++++INLOADING DATAFILE 029++++ Update on why I've not posted anything for a while...

Rather than type out a long thing no one will bother to read I'll simply say that I've been extremely busy working two jobs recently.  I just got promoted to the manager slot at work so things should calm down a bit over the next few weeks.  More CSM stuff to come.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 028++++ Another article soon.

Sorry for the parcity of posts, I decided that I needed to organize and sort all my bits into seperate containers by type.  As I have two bits trunks, yes not boxes but full trunks, this is taking a bit longer than I had originally intended.  I'll see if I can't finish it out tonight, and I'm also reserving my copy of dark vengeance tonight.  Simply wow on those models, especially the chaos ones.  If anyone wants to sell their spare chaos guys I'll take them off your hands, just saying...

Sadly I now feel showed up.  I was so proud of my dark apostle and now GW creates evil incarnate in a set of minis.  So I'm going to see if I can't dark vengeance-icise him and my next truescale.  Oh well, it's nice to have a new challenge.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 027++++ True Scale Dark Apostle

LOOK AT ALL HIS MAJESTY!!!

Ok, jokes aside I'm super proud of how this guy has turned out. A week or so ago I deleted all of the games from my computer, I actually zeroed out the partition that had them. Its tough when something becomes an addiction to quit cold turkey, but I did what I had to. And now one week later I've got a job in my chosen profession and I've churned this guy out in my free time. Funny how that works.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 026++++ Interceptor 1 (Suggestions requested...

Ok quick post tonight.  For a long time I've wanted to convert a high tech aerospace fighter that fits into the same family of vehicles design theme wise as all other space marine flyers.  The problem of course being that I could never actually come up with a working and feasible design.  This caused me no end of stress as when my muse can't figure something out it gets angry.

So tonight was one of my muse possession nights, the kind where I suddenly know how to make something and have a physical NEED to make it.  After 5 hours of doing my conversion savant thing without anything approaching a plan this is what I've come up with:

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 025++++ Where Do We Stand, Where Do We Go 1

Taking a page out of some other blogger's books, this is the first of my hopefully monthly "state of the blog" posts, where I'll recap stuff and talk about upcoming projects.  Skip down to the pictures if you want to skip my excuses.

The first thing you'll note is that I've been rather scarce for the last few months.  That's because ever since I got back from Iraq I've been going pretty high steam with work, a 3 week training exercise, school for 3 months, and another 3 week exercise. I'm now back from my last annual training for the year ('Why would you have more than one "Annual" Training event a year Jon' you ask?  I don't know I just do what they tell me.), and now for the first time in 7 months I have a genuine overabundance of free time.  Now that the final one is done I'm effectively free of the National Guard for the next 7 weeks, so lets get do some converting shall we!

While I was in Kentucky for training I had a chance to see an old friend's collection of minis for sale, included in them was this:

Rogue Trader Era Predator Destructor

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 024++++ How to make a Chaos Heretic

Are you a devoted servant of the Dark Gods?  Do you wish that you could sacrifice legions of pathetic mortals on a whim?  Well now you can!!!  Hey everyone Jon from The Autoforge here with a big treat, a tutorial on how to convert Dawn of War 2 style Chaos Heretics.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 023++++ True Scale mkII CSM test model WIP

Finally an update!!! Sorry for the dearth of activity here for the last few months, I'm finally at the end of my vocational school so I was able to devote some time to mini-work this weekend. So without any further ado.......

Here's my test model for the truescale Word Bearers to accompany my Chaos heretics.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 022++++ Why no updates?

So I know I've been afk for a while, quick rundowns of why. I've just spent two weeks finishing my post deployment training with the national guard, been in school full time, had to make up for missing a week of shook or the national guard, and gone to a bodybuilding competition (My other hobby, was cheering on a friend).

