Today's progress and a Liebstering

 Just got the next unit of clan rats assembled and partially painted. Nothin too exciting I'm afraid. 

Mr Phreedh over at Phreedh's miniature stuff http://ministuff.godzilla.se has nominated me for a Liebster... I'm actually quite shocked by this, I'd thought only my little blog was far too small to get noticed. I'm going to break it up into two parts so I can get back to my hobby desk!

The first hurdle is to tell 11 truths about myself

1. I really despise when adults say "on purpose" I can remember even as far back as kindergarten hearing this and thinking do you mean with purpose? Purposefully? Twat 

2. Bullies especially internet bullies are my bane. The worst type of cowards are internet tough guys. They've pretty much ruined open online gaming and forum posting for me.

3. I detest the Progressive Conservative party and the evil they represent. 

4. MTG is my favourite game to play, yes you read that right. I started playing young and was throwing together decks at age 12 that most adult players couldn't contend with. With my job I can't keep up with all the Friday night magic events or with the standard and legacy formats. I especially enjoy the Commander variant but I rarely get the opportunity to play, just for fun, nothing too competitive. These days I'm more concerned in getting rallies going or introducing new players my age to the game. I find few people will give the game a chance; they'll write it off as something kids play or won't take time to learn the intricacies of the game, which is a shame. 

The first pack of Alpha I unwrapped had this staring back at me. It's still one of my favourites. 

5. I am a sneakerhead, I got my first pair of Nikes at age 8 and I was hooked. I don't wear them all the time, but if it's a casual day and it's sunny outside Ill be in my Jordans. 

6. I'm a Yankees fan win or lose. When Jeter retires I will cry openly and without shame. 

7. I've always read comics mostly X-Men and their many variants, Batman, Hawkman (for some reason, I'm not sure why)  and the old b&w TMNT. I refuse to see any film adaptations in theatres and I find it revolting Disney bought Marvel. Can't wait for the Goofy vs Deadpool crossover.

Spare me. Next it'll be the infinity gauntlet starring woody and buzz. Revolting. 

8. The Empire Strikes Back is my favourite film, in all things Star Wars I cheer for the Empire and the dark side of the Force.

9. I used to be a big gamer: Halo, Oblivion, Skyrim, COD and Madden 1993-2009. The gems of my collection are my old NES, SNES & Genesis games of which I've got around 50. My most played classics are TMNT 2 the arcade game, river city ransom, Stanley cup hockey, altered beast and Mario 3. My favourite modern(ish) games have to be Oblivion, KOTOR, GTA 3, Vice City, hell all of 'em. But the all time fave is: 

Haven't played it in over a year but I can't count the hours, days probably months over my lifetime that I've spent playing this game.  There are other great fighting games: Tekken, mortal kombat, Eternal Champions, TMNT tournament fighters, samurai showdown, king of fighters, MVC but good old SF2 Turbo stands out the best. I've played it with people from all over the world, it's like an international language for me!

10. I love to read especially fantasy and science fiction. My favourite authors are Moorcock, Abnett, JV Jones, RA Salvatore, Pratchett, Weiss and Hickmann, Brent Weeks, Robin Hobb and Steven Erikson just to name few.  I'm also a big fan of Irvine Welsh and Chuck Palahniuk. 

11. I've been to Brittain twice now, I really enjoy vacations over there; the history, the pub, the food, the transit, the pub, the football, the rugby, the pub.  I'd love to get back over for BOYL someday, hopefully the conversion from CDN to £ will be improved. My last visit I was given keys to a flat in Putney Heath for a week before heading to Birmingham. On early nights coming back from downtown I'd finish up at:

It was a nice little place. I would've been there every night but they closed doors at 11. The 24 hour places were ok but too clubby for my taste. I had a few pints on a converted submarine hunter on the river Thames, it was pretty cool. Another pub highlight was round the corner from St Paul's Cathedral with maked graves on the garden patio. Besides pubs and Historical sights I spent a fair bit of time checking out hobby stores, the only downside was how disappointed I was to see the state of GW in its maiden land was as sad as home in Canada. 

Well that's it, this has taken me forever to finish! It may be awhile before part 2 I've got to get the skaven done before oldhammer day in the USA! 

Today's progress

A nearly finished unit of rat ogres and two mounted characters 

The more keen eyed of you will of course have noticed the frame has now been properly aligned since last post; it was off by 3 degrees and was driving me mental. Rest assured after much sanding trimming and swearing it is fixed now. I'm not sure if I should've gone with a pair of grey rat ogres with a black one; the unit looks a tad drab but meh, it's done. I've got two more in the strip jar, would love to one day field two units of 6! 

I placed gnaw doom on an elevated base to make him stand out from the rest of the pack. It's just a cork chopped up and pressed into a blob of green stuff but the results are alright. I'll be including a familiar to go with him just because it's cool and I'm (nearly) sick of painting rats! 

My list calls for a 15th level beastmaster to accompany my rat ogres and their handlers; throt is one of my favourite sculpts of all time. Pinning that sword arm was a bit tricky, but it's well worth it; I'll take him and hope for the third arm chaos attribute! 

Last and most least; 

BSB 10th level hero, Talismanic and Relic magical properties. It's turning out much better than I thought, I trimmed the cross beam and dug round the bits box for an old rackham banner top that I'm sure will fit the job, all that's left now is to create a custom banner which is actually quite a lot of work I would think...

101 done, 88 to go! 

Movement Trays

It took me awhile but I've finally got some movement trays constructed. You may be thinking who cares but they're a big deal to me aesthetically.  Much in the same way a well painted fig always looks that much better on a finished base, the same is true of a unit on a movement tray.

I knew what I wanted; the platform had to be thick enough to handle the weight of large(ish) units, the frame had to stand even height with citadel bases and had to be reasonably thin. I searched the web but nothing quite fit the bill. To be honest and it pains me to say it the closest I could find was the kit from GW but the price was offside (shock) and the edging was too thick for my taste. I could settle or make my own; the choice was clear. 

The platform was made of 2mm thick plasticard from Evergreen, good quality stuff and the large sheets are reasonably priced. For the framing I intended to use 3.25mm quarter round but was informed Evergreen had ceased to produce it and that Plastruct made no quarter round at all. I compromised by gluing 2.5 quarter round onto 1mm thick stripping which added to the workload.

I made the first three without the use of a carpenters square which was a pain in the ass, now that I have one I can see how useful it will be in the future.  

All of the tutorials I could find said to leave 2mm extra room length and depth on the platform; it's not that big of a deal for 40mm bases but for multiple row and rank units it is a must; a fraction of a millimetre per base can add up quick. 

For cutting shaped plasticard I would recommend a fine saw as applying force will cause it to dimple and the usual score and crack method will not work with two separate pieces glued together, you could always premeasure the strip and the quarter round before gluing but if you are off by a quarter millimetre you're boned. 

The corners were then filled with green stuffed to leave everything flush. 

This was my first project with plasticard and the results will stand up to the rigours of gaming. I've got a few more more to do for a 3k force but I want to get back to painting, nothing exciting just more Clanrats and rat ogres, the army is finally halfway painted!

When the army is done ill work on the remaining movement trays and getting them finished using Blue in VT's method, the same I emulated on my unit bases.

Cheers.