Baneblade Prime

As mentioned last week, I finally finished building the Baneblade after three years of on and off construction, and got it primed.

Parts splayed out for spraying

 As you might notice from this picture, I have a number of the old style Citadel Colour sprays, which is what I ended up using for this job.  The black primer cans must be at least 8 years old, if not more, but worked like a charm. It is a pity that they changed the formula, since I really like these (and obviously they last as well, which is uncommon in spray paints).

 

Baneblade in all its primal glory!

So now that I have completed basic assembly and priming, the next step is to break out the old air brush, and give the armor panels a nice base coat of Russian Green, and then get to work painting the details, crew, and 1001 rivets.  Then weathering.  Maybe I will be done in a further three years...

Universal Truth

There are few universal truths in life, like death, taxes, and so on.  One of them is that primer will show all errors on a model.  Smart builders, of course, expect this, but there is always at least one problem area that is surprising...

and yes, after three years, I finished building my Baneblade and primed it today.

New Workbench

For my birthday this year I got a new desk to serve as a workbench.  Previously, I had either been using my painting desk, or moving things around from closet to kitchen table and back.  Not ideal, and it really has held a few projects back. 

When we were able to allocate more room in our house to hobbies, the wife and I discussed how to lay it out, and having a real workbench with a roll top desk to cover up the mess was discussed.  Thanks to her instigation, and hard work searching craigslist, my parents bought a beat up used desk for my birthday.

 A number of coats of wood cleaners, sealers, and wax, some reassembly of drawers, major unpacking, and we have this:

Note the cool art my wife got for me.

Quite nice, and I find that just having it open starts to give me ideas on converting figures, and now I am itching to build up some kits too.  It is not completely organized, and obviously the drawer pulls need to be fixed, but it is coming along nicely.

Here is what I currently have on the workbench:

And yes, I do actually have the baneblade I have been yammering on about for the last... nearly 3 years. Needs some final finishing touches, and then it is off to primer.

May

Well, May is over now, and with hardly a post from me.  I went from the A-Z challenge of posting six days a week to, well, to just posting six times. Sort of shameful really.  I guess to a certain extent I was a bit burnt out on the blogging thing.  Despite the lack of new posts, I still had 469 views in May, which is somewhat astounding, although lower than April.  Hopefully June will be better in terms of posting content.

In other blogging news, Dropship Horizon, the premier source of news for 15/18mm scifi figures and gaming is going dark, due to shifting interests of its author.  This is a real shame, as the site was seen by many as a driving force for them getting into 15mm, and was in more recent times breaking news about new figures and games.  Hopefully this will alliveate my interests in getting a couple of platoons of 15mm figures from GZG... or not. Those second edition NAC and UNSC figures really are great, and I will get that jury pay check sometime soon.

As mentioned recently, I have been working on the Baneblade, and have also been researching what sort of detailing could be added to the base model.  This is probably why it has taken me so long to build the darn thing, but I want my model to be unique, since it is a centerpiece model (that is until I get three more super heavies and make a full company of them).  More on that as it is built.

Still more on Citadel "Finecast"

Popped into my FLGS today (to get a birthday present for a friend), and while I was there I took a look at the finecast figures they had on offer.  I must say, they did look very sharp and cleanly cast, although it was a bit of a shock to pick up one of the new clam shell packs and notice that it did not weigh anything really. The prices are way out there of course, particularly for older models, such as the Green Knight, which was $38.  For a model sculpted in 1997.

CMDante has a great little review of a figure that he picked up, and as a "trusted reviewer" I think that it cements my opinion that the figures are fine... just costly.

In other gaming news, I managed to work a bit on the Baneblade last night (at the instance of my wife, who said "you are always talking about modeling, so do it"). 

More Delays

As expected, the arrival of a newborn to our household has completely shut down any hobby activity. Even the Baneblade has been stalled. Sleep has become a priority, and coupled with the various season finale type television and increased numbers of visitors, there just has not been enough time for the lead and plastic.

I have had some time to register for a few miniature related forums, which is good, because passively reading various posts is good, but participating is better. Naturally, this has also awakened various interests, such as my Neo-Soviet vs. Poland StarGrunt II idea, and terrain ideas.

Sometime... I will have time.

Delays

I had thought that my quick progress on the Baneblade would mean that I would have moved on to painting by now, however, like many projects, it seems to have stalled at the around 60% built stage, this time while I try and decide if I should cut up the engine plate to center the engine block.

The model itself is pretty great, with tons of pieces and moving parts, but it could have been designed slightly better to ease assembly. I need to finish up assembly, create a bit of interior for the tank commander, and then paint.

I also completed storage in the garage for my boxes of miniature related items, since the offspring is going to be using the space which was briefly a hobby room. As part of the move, I had to give up my "converting/building" desk, which is too bad. I did manage to build some of the Rogue Trader/Necromunda/RP figures I had planned on, so I should be able to finish and paint those sometime. That is always how it goes though, finish and paint... sometime.

Resolutions

Some of the fine blogs I follow have been featuring 2010 resolutions. In fact, nearly all of them have had such things.

Never being one to buck a useful trend, here are five of mine.

1. Get in a game or two. In 2009 I played no games, and that is silly when one has 10 armies for several game systems. I need to at least play some solo games.
2. Paint more figures. In 2009 I painted very little, mostly due to moving and so on. 2010 needs to be more productive. Idealy I would be painting at least 10 Olly points per month, which would be 120 figures per year.
3. Figure out figure storage. I already have more "finished" figures than storage, so this is already pressing. Some sort of dust proof plastic boxes with steel sheet bottoms would be ideal.
4. Get hobby room finished and set up. Once the in-laws move out of it, the room needs some work to make it hobby friendly. Fortunately, it will be able to exist in that state for several years.
5. Use the airbrush again. Having used my airbush a single time is a great waste. With several tanks to paint, this seems like an ideal way to proceed, and having the hobby room set up will aid as well.

We will see how I did with them as the year progresses.

In other news, the baneblade has arrived, and over a couple of episodes of Star Trek the Next Generation, I managed to get 90% of it clipped out, and spent some time examining the fit of peices and so on. Very impressed with the kit, but is it worth $99 retail? Doubtful. A 1/35 large tank sells for much less, and has far superior detailing, as well as being a more technicaly proficent kit. On the plus side, I was impressed by the slide molding of the gun barrels. Having to fit together, glue, sand, and then drill out guns is a pain.

2010 Project(s)

Well, I had a single vote on the post about "what should I do pre-baby's birth". Fortunately, this vote was my wife's, so it was the most significant. She voted that I should do something frivolous, such as a Baneblade. Well, her encouragement ringing in my ears, I hurried to the Warstore and made my order. (nicely taking advantage of their holiday sale). So that is settled then, and in about a week, I should have the massive box in my hot little hands.

I have already considered modeling options, and reviewed the White Dwarf with assembly instructions, and I think that I will be modifying the model slightly to more closely match the original Forgeworld issue. This will mean moving the sponsons to the 2/3 position, removing some rivets, and a few other cosmetic changes.

In other projects for 2010, I plan to finish painting the Imperial French Battalion I started in July, finish converting and paint the Delaque gangers, and work on my Steel Legion platoon (mostly painting).

As always, we will see how my plans go.