Monday, May 30, 2011

Line Breaker update (2)

Hello all,

well, not much I can show you, as the rules for the contest don't allow it.

Nevertheless, here you can see (not) the completed base as well as the first piece on it :)

And this is the rest that still needs to be painted...


Unfortunately I had promised my wife earlier this year, to renovate my hobby room exactly last week - which completely messed up my schedule for the competition.
But, here it is :)
My new airbrush area


and my new display area



Well, tonight is the final evening to paint things up :(

I won't be able to get everything finished, so it will be only 90% painted, but I think the model(s) itself will be "kick ass" and help me get at least some votes *fingerscrossed*


I will let you know when the vote is up so you can see all the entries (and guess which is mine)

Cheers

Klaus

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Line Breaker update

Hello,

as mentioned I'm participating in the Line Breaker competition and am not allowed to post any WIP's.
But to still show you some progress, I decided to show the mess on my desk *snikker*
This was the status on Thursday

Friday was even worse

Then on Saturday things got better, but first I had to make a million of rivets...

...and then I worked on the base.


And as of last night my desk looks like this:


So, the build phase is officially over and it's time for priming :)

I'm still pretty much on schedule, but my entry is big with lots of painting. Plenty of room for "effects", but I'm not sure if there's enough time, as my wife gave me a pretty busy schedule for next week *sigh*

I hope you like my rather uncommon update :)

Cheers


Klaus

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Radio Check, over

Thank you all!

Well, as mentioned I'm working on my entry for the Line Breaker Contest at WIP and to maintain anonymity for the voting (avoiding any unfair advantage due to reputation or personal feelings) the build must be conducted under complete "radio silence"...

But, since I don't want my readership to forget about me, I decided to conduct a weekly quick radio check, letting you know I'm still alive and working hard.

Here you can see how hard I work :)
My working area is a complete mess (the entry is hiding behind the folded desk lamp), but I'm about 45% through the build - wooohee! In time!
Cheers
Klaus

Friday, May 6, 2011

Stylish Blogger Award?



Thanks to Chris aka Admiral Drax I'm pleased to note that my blog has been nominated as 'stylish' – never thought it could be stylish but I’m proud never the less –
Thank You!
When I first saw this award cropping up in the blogger sphere I thought of it as a chain mail virus, but hey, The Stylish Blogger Award is like a pat on the back from one of your peers for a job well done.
So I’m more than happy to accept it and “carry the torch” to my peers.

There are four 'rules':

-- Thank and link back to the person giving you the award (see above)
-- Share seven things about yourself
-- Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
-- Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

Seven things about me? Let’s see if I can find anything interesting…

1.) I was born in 1965 and my favorite album is “Crimson Idol” by WASP.
2.) After school I started an apprenticeship as photographer, but I never completed it. From 1984 to 1994 I worked for the US Army in Germany as “maneuver instructor” of the locally stationed Armored Brigade, working in the local training area and on the firing ranges with MILES – Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System.
4.) While I was working for the US Army I took correspondence courses studying graphic design and graduated as a graphic designer. Since then, (17 years!) I work for a software company in the marketing department leading a team of 19 talents spamming the business world with our newsletters and emails.
5.) During my Army and early marketing years I did a lot of airbrushing and was pretty successful. I was commissioned for airbrush wall paintings (i.e. in Jeans Shops), painted helmets, and even some advertisement and packaging artworks. In the late 90’s I gave it all up and just now I start to pick the airbrush back up.
6.) Before getting into the 40K and miniature hobby I used to play a tactical wargame called ASL – Advanced Squad Leader – a WWII wargame with extremely nice hexagon grid maps, cardboard counters, very detailed and complicated rules for almost 20 years.
7.) Even though I build and paint a lot of 40K stuff, I never played one match :)
And that’s why my blog only contains stuff about the building and painting, but never playing.

