Happy New Year 2013

So this blog has been running almost a year now and hobbywise it has been a pretty good year. I managed to paint almost 150 miniatures and I maganed to buy "only" a  wee bit above 350 miniatures. I did not play many games with any of them, but that is ok.

I have taken a bit of a different approach to painting this year. Instead of trying to paint complete armies or projects to showcase I have chosen to paint whatever I felt like and I think it paid off. I have painted a lot and it ended up being a big bunch of strange and wonderful models.

 All the miniatures I painted this year! Except a few I painted for a friend.

 

Most of these models have been featured on my blog during the year. I think the only ones which hasn't appeared previously is the Fantasy Warriors, which I painted before I started the blog, and the Pirates, which I might post next year, when I have painted a few more.

I don't really know where to go from here, but I will probably continue painting a lot of random stuff during 2014. I have made a long list of projects I would like to finish or continue with, I would especially like to finish some miniatures for stuff like Space Hulk, Blood Bowl or other miniture board games. There should be a good chance of completing such a project and get a few games played.

Less red then suspected,

All in all I am pretty satisfied with my hobby year. I have painted a lot, I have collected a lot of out of print and rare models, I have tracked down a lot of obscure and unknown stuff from long gone miniature companies and I have actually managed to play a few games now and then too.

But like most years I do hope to play a bit more in the next, but I have come to realize for myself that what is most important for me right now is the collecting, trading and painting part of the hobby and if I play some games that is also great (of course), but if I never get to play a game again I can still enjoy the hobby as a collector and painter.

Happy New Years from Deathworld Adventures! See you in 2014!

Bloodletters of Khorne

Before the end of this year I managed to finish a bunch of old school Bloodletters. I was lucky to get these really cheap on Ebay. They already had an ok paintjob, so I decided to give them a touch up on their old paintjob instead of stripping and re-painting. In the end I went pretty far on the touch up and it almost feels like I painted them from basecoat, but I guess the previous paintjob saved me some time and I also used it as a guideline for the looks I wanted.

I think they ended up looking really good and old school!

I chose to base them on round bases since I bought them for my World Eaters forces and if I ever chose to use them for Fantasy gaming I will probably be using them in skirmish and not in ranked up Warhammer style.

Blood for the Blood God!

Skulls for the Skull Throne!

My combined painted World Eaters of Khorne forces.

Even though I never planned to do a larger army for this project it looks like my forces are growing anyway. Next up is an old Bloodthirster, some Chaos Terminators and I have a Chaos Dreadnought too. This will make up a pretty good World Eaters skirmish force and who knows, maybe I run into some more minitures to bulk out the project in years to come.

To end off this post I add a picture from before and after my re-paint. I think they are much better now, but judge for yourself.

Before: Straight from Ebay!

After: Straight from Hell!

Kim Arashikage, Code Name: Jinx (G.I. Joe Project)

I decided on painting Jinx red after all. I am sure most people know her like that and I think I will be most happy about this in the long run anyway.

Showdown at the Arashikage temple.

The first time Jinx appears in the G.I. Joe comic books is in issue #59 in 1987, at first she wears a white ninja suit, but her looks is not really consistant for a long time, sometimes she has long hair, sometimes short, sometimes she wears a hood, sometimes not and sometimes she is also just in civilian clothes.

The first time Jinx is wearing her red ninja suit is on the cover of #91 in 1989, this is also the first time she is wearing a pointy hood. But inside the comic she doesn't have the pointy hood yet, but she is dressed in red.

Finally in #111 in 1991 she looks like the first carnation of her action figure; red ninja suit and the pointy hood. The action figure had been around since 1987, so it is kind of strange that it took so long for the comic book to adapt, but I guess it is not that important.

All this time she is mainly still using swords, so I think my choice of giving her a sword was a good idea. She is also using an uzi in issue #111, but I doubt that many people connect her with such a weapon.

So what we have at this point (in the comic) is Jinx in her red ninja suit and pointy hood, Storm Shadow is wearing white with camo and Billy has taken over Storm Shadows old suit. Snake Eyes is of course still wearing black and Scarlett is back to wearing her old costume after she had been jumping around in a white ninja suit for some time (mostly unhooded, but sometimes with hood).

Then there is still Firefly who is revealed to be the Faceless Master in a later issue, that is fine, but I will paint him in his old style. I doubt that I want Slice, Dice, Nightcreepers or the Ninja Squad, but I guess time will tell.

Down to the last renegade ninja.

So far I am pleased with how Jinx and the Arashikage ninjas turned out. I might need to go back and do a little work on the left eye on Jinx or other minor touch ups, but I am happy about my painting and converting on these models.

And once again I have run out of G.I. Joe miniatures, so hopefully I will get some more during Christmas and if that fails I will buy a couple to paint in January.

Kim Arashikage WIP (G.I. Joe Project)

So my G.I. Joe adventures continue. I was so lucky to get a couple of Hasslefree miniatures as an early Christmas gift from my wife.

The miniatures I got was Oko, which I wanted to turn into Kim Arashikage, codename Jinx and I got Oakley, who obviously is Ash from the Evil Dead movies. I don't know what Ash will be used for, but for now I found a use for his spare katana.

