Blood Bowl Update

I was able to get some work done on my Blood Bowl Board (BBB). If you know how to play this game then you know what all the boxes are on the board. Everything is outlined with 1/4 inch square stock. It took a lot of time just cutting all the pieces to fit the board. I also pulled out my router to round the frame of the board. It is looking rather cool.

Next step is to finish sanding all the wood and blending the 1/4 inch stock. Then I will start getting some paint on the board. I figured I would stain the frame and paint the playing surface. I still have note made any decision on using flocking material on the field. When it comes to numbering all the boxes, I might have my wife do that. She recently purchase a Cricut crafting machine. She has become very skilled at cutting out stuff with it. So I was going to bribe her to cut my numbers out and I will glue them on the board. Then I will take some clear finish and poor it over the numbers. This will create a water effect and protect the numbers from peeling.

Now I have some bad news. I will not be working on this project the next month. I need to prepare for a local tournament, Gathering in the Desert, Lord of the Rings. I still need to make a display board and might want to make some changes to my list which means I need to paint some more models.

Blood Bowl

This will be my first post of 2012 and I couldn't have picked a better subject, Blood Bowl. This is one of those games I only play a few times a year however when I play it I really like the game. Ever time I play the game I always comment about making a custom board.

Well, on Jan 1st the guys got together and we played Blood Bowl and had some great BBQ. While playing I made the comment again about making a custom board. The following day I decided to stop talking about it and stated working on a board. I was going to take pictures of the project from start to finish but I didn't. So you will now see the project half finished. The next step is to trim out the board and get some paint on it. I am happy with my progress so far and want to get some game time in once it is done.



Let me give you a fast run down on what I did so far.

1. I purchased a piece of 1/4 inch MDF which was 4 feet by 2 feet. I then outlined the board onto the MDF. This gave me the overall look of the board and I then trimmed the MDF to the desired sized.

2. I then purchased some wood squares from the craft store and glued them in place. The squares are 1 and 1/8 inches.

3. Then I built a frame for the board out of 3/4 by 3 inch pine. I normally would not use pine for a project like this, it is a soft wood and dents easily. Since I don't play that much I was comfortable using it for this project.

Like I stated earlier, I will be trimming out the board itself. I am planning on using 1/4 inch poplar square stock for this. My plan it to use this wood to outline the board and turn numbers and other things.

After that is done it will be time to get some paint on the project. Once it is painted I will need to decide if I am going to use grass on the field or just paint. I will cross that road when I get their.

I will keep you posted on my progress.

2011 in Review

I was busily painting my EPIC Necrons when I heard the explosions from fireworks in the sky. I knew it was the end of the year and time to put my paint brush down. I have been working hard on this army the past few days trying to get it done. I still have some painting on the models to complete it but for the most part it is done.

So lets take a look at 2011:

My goal for the year was to simply focus my time on painting. I wanted to spend a hour a day painting. Being the realist that I am, I could not spend just a hour a day painting nor could I paint every day of the week. Either way, it balanced out nicely for me throughout the year. I was able to paint two armies in 2011 and made a great gaming board for Command and Colors. I also worked on other painting projects along the way.

I played in my first tournament (Gathering in the Desert) and had a great time.

I started playing historical games and will be exploring more of them in the future.

That is about it for 2011. I played a lot of great games with my friends and painted some models. I am very happy with my success with gaming, painting and blogging.

Now whats on the calendar for 2012. I am going to keep the same goal that I made in 2011. I just want to keep up with my painting and budgeting my time so I can paint. The only twist I am going to throw in the mix in 2012 is I want to focus on WW2. I have a collection of 28MM, 15MM and 6MM models. So be prepared to see some WW2 stuff in the near future.

I will be playing in another tournament (Gathering in the Desert).

I heard rumors of another painting competition however not many details at the moment. All I know at this point is we will have a group of guys all painting 40K Orks and playing some games. It will be fun and interesting.

So happy News Years to everybody and thank you for reading my blog and keeping your blogs up to date. I enjoy reading what other gamers are doing and sharing their tips and tricks.

EPIC Nightbringer

I would like to introduce you to my little friend; my Nightbringer. I was going to build a Nightbringer however this model works so much better. It is a Cairn Wraith from the Vampire Counts. What sold me on the model were the three different faces it came with and the one I used really looks like a Necron Face. Maybe GW meant for this model to be used as a Nightbringer. One more model done and just a few more to do and this army will be done.

Wraiths are Done

I finished my Wraiths yesterday and took some pictures today.

When I started painting this army I thought I would have it done by the end of the year. It is looking highly unlikely this will happen. I am thinking by the end of January if I don't get too distracted by my other hobbies. Enjoy the pictures.

EPIC Wraiths "How To"

Thursday was a very productive day for me. I had nothing going on so I got to spend the day making my Wraiths for my army. My goal was to make 12 stands however I only had enough models to make 10. For today, however, I am going to show you how I made these models. They are not painted yet and once I get them finished I will show off the completed models.

So lets get started:

When I made my first stand of Wraiths I used pieces of scrap metal from older models. The problem was I didn't have much of it to use. I then decided to use some Styrene. I actually found that I could work with the Styrene faster.


What I did next was just started cutting along the side of the Styrene. I made small cuts with the angle side of the clippers facing side of the Styrene being cut off. You might need to try it a few times until you get the hang of it.


Then I cleaned up the Styrene. As you can see, the cuts I made created a nice detail to the Wraiths body. I also filed a small recess towards the front. This is where the model will be glued in place.






Now I had to cut up the model that I am using. I am using the Sergeant model from Exodus Wars. It came in the Edenite pack. I had a lot of extras and felt it was the best model for the Wraiths. I started by cutting its legs off. They I had to flatten the back of the model so it would fit into the recess I made in the Styrene. I just used a file to make this happen.


Then I trimmed the sides of the torso so that it was the same width at the Styrene. If you look closely at the model you will notice some flashing and that is all I removed.


Then I glued them on the Styrene that I cut up. You might notice that I did some shaping of the Styrene where I glued the model on. I feel it just looks better this way.


I then took the unused part of the models and glued them onto the base. The main reason I did this was to file the recess on the base. Once the glued dried I cut off the rest of the model and filed flat.




Then I cut them off the Styrene and glued them to the base. This is an important step. You might have to cut the Styrene at an angle so that the model is not looking straight down. It is up to you on how you want your models to look. I wanted mine to be at a slight angel that way they are looking down on their victims.

If you have any questions or need clarification please feel free to leave a comment and I will answer it for you.

EPIC Necrons

It seems that Necrons are all a buzz these days, might have something to do with the release of a new codex and models. I have seen the new line of models and I must say they are really nice. With all this excitement towards Necrons I thought I would share some pictures of my EPIC Necron army. I recently just finished painting the core troops.

This is a group shoot and you can't really see anything.

This close up shows my 4 stands of Pariahs

This is a close up of some Warriors, I run 4 units of them


These are the Immortals, I have a total of 9 stands

Just of few of my Lord stands. I have 4 Lords with Immortals and 2 Lords with Pariahs

Next up for this project is to scratch build all my Wraiths. I can put 3 stands in each unit so I have to scratch build 12 stands. I have built two stands already using different techniques. I now just need to decided which style I want to go with. I will do a "How To" when I post pictures of them completed.