This Winter Season just heated up a little

 Okay so I've been a bit sketchy with the updates this year and while I'd like to say its because I'm busy (working, socialising, watching films, getting ideas for minis and dealing with problems at work and home whenever they pop their ugly heads up), I'm afraid it's simply down to lack of time and effort to paint stuff and then post it online. The run up to Christmas doesn't help much on the hobby front either but what else can you do? That said there has been some progress as well as a new acquisition, which doesn't seem to help with the massive pile of projects that I'm still trying to work through.

First off some finished stuff of which there isn't a lot to show.

My Captain Likane mini who I teased a bit in my last update along with some fluff on the guy.

Captain Likane

"You are a leader, Aeonid Thiel. Two thousand Ultramarines stand ready to head your command, I am one of them. Lead us. We won't stand idle while Macragge and Ultramar are threatened. So, we shall all be Red Marked."

Duty. Honour. Respect. These were the tenets that were held by many Legionaries of the XIIIth Legion, none more so than Captain Likane. A veteran of the Great Crusade and later the Underworld War, Likane was an officer of umcomprimising strictness and harsh discipline. As the commander of Oran Garrison, he commanded a force of 2000 Ultramarines who were mustered and kept at readiness for whatever orders to be given by their Primarch. Initially seeing Aeonid Thiel and by extension the Red Marked as a source of shame, unfitting to wear the Cobalt Blue and Gold, events would later show him the error of his ways. From then on, out of respect and a need to take action, the captain volunteered the troops under his command to become members of Thiel's fledgling force. 

 Part of me wishes that he was more dynamic, but then again he's only featured in one audio drama, so I originally didn't think he'd be very active. I tried to carve a bit of the chin from the head to represent his bionic jaw, but I don't think it looks very bionic.

 Apart from his legs and the helmet which are Forgeworld parts, he's made entirely from GW plastic parts. His helmet was my favourite part to paint along with the markings on his knee and shoulder pads.

 While I do wish that I had some pics of my converted FW Praetor model, unfortunately he seems to have come down with a consistent white rash. Basically when I finished painting him and my Slaaneshi Pitfighter conversion I sprayed them both with GW's Purity Seal varnish. After leaving them both for half an hour to dry, I came back to see to my horror that the varnish had frosted over the detail on both minis. This was less than ideal as the paiting competition for the pitfighter model was the next day and didn't want to pull an all-nighter repainting him. After a brief panic, I checked online to see if there was any way I could salvage both models and found an article advising the use of olive oil. Needless to say it worked well enough on both models, however there are still some areas on the Praetor model that are being stubborn and I haven't gotten round to fixing him yet (that and we also ran out of olive oil the next day :S).

And now onto the stuff that's currently taking up more space on my painting desk.

Tau Fireblade

 I've had this guy sitting in my bitzbox half built for over a year and originally bought him as an experimental piece. While he isn't finished yet I am definitely enjoying the change from constantly painting power armoured or even human miniatures.

Tech Priest and Runt Herder

 Again these are models that I've had for a while and decided they both needed some sprucing up. The techpriest mini needed an entire repaint as well as some conversion work to make him stand out. While the Runt Herder deserved to be given a bigger base to make him stand out more from his Grots.

And last but certainly note least the thing that I've been most excited to work through. It's Blood Bowl!!

Oh bugger...

Truth be told I was never a big fan of this game when I first got into the hobby, but after playing a test game against another newbie last week, it's definitely made me excited to play some more. Also being a former player and fan of American Football, this seemed like a logical step. "Why didn't it before?" I hear you ask.

An unconverted Orc Lineman and a simple headswapped Human Lineman (the first of many to come)

 At this time I've managed to convert most of the Orc Team as well as some of the Human Team (I grown to despise duplicate models amongst a unit, so it shouldn't be any different with my Blood Bowl Teams) and I'm hoping to get them painted before Christmas just in time for my girlfriend's brother and I to maybe have a game or two. This should hopefully be enough practice for my local GW's Winter Challenge Cup in January.