RIP Iain M Banks

It was with a great sadness that I learned on sunday of the passing of Iain M Banks one of my favourite writers. Below are a selction of photos of when I met him and his obituary in The Times on Monday 10th of June.

This was taken back in 2006 at Eastercon where I'd gone to meet some of the guys from the Iain Banks Forum, David Haddock, the one with the beard 3 in from the left had invited TMH down to have a drink with us. He sat and chatted with his fan club for over an hour and bought us all a drink saying it was the least he could do after we'd all given him so much of our money over the years and yes there was a bit of a fight over who got to keep the written order.

I'm not sure where the plushie Cuthul came from.

And these are from the 2nd time I met TMH this was at a signing tour for Surface Detail and for someone that didn't like doing that side of the job he was a great turn, funny sharp and witty, admittedly it was an easy crowd but everyone had a great night and he even accepted my rather wierd request to get the stuffed dog in the photos as I'd asked my youngest if it was okay to take him along and she was at the age when that was a funny idea and not embaressing

And some links to follow to better writers than I am http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/10108884/Iain-Banks.html http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2013/06/iain-banks-with-or-without-m.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22780003 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22838993

Nephilim Jetfighter For both the Lions Blades and Y Geiriadur

So I won a Nephilim Jetfighter on ebay the last weekend and it arrived at my hole during the week. Here's a picture of my Nephilim Jetfighter and my dodgy left knee before the project started

It turns out I given the last of my black spray paint to my student friend so I asked her if she had any more and I ended up with a can of blackboard paint. With the spray coat of black board paint and the canopy unpainted, dorsal and ventral views.

These next 2 photos show it after I gave a coat of Abbadon black and then added the red highlights to the edges to tie it in with Y Geiriadur, it doesn't show up to well but I had dry brushed the engines and sensors with Bolt gun metal and dry brushed the mechanicum symbols with the old metalic bronze. I was thinking of adding some screaming skull to the engine cowl which I'll layer on a couple of washes of nuln oil.

This was a test piece to see which looked better the engine cowl or the recessed wing plate and as you can read it didn't go down to well;

A N~ looks botched.. but thats just my opinion, your tones are way too bright

A N~ and thin that paint..

P P P~ Will be adding a nuln oil wash before i'm saying it is done.

N S~ Perhaps do the entire bottom in screaming skull with the nulin oil wash to replicate the attempt to make aircraft hard to see from ground. leave the top black with some sort of grey wash to make it a touch faded. Gun metal dry brush on top to bring out edges. Just my noob opinion. I like the black/red/white color scheme. But from the top, it may end up looking like the Atlanta Falcon's emblem.

P P P ~ Well already got t'other engine cowl done and washed t'other one, also done the control surfaces on the tail wings with screaming skull. I think I'd do the underside Khark Stone and then wash that with nuln oil. Bit darker

F B II~ The flat nature of this model on the wings makes it suck to paint. Mine doesn't look even due to no dilution either. I like the color, but think it would look cool with the cowl and the wing in that skull. Just leave the wing emblem black? I like it though..

A ventral view of the Jetfighter showing what I'd done underneth it

Top view of the finished Nephilim Jet Fighter. The dry brushed bolt gun I edged it with is not showing up to well

Shoulder To The Wheel

So after nearly 3 weeks off from blogging I'm back with a post! Hi miss me? Notice I was gone? Thought not... Anyway shoulder is back to the wheel and I'm grinding on with my Chaos army, top is my 2nd bike squadron, while checking the Y Geiriadur album I have on the Dark Angel facebook page I noticed that I hadn't actually got of photo of the first squadron or the 2 Marine Squads either so need to update those as well,one squad of Chosen, these used to be a senior assault squad in the Lions Blades who 1 battle held up a squad of Genestealers and I made them into the squad below, and used the bodies to makethese guys, this squad has been given 4 plasma pistols and one has a flamer, all with Veteran of the Long War rule. Also 2 of my Obliterator Conversions, green stuffed there upper bodies to give them a coat and shoulder pads, these guys came from ebay and had already had the guns converted and I have a metal Bonehead that will also be used in this squad.

My upgraded Company Vets, took the swords off what have now become the Chosen for Y Geiriadur and given them to 5 robed bodies I had in my carry case. The Sgt has a double lenght chain blade, this is a new one I made for him from 2 Chaos chain swords, next is 2 standard chain swords just glued together, 3rd is to standard chain sword glued back to back, 4th is an ork chopper fitted to a chain axe haft and the 5th is a chain saw that I found in a bitz box. All bar 2 have a secondary weapon as well and will bw goin through my sword collection to find a couple of blades that will look good on these guys. The shields are fro a Tomb King bag I picked up on ebay that I really need to go threw properly painted up in The Lions Blades 3rd Company colours, the middle mini has a shield on his back already so didn't get one, when possibly these will count as Storm Shields when points allow.

Bus Mans Holiday

Sorry, sort of, to announce that I'm away for a week supporting a client on holiday to Spain. If you read that and think party time, I don't see it all I'm looking at is 6 14 hour days with a 2am finish a week today. Them my holiday starts. So see you all again a week tomorrow, maybe Faeit212 will be back up by then.

Y Geiriadur Terminators

So been able to get a few bits and pieces done on the Y Geiriadur last week, I've been slowly green stuffing armour on the legs of the Mordor Trolls and also the hands, so i can hide the fact that they aren't human hands. I also painted the terminators that I won on ebay last week, which was a shame ass they where very well painted, it was an act of shear vandilism and I went and did it anyway.

So some time later I finished the 5 Terminators off black with red highlights. Although going back to the Index Astartes that shows Great Crusade era Dark Agnels with white colouration not red, but I have seen the Rouge Trader page that shows them with red high lights, and I know I'm not alone in doing GC Dark Angels with a red stripe.

Lord Saeh, Fallen Angel

So i made a start on my Fallen Angel Lord the other day, first thing I'd painted in nearly a month, crap my daughter has been living with me for a month now! Yes my life is different now as not only do I now have my 20 year old daughter living with me I have here 2 cats as well.

So top photo shows the bits seperate as I painted them. I've armed Saeh with a combi-plasma and the Dimensional Key, so no that is not a mace it's the Dimensional Key and the Watcher In The Dark is actaully a Co0mbat Fimillar as I have to loose a weapon to take the Key that allows all my Deep Striking Units to not scatter, but only after he kills someone in close combat.

So I've also added the old Rouge Trader red stripe for Vetrean status to add a touch of colour to the mini and I also added some red to the detail on the sword on my combat fimillar.

And a close up of the little guy himself, I base coated him black then dry brushed him with Karhak Stone, Ushabati Bone then a coat of Screaming skull, before adding the red detailing you can see above. I have also done the Havoc and Marine squad but don't have a photo yet, and I am adding green stuff by the ounce to the 2 Mordor Trolls to make them look more armoured, photos to come.

On The Table

So after some more ebuying I can field 4 squadss of 10 PDF's with a bit of fetling I can put 2 squads of Marines on the table for back bone. Elites are filled with 2 Mutilators, a squad of Chosen made up for Gun Slinging and a squad of 5 Termimators. Heavy Support comes from a Predator that will also be used for The Lions Blades, a squad of 5 Autocannon Havocs and a unit of 3 Obliterators. So far Fast Attack is the only section of the army without a full complement of options as I only have 2 bike squads of 4 bikers, I'm looking for a flyer that I can use as a counts as Helldrake.