What has been going on in the hobby this summer.

This summer has been a rather exciting and busy time for the hobby and gaming in general for me.  It all began with the release of the new Wood Elves army book in May and the subsequent release of several new kits for the army.  That release began the new army project I have been working on all summer which is the creation of a massive Wood Elf army that can be used in various incarnations and point values.  Soon after the release of the Wood Elves army book, Games Workshop released the 7th edition of Warhammer 40k.

The new edition release for 40k renewed my interest in the game and resulted in the shelving of all my old previous 40k models and the foundations started to create my new Eldar army soon as the Wood Elves are completed.  Just as my focus had realigned itself on my Wood Elves (which I had spent pretty much every night for months painting) then Dungeons and Dragons released their newest edition, 5th.  That resulted in the subsequent decision to DM a campaign with a few friends on Tuesday nights.  Prior to that we had the releases of the Space Wolves, Orks, and Grey Knights for 40k and then Guardians of the Galaxy came out in the theater.

Guardians of the Galaxy prompted me to finally just give in and subscribe to Marvel Unlimited in order to read the hundreds of comics I used to collect.  This followed by the Disney explosion of Princess Sofia and other Disney Princess paraphernalia in my house has prompted me to also collect Hirst Arts molds to create a Disney Princess castle for my girls.

So that said let us review my army projects, hobby projects and items to collect over the summer and moving forward.

Army Projects:

1. The Great Hunt, War Host of Athel Loren

To collect and paint:
- Waywatcher Lord model
- Spellsinger model 
- Great weapon character
- Spellsinger on Unicorn
- 15 Glade Guard
- 15 Glade Guard
- 12 Dryads
- 20 Eternal Guard
- 20 Wildwood Rangers
- 6 Wild Riders
- 6 Wild Riders
- 8 Sisters of Thorn
- Treeman
- Treeman Ancient

To touch up and update:
Waywatcher Lord
Battle Standard Bearer
10 Waywatchers

2. Limited Edition Wood Elves Army Book
3. Limited Edition Dark Elves Army Book
4. Limited Edition High Elves Book
5. 7th Edition Rules Compendium

Marvel Comics: (Story arcs)
6. Infinity Gauntlet Compendium
7. Infinity Gauntlet Companion
8. Civil War

Dungeons and Dragons
9. Players Handbook
10. Starter Set

Dark Heresy
11. 2nd edition Dark Heresy

Hirst Arts:
12.  Castle Mold #40
13.  Castle Mold #50
14.  Castle Mold #60
15.  Castle Mold #52
16.  Castle Mold #86
17.  Castle Mold #200
18.  Castle Mold #203

19.  Retribution of Scyrah 50 pt army (collected but not painted)
20.  Circle Orboros 50 pt army (collected but not painted)

21.  Ipad

22. Display Board for OFCC 2014
23. Disney Princess Castle
24.  Design and purchase new Eldar army to replace old models/paint job.

So as you can see its been a very busy summer for me and I'm not yet even close to being done with some of my newer projects (read: Disney Princess Castle, Eldar Army, Retribution of Scyrah and Circle Orboros armies)

Guess everyone can look forward to some more updates in the up and coming months!

Growing Pains Part 2: Making it all fit inside the Table War Case

So, I have painstakingly painted an entire legion of models.  I have enough to field 3 variant 2800 point lists and 2 variant 3000 point lists with my Wood Elves.  The issue I am running into now is space.  I had originally purchased my Table War case because it was a fantastic method of displaying the army and also protecting it at the same time.  As I have used this wonderful transport, I have had a desire to turn it into even more of a display case by basing and sanding the trays.

So I started my night by priming and painting my movement trays (for all the incarnations of this army).

Afterwards I took stock of what I had.

Having decided that it would be awesome to have a "display tray", I had primed, sanded and based 3 of the Table War trays.

So after various attempts to make it all not only fit on the trays but also inside the case I managed to come up with this configuration.

I had to unfortunately remove the drawer in order to make this all fit (stupid tall banners).  But 4k points worth of elves fit within the case after a while.

