how well you can see the black that is left it is mainly on the feet and under the main body. Will give those parts and the gold on the front 1 more soak and scrub.

Overall, I still recommend this product, the two dreads with acrylics cleaned up really fast and the stuff obviously works on non standard paints that people use.

aruki 

Painting table Saturday #23

I didn't finish much up the past couple of weeks model wise besides striping the new marines and the dreadnoughts. I did get a little more paint on one of the devil fish though.

You can expect the last biostrip review on Monday and a review of what I received from one of my kickstarters later this coming up week. I also plan on reviewing a rule set in the next couple of weeks. Other than that I am looking at picking up a few arms for my dreadnoughts and exploring options for shields so I can really start cracking on the SM project around the end of the year.

Aruki

Biostrip 20 review part 2 of 3

Overall, I recommend this product. I have had zero probelms with melting or bending or any of the stuff you often run into with other methods. I have also found it has very little dyeing effect on plastics. A few key things before the pictures and such, 1 key thing I have found is make sure you cover every piece you can get to. I missed some parts on other guys I was working on and had to go back to do it again. All of these models had been painted multiple times. It turns out the sarge with the banner pole had been painted about 5 times in total. Red, blue, yellow then red and then black. All the others varied from 1-4 times.

The 3 subjects

backs

after 1 hour and a quick scrub off and wash

Backs

after another 30min and scrub

Backs

 Overall they came out well and the little parts that are left on the two normal guys are acceptable to hand pick out. The sarge will probably need another dip the red paint that seems to be left is thicker than the other stuff and not normal acrylic.  Below I thought I would show something interesting. This subject was painted same as above ones. The main difference was that as I was applying the Biostrip 20, I decided to start cleaning him since I had notice that paint started coming off almost immediately.
This was the result with it being in contact for less than 1 minute before I started scrubbing and then washed off.

I found with the future models that If I did this quick scrub and then did an hour long session it worked even better than just letting them sit for 2 rounds.

This product I definitely endorse for any plastics or metals you have to strip. It works great and stores easily. There has been no stench from the cleaner left on the models or in the air while they were sitting with the stuff on them. So give it a shot. I have yet to test it on resin but will as soon as I have a chance. Since I have a few dreadnaughts coming in that will need paint stripped I figured I would do a third review of Biostrip 20 after this one. So look forward to it in the future.

Aruki

Update and August round up

The update is short and sweet. I have done nothing. This last few days have been rather busy and so will this weekend into next week. Here is South Korea it is a major 3 day holiday called Chuseok. Suffice to say lots of cooking, cleaning, people etc, to deal with. I did receive my marines that I got dirt cheap and hope to take a crack at testing the paint stripper properly now that I have painted models that need to be stripped. So look forward to the final review of Biostrip 20.

As for August it was a pretty good month for painting. For epic I completed the 3 detachments for the 5th company, the 8th company and the 10th company. I also completed 6 stealth suits for the tau. Now this month was good compared to past months but still not as good as I want, especially on the 28mm side. Unfortunately life just hasn't been co-operating enough and I really want to succeed in my goal of finishing off the epic SM chapter. Which honestly there isn't much left of.

Now a quick look at all the points and such.

Points:
Aug: 58.50
YTD: 236

Models painted:
Aug: 209 models
YTD; 713 models

Spending:
Aug: -$30.00
Ytd: -$285.08

I have also bought a few new things this past week, namely two dreadnaughts, which will go into the siege list once stripped painted and properly armed. Though I still need 1 more cheap one to fill out the unit.  Which will be added to Septembers spending.
So:
Sep: -$30.00
YTD: -$315.08

I finally also sat down and figured out actual painted points for most of the models, the heavy gun drones I need to look up again and the titans for epic don't include their weapon load outs and that doesn't include the huge ass titan I got..

Points painted:
DWs: 365points

40K: 659+points

Ancients: points

DZC: points

FSA: 650 points

Epic: 8075+points

Total: 9749+points

Suffice to say though that I smashed my actual points goal for the year.

Anyway more as I can get it done.

Aruki

Just in time

No picture today mainly due to time constraints, actually typing this while making dinner. Just a short time ago I managed to put the last touches on the 8th company and finish them off.