My converted Jinx size up well with the Perry Miniatures ninjas.

A katana had to do when I didn't have a nakinata.

Comparison shot of the original vs. my converted model.

The photo seems to have been taken from a not so good angle, I actually think my conversion work on the hood looks better in real life. But I have no doubt that once painted red no one will doubt who she is.

Maybe I will try and do a black dragon on her chest, but I can't promise that it will be good.

Tyranid Zoats

So it was time to paint me some Zoats... What can I say about the Zoats? I guess they are kind of a strange race, but I guess most of the Rogue Trader stuff is kind of strange, so they fit in fine with the setting. I have been wanting some Zoats for some time and this year I decided to do something about it and so I managed to get 5 Zoats fairly cheap from Ebay.

In the Rogue Trader days the Zoats were a Tyranid slave race created for war. Apparently they usually would roam around in groups of 4 sporting weapons like bolters and heavy bolters. But since they were allowed same equipment and weapons as Tyranids, they could also wear power armour, use gravitons, conversion beamers or whatever stuff you can think of from the Rogue Trader days.

When GW made some Zoat models I guess Tyranids were already becoming something else and so the models were equipped with more bio engineered weapons, but the fleshborers still kind of looked like bolters, the missile launcher looked pretty funky and the leader was equipped with power glove and a flamer which looked like a mix of the fleshborers and an imperial flamer.

My combined Tyranid forces so far!

So when I painted my Zoats I decided to give them a look of semi bio enginered and tech equipment. It will not really work perfect with the never Tyranid background, but I think it will work fine with Rogue Trader weirdness and still be fine with my Hunter-Slayers. So the weapons was painted red, to look semi organic and tie the Zoats in with my Hunter-Slayers and I still decided to paint some metal parts on the flamer, missile launcher, power glove and armour. I also decided to do the hazard stripes on the flamer, it might be kind of silly, but I think it ended up looking good and when the organic weapons already looked a bit like bolters and flamers then why wouldn't they also mimic the hazard stripes?

Ready to go to war.

I am not planning to do a complete Tyranid force for later 40K gaming, but I have acquired 8 more Hunter-Slayers which I will paint and I have a bunch of the old plastic Tyranid Warriors, which I will probably paint at some point, so I guess that some day I might have enough Tyranids for more than just small skirmish games.

I don't really count the Genestealers as part of the Tyranid army, but if needed I have 24 painted Genestealers and a Patriarch, so they could reinforce an army too. So that almost concludes my Tyranid adentures...

I just got one more thing to hunt down! I would REALLY like to have the Proto Tyranid to lead my forces, but so far I have not managed to get one.

What a beast!

Arashikage Ninjas (G.I. Joe Project)

I guess it was just a matter of time before I would start a G.I. Joe project. As a kid my favourite toys was always G.I. Joe (or Action Force, as it was called in Denmark to begin with). I still love G.I. Joe and I still have a pretty large collection of the toys and I have bought the re-released comic books.

The most exciting characters for me was and is the ninjas and during the original run of the comic they kind of took over a lot of the stories. So it was natural for me to start there and I have had some ninjas lying around for a couple of years now.

So to start off I painted some Perry Miniatures ninjas as Arashikage ninjas. The red mercenary ninjas which most of the time work for Cobra, sometimes through Storm Shadown, other times through Firefly and so forth.

Perry Ninjas painted as Arashikage.

I converted one of them to have an uzi, since they are modern ninjas and often are seen pictured with uzi throughout the stories they participate in.

Scarlet, Jinx and Snake Eyes encounter the red ninjas.

The first time they appear is in the classic silent story, where they work for Storm Shadow. But up against Snake Eyes they don't stand a chance.

That is all the models I have for now, but hopefully I will get some more for Christmas or else I will buy some more next year.

So far I have plans for Firefly. Originally he was not a ninja, but in the later stories he turns out to be the Faceless Master, an outsider who was allowed to study the arts with the Arashikage clan.

I think the RAFM USX Modern Ronin is perfect for Firefly. I have seen others use him too and since that model has an uzi too it fits well with the saboteur past of Firefly.

RAFM USX Modern Ronin

Then I will need a Storm Shadow. I don't know yet what side he will be on, but the classic set up would make him a Cobra ninja. Which of course is not really correct all the time, but I guess that is what most people think of him.

I think the Reaper Dragon Clan Ninja will be a good Storm Shadow. But I guess almost any ninja painted white would do fine. But I consider painting him in one of his later camo ninja suits.

  

Another ninja I will need is Kim Arashikage, code name Jinx. She is most famously pictured as a red ninja and it would fit well with her Arashikage heritage.

 

I had a kind of hard time finding a female ninja with the hood on, but eventually I decided that Oko from Hasslefree would be great for the job.

Hasslefree Oko

I will probably try and sculpt a bit on the hood, to make it pointy like in the comic book. And i might consider painting her white, since that is how she looks the first time we meet her or I could go with the bold Tiger Force green and orange.

Of course I will also need a Snake Eyes, but so far I have not found a model I like. I know about the Reaper one, but he is no good for me.

I would really want the old classic looks.

I guess it should be possible to find a model, but no luck so far, so I am open to suggestions.