I still find Table War a great case but I may need to either a. slim down my inventory or b. suck it up and keep it as such and just create and carry a display board for OFCC.

I have not yet decided but I have just under 30 days to decide. So, I'm out for now but I'll post again soon!

From the Hobby Desk 5 - Waywatcher Lord Sylvos Greystorm the Huntsman, Ranger-General of Athel Loren - WIP

Since the release of the Wood Elf army book, I have been steadily repainting and painting my Wood Elves all summer.  I began by retiring many of my old models and replacing them with newer, shinier units.  All of my frenzied focus on the army was finally rewarded when I painted the last model which was my general, Sylvos.

As many of you know, Sylvos is my favoite and has been prevalent in all my lists for Wood Elves.  So with great pride I reveal Sylvos:

From the Hobby Desk 4 - Spellsinger on a Unicorn WIP part deux

Last post I displayed the Unicorn I had been painting for my Spellsinger/weaver.  This post shall do a quick display of the WIP of the Spellsinger/weaver that is mounted upon it.

I took the spellweaver I had painted a while back and converted it to work with the leggings of a spare Wild Rider I had to fit on the Unicorn.

Anyway - here are the WIP shots:

From the Hobby Desk 3 - Spellsinger on a Unicorn WIP

In order to finish out my summer project, I saved the conversion of the Spellsinger on a Unicorn for last.  I had originally wanted to get the metal version of this model but ended up buying 3 of the Reaper BONES version because they were 3 bucks each.  Anyway, this model came with a bit of a learning curve as you have to properly prepare it before painting.

P3 Primer really is the best option as it will stick to the model without making it tacky.  Anyway - I made a critical mistake while painting this model as I did not use Rakarth Flesh (or P3 Menoth White Base) as the basecoat but rather Celestial Grey.  It made the model a bit darker in the recesses than I had originally planned but that's how things go.

I also waffled on the mane color, I had wanted to do a dark red with bright red highlights but ended up going with blue to match my Sisters of Thorn models.

Anyway - WIP pics:

From the Hobby Desk part 2 - Waywatchers, Lords and Battle Standard Bearer touch ups!

Been a great weekend for painting, was able to devote a lot more time to repainting/touching up my metal Waywatchers and characters in the army.  Still not 100% finished with them but I feel pretty good about having them on the field.

After touching up their robes and clothing, I wanted to make these three look different than the others so I painted their cloaks brown.

Before:

After:

Here are a few more images of what I was able to accomplish this weekend:

And finally, I started to work on my Unicorn mounted Spellsinger.

From the Hobby Desk - Waywatchers, Treemen Ancients and Unicorns oh my!

Thought I would give a brief work in progress update on what I have been working on in the past week.
I know that I posted a few images of my current paint jobs with the red background that managed to wash everything in a sheen of pink, so as a result I will be retaking several of those photos with a blue or black background to see if I can get better images.

That said I decided to update my waywatchers I painted well over 6 years ago. I am currently only 50% done as I have only really updated one color on them (green) but I hope to get better "fleshed" out skin tones and make them look far more dynamic.

Before:

After:

Before

After

Treeman Ancient - WIP.
So I have a few things I may end up doing to this guy after a night's reflection.  But for the most part he's done because I based him (that's generally my - F it i'm done signal).

And finally we have the remaining models to complete/update before OFCC and we can call 4,000 points of freshly updated and painted Wood Elves done!  And no, I still haven't assembled/converted my spellsinger/weaver on a unicorn yet.  Soon, shush.

Dornatha the Verdant Rage - Army Showcase

Here is the Treeman I painted only now in a light room.

The Seer Council of Atylwyth, the Winter Heart - Sisters of Thorn Army Showcase

Here is a unit of 8 sisters I painted up for when I finally finish my spellsingers/weaver on a unicorn/mount for my other list.

The Outriders of Twilight, Huntsmen of Kurnous - Army Showcase

Here are the Wild Riders of Kurnous I painted up.  I also did another unit of 6 in case I happen to play another list of mine.

The Spears of Loren, Aegis of the Dreamsinger - Army Showcase

Here are the Eternal Guard of Wyndrioth, the Pine Crags.