Salamander Holsters Greenstuff WiP

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! It has been a crazy week here, there have been massive floods with roads being washed away and what not. I actually had to spend a fair amount of time bailing out the basement which had flooded. I needed a break today so I decided to get some hobby work done as a bit of a reward to myself. I am pressing on with my Legio XVIII Salamanders force so with the upheaval in the house I started with a bit of organization, then moved on to washing/cleaning resin goodies for 2 20-man Tactical Squads, and finally decided that I needed a whole bunch of holsters for the Marines (each has a Bolter and Bolt Pistol). I know Forge World makes special resin holsters for the Horus Heresy but I wanted Salamander looking Bolt Pistol Holsters! So I set off to work out some Salamander looking Holsters which I could then duplicate across the whole force. I decided that I wanted holsters that have: fire, drake looking stuff, and scales; here is the first steps on some fire holsters:

After the first layer dried I went in and added a little more in certain areas to help build up the flames a bit (it is hard to tell but it did help the flames raise up a bit):

Here is a group shot of the others I did up as well:

A couple of shots from the sides:

 These were really hard to take pictures of because they are so freaking tiny!

I am not even remotely good at greenstuff work but I think these turned out fairly well and definitely have that Salamander's feel. It was time at that point to break out the Instant Mold (for previous use see here) and make some press molds:

After the greenstuff dried I popped them out of the press mold where I found that some worked well and a couple did not (no big deal):

Here is one of them that I quickly got cleaned up before real life called again:

Here is the workbench with the first of the Salamander 20 man Tactical Squads waiting to be assembled now that I have an unlimited supply of Salamander Holsters:

Yes indeed Vulkan is watching over the assembly of his Legion! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!

Into the Fires......Vulkan Strides to War

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!!! Well there has been some talk of a big Horus Heresy event taking place in January at the Memphis World of Battle (GW HQ for the US) and I am seriously thinking about going. I have been bitten by the Heresy-bug lately and it would be awesome to get some Horus Heresy gaming going here in the states. Myself and Mordian 7th went to England last year to do some Heresy gaming with the Tempus Fugitives gaming group and that was a lot of fun but it would be awesome to get the same thing going here stateside. To really motivate me while I wait for the second Black Library Horus Heresy book (with the Salamanders inside) to become available I decided to put together the big guy himself......Vulkan!

The miniature is a Legendarion Miniature from the Ukraine. It was a bit of a struggle to get the miniature but I think it was well worth the slight trouble. The miniature came as several pieces all of which were made from dense hard resin. There were very few mold lines to deal with and overall the miniature went together like a dream. Here is a shot of the various pieces:

Here are several shots from various angles showing off the detail on the miniature (of which there is a lot):

Now for some close-up shots:

Love the Gauntlet of the Forge:

 The Spear of Vulkan:

A shot of the face of Vulkan:

 Shoulder Pad A:

 Shoulder Pad B:

To show the rough scale of the miniature I grabbed the closet miniature I had available. After a little propping up of the 'normal' miniature (to bring the feet level with Vulkan's) here is the scale shot:

I got this miniature awhile ago and have been waiting to put it together. I am sure the Forgeworld version of Vulkan will be stunning and I will have to buy it when it comes out but for now this version of Vulkan will do quite well. I can't wait to get some paint on this guy but the weather has been a little to hot and humid to do any spraying so Vulkan will have to wait a little longer for some paint. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. This is will be a fun journey, come along as I bring Legio XVIII to life!

GenCon 2013: Phat Loot

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!!! It is time to wrap up my coverage of GenCon 2013 with a brief look at some of the stuff I brought home from the convention. One of my main reasons for attending GenCon every year is to visit the Dealer's Exhibit Hall. I try to prepare my wallet for the experience every year but every year my wallet feels the pain. Oh so many shiny gaming things I never knew about but must have! There are a couple of Vendors that I look for every year and at this point they recognize me and we have a nice little chat while I am at their booth. I did purchase a few items not shown here that were gifts which have already gone to their new homes. Here is what I ended up with:


The Forgeworld booth (Mk2b Land Raider, Salamander Dred, Sevrin Loth Librarian in Mk IV armor):

Black Library Booth (getting ready for Heresy Salamanders):

The Shadowrun Booth after the 100 minute wait in line (not shown are a Rulebook and card sets):

The Mercs Minis Booth which had all sorts of new stuff (and awesome people to help me):

Above you will see the new FCC House 4 minis, Mercs Token Set (much needed), 7th Member Printed Cards (much needed), and the special GenCon only release of the Texico Eagle Assault Trooper. The GenCon only version of the Texico Eagle has clear resin smoke from his jetpack which is a cool look. All in all I spent about 45 minutes talking with the Mercs folks and of course spending money, funny how nice people can get when they want your money.

I also made it to the Wargames Factory Booth and spent some time talking with the nice folks there. A few years ago I found out that they have a headquarters in a small town not to far from here making us practically neighbors. On top of the local company side of things they are really nice people so I had to stop by and see what new things they had to offer me..........Apocalypse Survivors!!!!

 30 male and 30 female survivors for $18.00 each box, what a deal!

I had a chance to attend Tracy and Laura Hickman's Killer Breakfast and was actually awarded a prize in a random drawing (a little more involved than that, there was a game show and this was the prize) which was an autographed copy of Tracy Hickman's new novel 'Wayne of Gotham':

I stopped by another of my favorite/must see booths which happens to be a Gaming Map Dealer named Maps of Mystery. There is a running joke with my friends that I have a Map buying compulsion which I most certainly do not have! I do love gaming maps though and figure you can never have enough but I could stop buying maps at anytime.......

You will notice in the above picture I managed to pick up a copy of the Infinity Quick Start Rules. I picked these up during a painting class I took which was sponsored by the Infinity game. The painting class was interesting, basically I learned that I am painting in the correct way after all I just need to practice a bit more.

Finally my good friend Mordian 7th picked up the new phase 3 releases for X-Wing from Fantasy Flight Games. That was an awesome gesture which will make our X-Wing games even more fun! Thanks Mordian 7th!

That is the lot, not to bad after all and I somehow managed to fit it all in the luggage coming home. I am looking forward to reading the Heresy Salamander books and trying out the new ships in X-Wing. The Mercs Mini stuff (7th member cards and tokens) will be a huge help in future games. The Apocalypse Survivors will be used as part of a Christmas Gift for a very good friend that is in love with Zombie Survivor games but doesn't have any survivor miniatures to use. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!