Now things are starting to settle back down an I should finally have time for modelin projects. Things to be in the lookout for:

-more chaos heretics and truescale marines
-a converted war altar for my empire
-some conversion bits for space marines.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 021++++ Empire early test results

First off sorry for no posts of late. I've had little time to devote to modeling since working a crappy 60+ hour a week job and now going to school. Things are settling down here agaij though so more posts upcoming. Ok now for the actual post. I've been playing empire for the last two years and I've enjoyed them a lot in 8th, they were a great army. They were of course a lot of units which were not viable, largely from being too expensive and just from how things changed in 8th. Now we have a new book and after my first three games with it I can't help but feel that we are considerably weaker now for it. So here's a quick pros and cons review. The negatives can be summed up as: -Everything is more expensive save characters. While its great that my priests cos 25 points less and are better it's not creat that virtually everything else in the book costs 1-2 points more. I pointed up my old 2400 point list, it's 2850 now... -Key things were nerfed, and I don't mean the steam tanks. Mortars are worse and more expensive. The cost the same and are the same strength as the no save catapult skaven have. -Detachments are mostly worse. With the one exception of detachment sharing special rules with their parent unit the system is even less effective then it was before. Oh and no more support charges. The good: -heros are way better, hold the line is great and priests are amazing now. -flagellants are better, and no unit cap. -witch hunters are back an great. I have snipered a vampire lord to death do far, it was great. -the rare war machines actually work now. So how does the army fight? So far empire seems to have all it's old issues of weak units, just those units are now considerably over costed. So far I've found that my units no longer hand the force to actually win fights, I'll keep practicing and see what I come up with, perhaps I can mak these guys work.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 020++++ 4 days to Templecon

First off, sorry for the lack of updates of late.  Between starting a new job and prepping for Templecon I have had to put most of my projects on hold for the moment.

We are currently at T minus 4 days and counting down quick till Templecon kicks off.  I'm going to be playing in the two day fantasy Grand tournament, its been ten years since I last played in a GT (And yes I'm only 26.) so this should be a blast.  The one downside is that all armies must be fully painted (3 color standard), so I have 4 days to fit in getting 130 models up to standard!!!  So far I'm on track to get it done, and I'll probably post some pictures as I go.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 019++++ WIP Upcoming project

So here is an in progress first look at an upcoming project I'm doing for a company.  This guy is just the test model so far, actually he's the first 100% sculpted from scratch model that I've done in about two years, coming along pretty well so far.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 018++++ WIP Chaos Ogryns

Ok just a small update for now, I'd like to say that I've been busy for the last week but in truth I've just been playing a real lot of Shogun 2, Holy Crap is that an addictive strategy game!!!  Very challenging as well, though multiplayer play makes it WAY harder still as the comp is often dumb with its battle tactics.

That aside, here is a sneak peak at my upcoming chaos ogryns for my Lost and the Damned army.  

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 017++++ Khemrian Giant Conversion

Ok, here is a teaser for an upcoming article I'll be doing for Bell of Lost Souls about my Khemrian Giant conversion.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 016++++ Work In Progress: True Scale Chaos Lord

Here is the chaos lord that I'm working on for my traitor guard army. He'll be used with Straken's rules, given that straken is just about the exact same thing as a 3.5 edition Chaos Lord with a dark blade, combi-plasma, and daemonic Aura. Legion affiliation will be word bearers, but I haven't gotten around to putting any iconography on him.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 015++++ Chaos Heretics 2

Ok, so now that a few weeks have gone by I've finally managed to finish the first twenty heretics for my new traitor IG army.  They are split about half and half between close combat oriented and shooting oriented dudes.

The main new things of note at this stage are:
1. I've started putting rebreathers on about half of them.  Its actually an easy sculpting step and it dramatically increases the number of heads that I can use, as all I really need are the eyes.
2. As I don't like the poses of the chaos renegade militia weapon arms I did a repose on just about all of them.  So an entirely excessive amount of pinning later my guys look like they actually have some idea how to hold their weapons.

Ok, with no further ado I give you, the first twenty:

Trying something new, if you want to see them up close and from different angles, click here and check out the full gallery: https://picasaweb.google.com/115029223285315018333/TheFirstTwenty

As always comments are welcome.