Strange things are a-foot on the hobby bench...

Hey everyone,

You know, sometimes life throws you a curve ball and you find yourself on your ass in the batter's box being laughed at by the hometown crowd. When you feel like you're left with nothing left, you've got to pour yourself into to the things you love.

Today, we get to see my most current hobby project:

... you guessed it... I'm scratch building a warhound titan from the ground up (and that's 14" clock base). These feet took me about an hour to cut and another hour and one half to fabricate. They're looking good if I don't say so myself...

If there's anyone out there interested, I'm willing to post the templates I'm using as I go along. Post a comment to this post and I'll get that process moving! Tonight and over the course of the weekend I am hoping to get at least the lower legs and knees together. If I'm really motivated, you might even be seeing this bad boy from foot to hip by Monday.

Anyone who has ever built one of the fine Forge World titan knows that one of the most difficult building (but aesthetically rewarding) aspects of the kit are the dreaded pistons. This home built god-machine is going to be no different. I have an order of plastic tubing (1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8") on order from the good folks at www.hobbylinc.com (a great online company with a huge variety of traditional model kits and supplies of all stripes) and can't wait to get down to fabricating!

Finally... I'm taking suggestions for names for titan mk.I. The current working designation is The Dirge of Perdition. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, drop me a comment!

Until the next post,

Cheers,

Ben.

Blood for the Blood God

Alright kids,

Here we are again today with another hobby blog update. Today we're going to look at my most current ongoing project, my World Eater chaos Space Marines! This army is being built according to Codex: Blood Angels and will be, in theory, a rapid assault force built around dreadnaughts, assault squads, and drop pods. These guys are my favorite of the traitor legions (followed by the Iron Warriors at a clsoe second) and are a project I hope to one day expand enough to throw down in an Apocolypse game. Wouldn't that be grand?

As many of you are already aware, the best camera I have availible to me is built into my phone... so getting quality photos right now is a bit of an affair. That being said, here are some of the better shots I was able to capture of my force commander and a single member of his honor squad.

First up is my primary HQ, the wonderful Lord Zhufor availible from Forge World (http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/KHORNE-WORLD-EATERS-TERMINATOR-LORD-ZHUFOR.html)...

Rounding it off today is a member of his honor squad. This guy sees me combining Games Workshop's classic Berserker kit with the impressive Forge World impressive World Eaters Conversion Set and throwing in a bucket of blood for good measure (http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/_WORLD-EATERS-CONVERSION-SET.html).

Well, that's all for today. Keep the eye out for more in the coming days.

Cheers,

Ben

New day, old photos

Hey all,

To continue with the theme, I'm posting some more old photos of my work as I work on getting photos of my newer projects. Unfortunately as the best camera I have is in my cell phone, it's a slow trial-and-error process.

As many of you may have noticed (and as I have often espoused) my favorite things to paint come from Games Workshop's various 'chaos' lines. This is very, very true. Contrary to popular opinion however, I enjoy painting a wide variety of models from a variety of different companies. As such, today's first blog post (I'm planning two today) features some of my favorite Privateer Press painting moments. Enjoy!

First up is one of the first commission pieces I ever did. It's a Troll Blood "Dire Troll" I did for a wonderful bloke named Blake. This predates my career with Games Workshop by a few years.... so that puts it back a little...

Next up is another Troll Blood model. It's been so long that I - unfortunately- don't remember the exact name of the model... but I like it anyway ;)

Third up is another Privateer Press figure, a Cryx warcaster by the name of Skarre 'the pirate queen'

Rounding off the Privateer Press tour today is another warcaster from Privateer Press and one of my favorite models from that line...

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! That's right, our journey back in time is not yet finished! Here's a mumak I painted for the old Games Workshop hobby center in Danvers, MA! It was one of the first projects assigned to me in that shop and is another model that has a special little place in my heart.

and finally... because I can't resist living up to my stereotype... here's a Marauder hero I painted in up with my friend Jake Hanson in mind. For those who are unaware, Jake is an actual blood descendent of Erik 'the Blood Axe' who is featured in more than one Norse saga. Talk about inspiration ...

Thanks for checking the blog out today! I'm looking to get some picture of my World Eaters up tonight, so keep the eye out! Till then...

Cheers!

Name: Benjamin Johns

Location: Parts unknown

New Year's Resolution: restart the hobby blog

Press statement:

To my valued fans,

I know my presence on blogspot has been nonexistant over the last 10 months, but times they are a'changin'. As a New Year's Resolution I am planning to exert more effort on my hobby and my hobby blog, so expect to see more action here over the course of the next week weeks. As with before, I'm going to be posting some snaps of my older work while I work on getting shots of my more recent work. That being said, let's get on with the show...

Today's theme is Chaos...

Let's start out with a little dandy I painted up for the Glen Burnie Bunker (R.I.P) before GD Baltimore 2009...

This is one of the better Games Day models I can remember and it was a blast to paint. It still holds a little special place in my heart.

Next up is one of my favorite Forge World models of all time. Orginally a renegade psyker, this one currently fulfills the role of a Lore of Death Sorcerer in my Warriors of Chaos Army. He also sits atop my Chaos Warshrine (hopefully I'll be able to post some pics of that in the next few days!)...

Next up are some of Marauder horsemen. These are some of my favorite sculpts in the line... which explains my four units! Unfortunately, there are only three of them here as the standard and other flanker were still being painted at the time these pictures were taken. Again, hopefully I'll be able to throw one up in the next few days.


flanking marauder 1:

The musician:

the champion:

Finally, the artillery everyone loves to hate, the Hellcannon. I painted this one up sometime in the middle of 2011. I wanted to see how it would look without the giant skull bitz... I was pleasantly surprised with results. Said bitz were used in the conversion of Battlefleet Gothic Despoiler battleship (another picture for another day ;).

That's all for now. Expect more in the next few days!

Ben