Ten Years on...

I have been working on items of the Titan project all day, namely things that need to be moulded and cast as there are multiples. These include the hydraulics rams, toes and toe joints. I will likely also cast a copy of the crew once I finish the sculpts of the moderatii and consoles.

However there comes a point where after nearly 12 hours of measuring, cutting, sanding, glueing and checking plastic card/rod/tube where you need a break...

So I decided that I needed a little taste of the retro...

Casting my eye across the DVD Shelf I realized that a movie was not in order, so I then cast my eye across the CD shelf and something caught my eye. As you probably guessed from the snazzy picture at the start of this post that something was in fact Homeworld. Furthermore, I realised that it is in fact ten years this month that Homeworld was released.

For those of you unfamiliar with the gem of RTS history then check this handy link [SPOILER WARNING!!]

What made this game great? Well there was a rich compelling story that combined with a brilliant 3D engine, for its time, innovative approach to RTS gameplay (omnidirectional movement in space combat), a well chosen musical score and well scripted cutscenes rounded out a game that to this day is enjoyable.

For those who have never played it I recommend you try it out, for those that have played it maybe it is time to dust off an old fave...

Oh btw it will run without patches on a XP SP3 machine, but you will need a soundcard (as it repeatedly glitches when attempting to use built in sound from the mo-bo).

Photos coming soon on the progress made for the ever looming Apoc tourney... And on top of that some damn fool got himself seduced into entering Golden Demon...... so watch this space.

just a little peak at the base.

Quick Commissions

Sometimes you need a little something to break the tedium of painting and sculpting, something you have not done in a while.
For me it came this last week in the form of a quick little commission from a gamer at the FLGS.
More particularly they wanted me to colour match some minis to an already painted army that he did not paint himself.

OK so it took a little experimentation but in the end I nailed it. Happy client, more minis on the way from him (actually about another 8 to be precise).

here are a few quick snaps of the first cab off the ranks. His Defiler for his Chaos renegades force. I do apologize for the photo quality, these were hastily snapped at the FLGS before the client headed home with it. If you want a closer look the larger sized pics can be found in my Deviant Art Account Galleries, as I try to keep file sizes and load time down for my fellow bloggers.

The Front

The Back

Left Side

Right Side

From the top down

So this lifted my spirits a bit, sometimes you just need a break from one thing for a while to another.

Secret Business Complete!

Ok so I teased you the other day with a WIP shot of some secret business. Photographed below is the end result.

What is it you ask?

A combination 6x3.5 foot gaming table and single bed, with deep drawers underneath to store terrain.

The change from table to bed is enacted by two 1/4" bolts on each leg and wing nuts. they are prevented from moving by the runners for the drawers.

It is a little bit taller than a coffee table, the perfect height for pnp, and also makes it easy for wargaming to kick back and relax, as I have always found that games at the FLGS tedious because you have to stand at the tables for endless hours when gaming. It is not that I am lazy, standing at tables is great for tournaments but for relaxed afternoon games on a weekend there has to be some compromise in table height to accommodate the inevitable chairs around the table.

All in all very functional, and handy to have. It should encourage me to both play games more often when the lads come over, and give me some incentive to finish the terrain I have unassembled in the cupboard!

Enjoy all, and if anyone is interested I can whip up some CAD of this right quick if anyone wants to make there own.

Secret Men's Business

Generally during you holidays you would say take a bit of time off, me not so much. I have been a little lax in my posting since the holidays started. Still there are a few good things going on at the DSM homebase.

Firstly I got a new glass display cabinet for the sculpting room (although it often gets reffered to as "the Man Cave"!). I haven't finished filling it but this pic was snapped in mid December so there are a few more finished minis in there now.

Another important event that recently occurred was the rebuilding of the front hubs in the ol' Cruiser (affectionately referred to as the Battle Bus). We did the wheel bearings, king pin bearings, seals in the ends of the axles and the felts in the swivel housings. It was hot sweaty word but it was worth it cause now you can't smell swivel housing grease after a drive to the FLGS. The only advice I can offer about this is make sure you have two people doing the job, one of whom has done it before. I got the Old Man to give us a hand, and it took us about six hours to do both sides.

I started another project, it is super secret and you can see a WIP shot below. I will have this done in the next day or so (up to the painting part atm). Can you guess what it is?

The "Dude a Day Challenge" I set myself was successful, I manage to paint 42 points worth of minis in December around all the other stuff that went on. I even got my Ironclad Dread conversion painted for his birthday (Boxing Day).

I also have got in some time working on a pst for Ron over at FTW, I have a few chems to wet test and a bit of typing and it should be read to wing its way to him.

Lastly as a quick tip, when buying timber to make anything make sure you plan ahead! Don't get half into a job and discover you are short because you didn't CAD up the job beforehand (Like I usually would).

Cheers All

and a Happy belated New Year

Subby

Hazzah! Email back online.