Now that you know a bit about me, let me tell you a bit about the blogs I enjoy.
Well, actually my blog subscription list contains 196 blogs, from ++From the Warp++ to “Yours in a White Wine Sauce”!
Since part of the award is to nominate other blogs for the award I initially went through my subscription list, and ended up with 28 excellent blogs, but I'm going to choose just 15 other blogs (in alphabetical order) that I think really deserve the award.

Definitely top deserver and outside of ANY ranking is From the Warp – Ron Saikowski’s network of blogs. We all remember how shocked we were when he announced the temporary pause of FTW – I’m mighty glad he’s back :)
But now, the real list:
1. Guardsman Guide to Glory – GunGraves modeling blog with Elysians, Kriegs, and even ‘Nids.
2. Admiral Drax – Even though Chris already received the award and was the one nominating Dei Greci I think he is an integral part of my daily reads :)
3. All things 40K – Great minis and a lot of Step-by-step painting.
4. Bestienmeister – Chris is a stunning painter – ‘nuff said!
5. Col. Gravis Praetorians – Praetorians, self sculpted Pith helmets and Praetorian Orgryns!
6. Corvus Miniatures – not stricktly 40K, but superb – I also follow him on Facebook
7. Dante’s Inferno – Excellent sculpts and painting can’t get enough studying his work.
8. Dave Taylor Miniatures – Nothing I need to say :)
9. Excommunicate Traitoris – Karitas’ WIPs and Tutorials are an absolute must
10. John’s Toy Soldiers – A real gentleman with a broad spectrum of interests and a respected author.
11. Les Bursley’s Blog – Awesome Paint Job – the name is program.
12. Massive Voodoo – The Jungle Crew! Check out their site and study all their material – come back when you close your yaws ;-)
13. Mordian 7th – Adeptus Mechanicus!
14. Painting Mum – Ana’s bilingual blog is a true source of inspiration
15. Trulls Fantastische Welten – a German blog – probably the best terrain builder around!

Obviously there are a lot more blogs that do deserve the award and the attention, but my list is already too long…however... I really HAVE to mention HEROES OF ARMAGEDDON! The collaborative army build charity drawing supporting Doctors Without Borders!

Again, thanks for the award and I’m gladly passing the torch to you guys.
Cheers
Klaus

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Nighthawk (10) and "Line Breaker Contest"

Hello guys,
thanks for your feedback :)

@Marcin:


Hello Marcin,
thanks for taking your time digging through all of my
brabbeling :)
I hope you can enjoy it and find some pieces inspirational to
you.
In regards to the STRIX, yes it has many parents - main inspiration was
the Bf 110 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bf110)
and Me 210 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_210),
but also the AR-240 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_240)
and the A-26 Invader (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_A-26_Invader)
had their share.
Cheers
Klaus
Well, in the meantime I did a bit of painting - even though not as much as I hoped.



Here the base colors for the coveralls, leather jacket, webbing ect are applied.






And this is as far as I got.


First highlights on the webbing, fur, coveralls and the leather.






Actually I'm pretty pleased with the look so far.

Unfortunately for this project, but very fortunate for me, my favourite forum
WORK IN PROGRESS is having another competition:






+++++ BARRAGE INCOMING +++++

New ‘Line Breaker’ competition.

The new competition to keep all you conversion, scratch building and gaming addicts
active this Spring is this – Line Breakers and Bunker Busters.

A fairly open brief on this competition to allow entries from all games and all levels.
We want to see your finest spearhead to break through the enemy's defensive
lines. Everything designed for routing enemy positions regardless of game
system, from bombards and sappers to siege engines and battering rams.

We will accept conversions, scratchbuilds or straight out of the box
builds in any scale. Any race/army accepted and encouraged and any rules system!



Since the competitions at WIP are really anonymus I won't be able to post any updates and progress images of it.

But I'm really excited - I think I have a cool idea and am working on the concept right now. It will be quite a bit of work, but I hope a lot of fun :)

So please bear with me and accept my appologies for the scheduled "radio silence" while I work on my LINE BREAKER entry.

Cheers

Klaus