So 95 more models for a total of  713 models painted, 23.75 points for a monthly total of 58.50 and a YTD of 236.


Wrap up in next few days and progress on more tau stuff hopefully. Though there are only 3 more companies to go to finish off the epic marines.

 Aruki

More completed epic

I completed the 5th company detachments. In the picture below you can also see that I have started on the 8th company.

The 5ths detachments are a landraider detachment, whirlwind battery and a command stand that has all the character options and a rhino transport for them. The 8th company just needs all those assault stands finished off in order to be done.

So that is 12 more models and 4.75 points for the painting tally.

That brings this month up to

34.75 points for a YTD of  212.25 points, and a total of  618 models for the year painted.

Will try and get actual points figured out in next day or so and I hope to finish off the 8th before the end of the month. Wish me luck.

aruki

Painting Table Saturday #22

Alright this week was ok for getting back on track with my painting. Though I also need to make sure to do my posts in the proper way to make my life easier as well. First up spending, I spend an additional $20 on feebay to get myself 20 more marines for finishing up my planes with them.
So spending for this month is now:

August: -$30.00
YTD: -$285.08

Next up painting, I finished off the 6th company this week and made a bit more progress on the detachments for the 5th company.

So with the 6 stealth suits painted that brings the models painted count up to 606. Points for this month are as follows:
August: 30 points
YTD points: 207.5 points

So I am now getting closer to both my painting goal and my goal of completing the core of the epic SM army, I have only 4 more companies to paint to finish it off.

Finally, we continued the painting lessons this week with my oldest, he went with bright yellow boots, bright blue skin and green pants. Cant say much for his color taste on this one.

More as it happens
Aruki

The past week and why no follow up post on Mantic

Let's get the first part which is most negative out of the way. I have written a post 3 times on the whole Mantic kickstarter thing. But it basically just turns out as a long hate rant. I don't hate Mantic but I do strongly disagree with the current business model I see them employing with kickstarter. This combined with there refusal to answer certain key questions makes me not want to support there kickstarter. Especially when I can order good similar games for a lot less now and not have to wait a year. So to sum it up I wont support it and I am a bit disappointed in Mantic for taking this road.
Next up, OMG so much star wars stuff. That is about the max on that. The idea of Imperial assault being able to be used as a skirmish game is interesting. The idea of a Capital ship version of x-wing sounds interesting as well, though the price point seems a little crazy for this one.
However, on that front I also picked up a Korean version of the X-wing starter for a little less than $20 so I will just round it up. Though this also means I really need to figure out the Korean before I can play. For anyone in Korea that may be interested I go to the store in Hongdae called Rolling dice e for these minis and for MTG and other CCG's and board games. Check them out they do regular MTG tournaments and have reasonable if not great prices on most of there stuff and an occasional hidden gem on there shelves. Warning the website is Korean only: Rolling dice/ Dive dice.

Now lets move on to what I have been up to. First up assembling/painting etc etc. I didn't actually finish painting anything but did a lot of base coating and priming. I started by priming the first earth shaker cannon, in the future I really need to not do these by hand or not put the cannons on. I base coated the 10th company of my epic marines and started working on a land raider and whirlwind detachment as well.

So to sum up the post, Mantic kickstarter bad, Star wars good, priming and base coating. More later as I get it done.

Aruki

A late update but for a good reason.

Why is it late, well a few reasons. I have been busy doing actual modeling stuff and I have been doing a lot of research for further posts on the whole Mantic thing. So first up the 6 finished stealth suits.

So that's 6 points to august etc etc. I also spent $10 and picked up a Manta battle carrier for FSA. So that's minus $10 on that.

I also finished assembling the first counts as earth shaker on heavy carriage. It's not perfect but I learned a lot about using green stuff and assembling in general. Not bad for my first scratch built model I think.

Front

Side 1

Rear

Side 2

Top view

 Following that I started assembly of the next two Heavy carriage Earth shakers.

Finally I started to teach the oldest how to paint, specifically base coating. Tomorrow he will prime his own orc and then we will move on to the next step. He is now 4 1/2, I have also started working on remembering and writing ABCs and such using his Battle tech manuals.

More as I can and hopefully another comparison post on Wednesday.

Aruki