The Elder Diary: #20150202
More than half a year later since last "diary update", but from now on I'll try to post more updates at least monthly (if I don't finish any painting/modelling project, that is).
The main update is the following photo of how's my progress with the Imperial Knight:
As you can see, excepting the base and decals, main body is finished. I also have already painted the shoulder pads and currently working on the arms. With some luck I'll have it ready for decals soon (and probably tackle one of my modelling projects, which without painting I don't even feel like showing here). It's been a huge amount of work, especially because the crappy Citadel gold paint mix has "separated" and before painting it needs heavy re-mixing and around 4-5 layers until it looks like real gold (and this painting over a silver layer, else needs even more layers!). I'll probably try Vallejo's equivalent of gold for the future, now I'm so near the end I don't want to change color and have more problems. I've also given highlights to blues, some silver parts and to the gold (using silver) and it definetly shines and looks way better. Combining with the washes, despite my poor painting things look way better :)
Apart from that, and due to the recent addition to the family of a young golden retriever dog, my sleep cycle and free time is quite chaotic now, so I'm focusing on either playing Diablo III or Hearthstone from the laptop near the dog, or reading books.
Whenever I can escape a bit to the "workshop room" I'm either painting or trying to finish assembling Deadzone miniatures, as I finally received wave 3 shipment and still have (quite a few) minis to assemble from the two earlier shipments. Definetly one of the best kickstarter projects I've backed regarding price/content ratio... lots of minis (5 factions + zombies), lots of scenery, lots of extras...
I also have pending buying some powerful white lights to improve the room's lighting for photos, currently is ok for painting but far from adequate for photos.
So, let's hope I come again soon with some cool photos!
Book Review: Priests of Mars
Priests of Mars is the first book in a recent trilogy about an Adeptus Mechanicus search of an old magos, Telok, who seems found some ancient marvel but was considered lost. A Rogue Trader has a device that can pinpoint the last known location of the magos, so an expedition of cog servants, Cadian imperial guard troops and Black Templars space marines sets sail to find it, with a small fleet of spaceships led by the Speranza, an ancient and valued Ark Mechanicus type vessel.
I had never read much about the Adeptus Mechanicus except some basic lore and some mentions other books do to them, so I'm quite pleased to find they are quite interesting indeed. I know understand the desire of people for Games Workshop (or should I say Forge World?) to bring them as a full Warhammer 40,000 army, they are a dark version of the classic sci-fi cyborg, mixed in the grim scenario of the 41st millennium.
The book is well written, showcases multiple character groups (humans, mechanicus, space marines, even xenos), the pacing is good and thrilling, and although of couse the story halts with a nice cliffhanger, it hook me enough to already have started reading the second book. Definetly recommended for WH40k fans.
Tags: Books Warhammer 40000
Book Review: The Book of Blood
The Book of Blood is an anthology/compilation of a black & white comic, a novella and four short stories, all themed around the Blood Angels Space Marines chapter.
I had the book forgotten in a shelve, because after reading the comic I wasn't specially enjoying the Space Hulk novella. As I ended up reading it alone, I recently decided to finish the book.
The results are that the comic is the best piece, then the short stories vary. This is my first reading about the Blood Angels specific lore, "vampirism" and the black rage, so while is interesting to see the differences from Dark Angels and Ultramarines (of whom I've read a few books) on most stories it feels like too exagerated, as if the bloodlust or the rage was terrible, while I had an image of some crazed marines but the rest more normal.
Not bad but I'm not impressed either... and as I said, the best part is the comic.
Tags: Books Comic Book Warhammer 40000
The inspiration for Astra Militarum's Taurox
When I saw Warhammer 40,000 Astra Militarum's Taurox vehicle I thought it was a custom mix half-buggy half-tank thought from scratch...
But it looks it's based on the MRAP concept (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle):
Of course it has tank tracks instead of wheels, and MARPs are not just one specific design but a grouping of similar armoured anti-explosive vehicles (at the Wikipedia link there are a dozen more photos), but the similarities are abundant.
Tags: Warhammer 40000
Warhammer Visions Decadence
I wrote my thoughts after a few WH Visions numbers a while ago. It wasn't too good but as we are nearing a year of issues and there are some rumors of no more numbers after 2014 (due to the failure it has been), here's how it has become even less valuable from my point of view.
First, is a mostly a showcase of "trending miniatures". Example: If you don't like Dark Eldar, you're going to get minimum 1/3 of the magazine dedicated to them. Although there are always different topic sections, throwing away sometimes half of the pages because "is not your army" is not very appealing. And as there is no lore text, you're probably not going to start an army only by looking at the paint jobs. The tactic of bombarding once an again during a month with all the new minis doesn't works on me at least.
All official articles have too many minis. Games Workshop seems to want us to only play at Apocalypse scale, because now you see dozens of vehicles and usually no less than 30 miniatures per photo (excepting close ups and the like). Battles have gone insane, like with the Dark Eldar bomber... it is somewhat cool, but really showing 3 of them plus other flyers as a detachment? Or around 30 wracks, when a box is only 5 models? Or probably around 100 tyranids each time they appear?
It is also a tactic so that we see the need of having bigger and bigger armies "like WD guys have", but I kind of miss the old, less packed photographs, so many models distract me and I don't give as much attention to the details as I did in the past, when I could stare at each photo for minutes appreciating everything.
The best painted miniatures are no longer the White Dwarf or Heavy Metal team ones. I didn't like at first the Parade Ground section too much, always displaying winners and honour mentions instead of "also non winners", but now they are usually the best painted ones. Probably due to having to paint so many minis for so many photos, quality is uneven, and, despite doing too much mud watering/painting, Forge World photographs are also quite cool. White Dwarf ones have cool illumination and backgrounds but... They are no longer the coolest guys in town, it looks like "mass pro painting" instead of "awesome painting" (still years ahead of my painting skills, of course).
Same happens with conversions... The only conversions you see are Kit Bash articles and Parade Ground ones. GW has like forbidden showing converted minis, so no imagination, no creativity, only different color schemes. And half of the Kit Bash articles are too basic or uninteresting.
Blanchitsu is unclear of authorship. John Blanche is a great illustrator, a cool miniatures creator, but come on, I don't even remember the last time the minis showcased at his section were from him. Most minis are from other people, and while they are really really cool there's only a small text fragment saying the name of the real author. I don't like the misleading look of the section, as if all were from him.
The "how many nurgle chaos lord conversions in this issue?" joke is too much already. The same mini appears at every single issue, in all sorts of cool, normal and crappy conversions and/or paint jobs. It gets really tiring to see it once and again. While is a good mini (I have one in fact) it really annoys so much lack of variety.
So, counting with the not precisely cheap price, the too narrow content variety of each issue and the complaints I've put... I'd recommend at the very minimum to peek an isue before buying it.
Let's see if WH Visions survives this winter.
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