Hobby space rework: The reset button has been pushed!

I have not posted here since last year but sometimes it is healthy to step away from things to come back re-invigorated. There has been some sporadic hobby time in there but nothing made it to the blog yet. With this on and off hobby time my desk became a bit of a dumping ground. Eventually it hit the critical level of messiness where it was simply too much effort to sit down and do anything there. Not only was it a cluttered mess but the desktop board 
had bowed badly because I hadn't put a support beam under it when I build it. I always planned to add it but never got around to it. 

Last night after a particularly hard week of work I looked at the sad state of my hobby space and decided it was time for a literal and metaphoric fresh start.

Easy Medusa Conversion

Here is another small project that happened between other things. I had two Earthshaker Platforms and I wanted one to be a Medusa Siege Gun. I had seen similar conversions on the net so I gave it a crack with some personal touches. I find it really useful seeing how other people attempt different conversions, so in that spirit here is a walk through of my conversion. 

Windmill from ‘The Last Stand at Glazer’s Creek’

White Dwarf 222, of June 1998, featured a battle report adaptation of the Battle of Rorke's Drift - best known from the film ‘Zulu!’ Naturally, this pitted a platoon of the then newly released Praetorian Imperial Guard against a group of savage Orks who came at the Imperial defenders in a number of waves. I always loved this battle report for the way it leant on an historical event without making it a straight out recreation in 40k. The exaggeration and satire blended with the Gorkamorka vogue captivated me and even now, 18 years later, I enjoy flicking through that battle report.

Kingdom Death: Monster - Unboxing and Magnetising

I have been off of the blog for a while but I had to throw up a quick post for this one! My copy of Kingdom Death: Monster arrived (finally) so I have been one happy man this weekend! First off, I know there are many people out there that are thinking of magnetising their survivor models. I gave it a go and with the right tools it isn't all that hard.

Leman Russ Demolisher Finished -Tank 211 'Bumblebee'-

Gents, this one is a double blog post, so be sure to checkout the work in progress post for this tank here. As always, comments are always welcome. Seeing that the Preatorians were 'never' on campaign in the Orpheus Sector (thanks to the Ordo Redactus), it would be wise to check your security clearance before viewing these archives. -Tally ho lads, Colonel Ackland.

Painting Up The Old Demolisher!

After handing up my PhD thesis (which I talked about in my last post) I gave writing a solid brake for a bit. This unintentionally spilled over to my blog too so I have gone a full month without a post. Now that I am back to writing at work I found the urge to write a post again. So what have I been up to? I finished a tank! I am splitting this one over two posts so if you would prefer to jump to the finished tank hop over to Part 2.

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry

I am very good at planning and very good at finishing things, just not so good at joining those two concepts together. I inevitably end up doing way more than I planned, way better than I planned, way later than I planned. 

I was optimistically hoping to keep up weekly blog posts but I missed the last three. I do have some good news though. After what has now been six years I am proud to say that finally I handed up my PhD thesis. It was a monumental effort in the end so following its submission I took a week off, played with my 20 month old son, caught up on sleep and generally recovered from the thesis ordeal. 

With that all behind me I'm ready to get my hobby on again!

Taking Cover From One Hundred Thousand Hits!

My blog has clicked over to 100,000 hits! Thank you to everyone that has stopped by over the last four years especially to all the great bloggers that have left comments from time to time!

In the real world I am submitting my PhD thesis over the next two weeks as well as working. As a result, my days are split between 10 hours of shiftwork, 8-10 hours of thesis writing and 3-5 hours of sleep. Thus, there is no modelling happening at the moment. I do have my finished defence lines to show off though! Here is where I had left them in the last post.

Reinforcing the New Front!

"Your spirit is the true shield!"

This post is about reinforcing the new army imagery that I introduced last post. To do this I have started painting up a defence line for the new campaign front in the Orpheus Sector, as well as the literal 'front' of painting lions on the front of things. [Don’t worry I’ll stop my bad attempts at being clever now.] My current progress is slightly ahead of my blogging so unfortunately I did not incorporate some of the advice that I received in my last post. Never the less, I got there in the end! 

Contextualising My Praetorians (and a Big Gun Emplacement)

Well, it has been quite a break between solid painting posts. This blogging drought ends here! Starting this month I will attempt a feat that I have never achieved ever in my last 4 years of blogging... I will blog weekly painting posts. {gasp} I'm know right, a very dangerous deed! I don't know how long it will last but there will be no retreating! 

In this post I painted up my Earthshaker Cannon, but what this post is really about is the symbols and icons that I have added to my Praetorian force. Lately, I have been putting large emphases on making sure that my armies have a strong identity. For my golden Necrons this has been through the elaborate city terrain that represents their crown world. Praetorians by themselves have a strong theme but I wanted to introduce a few icons to the army to cement their character and identity across the force.