Well from my last post you all would know that my email account got hacked. Well Microsoft managed to pry it open like an Ork with a power-claw peels open a tank. So it is all fixed again, however for those who want to commission work from me be aware that I am not taking commissions until after I do three things.

1) Update Sub's Underground. It has been far too long and I have to add the links to the shop which is being built.

2) Organise the Shop. I.e. finish the first run of products and do some casting. Plus finish registering and building the secure shop.

3) Organise another secure email account For commissions. I will still take single miniature commissions when I get the shop up and running, but it will not be a constant thing.

I realise that most of those reading this will think, commissions, wtf?

Brisbane locals who I have done work for will already know the low-down.

You may wonder to yourself, "what will this store sell?" Well not resin bases. Firstly there are too many people out there who are both members of FTW and better base designers than me making resin bases. If you are looking for good bases I can recommend you check out the List of stores on FTW. My personal picks of the bunch (in no particular order), are Dragon Forge, Secret Weapon Miniatures and for Aussies who want to pay a little less shipping, Back2Bas-ix.

As to what I will have, mostly 28mm scale generic conversion stuff. Things that enable you, the

modeller, to build cooler conversions by giving you a wider range of bits.

I will also do limited runs of 28mm scale miniatures in resin, yeah I know you are thinking "how limited?"

If they sell well enough I will likely do white metal versions with slight changes to the sculpts/more options on the sprue. Some of these miniatures may come with resin bases, as needs suit, but generally they will come with generic plastic bases (if I can find a good source of plastics).

So basically that is all the news. without further ado I give you two pics of some minis I did a while ago (found these while cleaning my hard-drive to determine if it was a virus or trojan that lead to

email fail)

A Kroot/Chaos Hound Conversion (can you pick the reference?)

And the Masque of Slaanesh I painted for the Chaos Daemons Dex Launch Painting Comp

although for some reason the masque pic is resized by the blogger software sigh!

Cheers

Subby

The Supply Chain Consists of...

People...

What's point am I getting at? (*gasp* someone making a point!)

Ok so I commented a while back on FTW that we do Group Forgeworld Orders fairly regularly. Very cool and whatnot, and we have a group of guys getting cool figures to play with locally and spread the fun around.

Anyhow Last week we did an order and we got enough to get free express shipping, I shopped on Thursday 15th around 7pm Local time (Brisbane), which means they actually got the Order at FW Thursday AM UK time. I figured the usual couple of week wait would be in order so you can imagine my surprise and joy of getting home Tuesday arvo from the Day Job and had a nice big box waiting for me. I unpacked it and checked off that each kit was there, they were except for my Weathering Powder set (which I threw in to try), which was on back order. It wasn't until the next night when one of the guys came over to pick up his stuff that we decided to go through and check each kit to see if all the parts were there.

Stonecrusher Carnifex Complete Kit - check

Stone Crusher Upgrade pack - check

DKK Leman Russ Alpha Complete Kit - check

2x MkIV Red Scorps V-Dreads, with 2x MkIV Assault Drills + Multi-meltas - check

GK Tank Commander and Redeemer Upgrade pack - check

Valkyrie Transfers - check

IA Books - check

IA masterclass - check

Khorne Daemon Prince and Herald - ch........

Wait a minute where the zog are the Herald's arms and head?

SAD PANDA!

Indeed they were missing!

So I sent of a couple of emails to customer service, nicely worded and with a copy of the order attached with a clear description of what exactly was missing and a note that it could easily be added to my Powders when they shipped to save them a little bit of dosh.

What do you notice here?

1) I did not get aggravated/irate or belligerent.

2) I stated clearly and concisely what was missing and provided as much information as I could.

3) I thanked them for their time and congratulated them on their great service (which is true)

Within 24 hours I got a response from them saying that they have sorted everything out and the parts will be winging my way very soon.

What we often forget as customers is that we can determine how we are treated based on how we treat those on the other side of the increasingly virtual counter. We can wail and gnash our teeth as much as we like, but in the end if we treat people well it automatically brings the disposition of those we are dealing with onto our side of the fence.

At the end of the day we are all human beings and we can make mistakes.

However; for those staff whose shop I am in and they are too busy on the phone to their best friends' cousins' friend (or whoever) to serve customers I have a clear message. I will take my money somewhere else. For people who would rather let their childish ego's get in the way of doing their job right and cost the company time/money; Shame on You! Grow the hell up!

(both based on true events)

So hoist a glass to the lad's at Forgeworld customer service and think of "Armless" Andy the Herald of Sleepy Hollow (geddit?), who is getting shiny new body parts.

In other Miniature related news, I got a sneak peak at the QLD entries for the OZ Golden Daemons tonight. I think the lads may have a tough time tomorrow picking the top three in some of the categories to go off to the finals.

until next time

Cheers

Subby