Brimlock Dragoons and Praetorian Infantry Progress

Time for another update on the 1st Carabiniers, Brimlock Dragoons.

The background and first progress post on these guys are both back here.

The Fall Of Praetoria: by Warhammer 40K Campaigns

Attention citizen soldiers of glorious Praetoria.

Praetoria stands at Her hour of need.

The call has gone out across the galaxy, to our regiments, our neighbours, our allies and the mighty warriors of the Holy Emperor. Our appeals will not go unheard.

Now we must ready ourselves for the ultimate fight . Lest Praetoria be lost… Praetoria fall… Praetoria be no more.

Now that I have set the mood... whilst randomly surfing the net I came across some brilliant new Praetorian art work. At first I thought it was fan work posted on deviant art. As I found more I thought it must be from Fantasy Flight games, meaning Praetorians would appear in their RPG – an awesome prospect. Then I found the source site and I read the words ‘The Fall Of Praetoria’.

Militarum Equester - A play through of the new supplement!

For those that have not been following this, I have been working on miniatures and rules for a Rough Rider Army for some time now -The Macharian Thunder Guard! Today was the proud day when I finally got them onto the table and trialled my unofficial supplement codex rules with fellow gamer and blogger Liam (aka Frothing Muppet). Here is a few sneak preview shots of my home brewed codex.

Mounted Storm Troopers - 1st Carabiniers, Brimlock Dragoons

In the interest of actually posting on my blog regularly, here is the 'work in progress' up date on one squad of my Mounted Storm Troopers. 

Building a Necron Empire of Gold -Episode 3: Builders down tool and up weapons!

Well that was a long break between drinks!

The last few months have been full of too much work and not much hobby time. As a result the little rulers of the Necron Empire have been growing irritated. Under their orders, the builders put down their tool and picked up weapons to slay some explorers that ventured to close to the city complex.

Building a Necron Empire of Gold -Episode 2: Working From the Ground Up!

This project seems to be progressing faster then I can blog about it. For those that are just seeing this, it is best to start at the beginning. In Episode 1: The Concept I explained how this project came about and my thoughts on how I wanted it to end up. Keeping to the core concept is going to be really important to get the look and feel that I am aiming for. I think my brief summery of the project was an "Ancient Egyptian and Sumerian like city, paved in gold like a mythical South American lost city but laid out with Atlantis-like rings of water" or there about. I have started various structures (as you can see from the title photo) and here is where each of them are currently at.

Building a Necron Empire of Gold -Episode 1: The Concept

First off, sorry blogging world for not being around much. There has been some tough times with my father-in-law battling cancer right at a time when work/study has been totally crazy. Life gets like that sometimes. Thank you for my Lobster Awards, unfortunately I just wasn't in the head space to put a post together.

Since my last post I have found a few more followers bring me over the 100 mark which is something that I thought my little blog would never achieve. So cheers to the newcomers! I have had a lot of interest in my Taurox and Scion conversion, and rest assured they will be the focus of an upcoming post soon. Now that I have a free moment, I'd like to share a project (over a few posts) that is actually turning out to be pretty cool.

I have had this slow burn project quietly progressing on the sidelines of my other modelling for some time now. It has moved forward so sporadically that I never felt the need to shed the spot light on it for a blog post. This has resulted in having what is now a relatively big project that hasn't been blogged about! So in typical Ackland style, hold on to your hats, this is going to be quite a ride.

Teuton Scions and Taurox WIP

After starting my Taurox conversion yesterday (found here in Part 1 and Part 2), today I pulled out the Scion kit. Since I first saw them I have been dying to put Curious Construct Pickelhaube heads on them.  In my mind the baroque armour was crying out for a bit of 18th century Prussia! 

Taurox Conversion: Lowering ya ride, part 2

This is a pictorial log of my attempt to lower a Taurox and in doing so improve the overall look of the model (if that is possible). If you haven't checked out Part One,  please do so here.

As a refresher, the dodgy photo-shopped image on the left is my target and the original is on the right.   

Taurox Conversion: Lowering ya ride, part 1

Knowing that new Guard goodies were on their way I started putting a fund together so I could join in on the Guard loving. Selling a Tau codex and Warhammer Fantasy rulebook ensured that I would have some new toys to play with on release day. 

This morning the new Scions and Taurox hit the stores. Our local GW man, Dion at Warradale, had told me that he only got three Taurox kits in and many people were after are ALL of them. My response was a sarcastic dig at GW as usual. "Three at your store? I was expecting GW to send out a total of three to all of Australia - they must be getting generous these days!"
I set my alarm and got down there at 0800 to make sure I didn't miss out. Being first in line, I managed to grab a Taurox, Scion box and I also pre-ordered the new Guard codex for next week.

On to the Taurox! 

When I first saw the Taurox I thought it was a little 'aesthetically challenged'. Since then it has grown on me but there is still something odd about its proportions. I'd like to get one into my workshop and lower it!