Goon #1 reporting for duty

The Company decided I was obviously spending too much time at home and sent me to Nottingham for the night. Oh well, at least I got to do a spot of painting. I know Nottingham has a reputation for a great nightlife (I did once live there, briefly) but once you've checked into a hotel, rustled up some food and realised what time you have to be up in the morning to attend that meeting where everyone's going to blame you for what's gone wrong (I hate you Department of Homeland Security!), you don't really feel like going out. Anyhow, this is what I got done:



I've only done two so far, but I'm really pleased with how these Fists are coming out. I think the Vomit Brown shading is working really well. It's much easier to paint that those damn black lines too. Willard Foxton disagrees, however, saying, "Personally, I really liked the stark contrast". Personally, I really bloody hated painting it. Andrew Taylor reckons Will's entirely wrong. I'll leave those who've seen both parties' painted models to decide who's right in this case.

Anyway, I played a game of fifth edition 40k using the brand new Space Marine codex (thanks Nic!) against Paul the RoboJew (part man, part machine, ALL JEW) and his Imperial Guard Storm Troopers. Despite some Hellhound problems, my mighty Fists rocked home to victory, with Captain Taelos and his command squad working their way through several units. The new apothecary rules make command squads so much tougher, with Taelos and Morlock shrugging off quantities of wounds that would have felled whole squads of Fists previously (they felt NO pain!). They're pricey, but quite frankly Taelos and Morlock need all the help they can get to survive a game.

To Me, Loyal Goons!

The sergeant of Squad 1 may be complete, but what kind of leader would he be without a crew of loyal henchmen to carry out his every whim? These chaps will get painted as soon as I get round to it (those with Action Man Eagle eyes will note that I've started shading a few of these already). Soon they'll be pilfering wallets and scrumping for apples with the best of them.









Note the unnecessary, pretentious touches, like marine with hawk, marine with bionic leg stolen from a Necron warrior (healthcare is SO expensive these days) and marine in mk4 armour with giant flashlight.










These goons include squad leader / 2nd in command, sniper rifle and special weapon operator. I figure that if in the new marine codex all marines with boltguns also have bolt pistols, then the marines with plasma guns must also have plasma pistols, right? The GT judges will allow that, right? Right?














And they all ride to battle in the giant yellow fun bus. The black stuff at the front is additional stowage / equipment. Those who've seen my tanks before will know my insatiable thirst for stowage. Unfortunately I'm starting to run out of the Tamiya Modern US army equipment sprues. Does anyone have any?

I still need to do a Plasma Cannon for these boys. And I will, just a soon as I think of an unnecessary conversion for him. Probably involving huge amounts of protection for when his gun explodes, attempting to kill him. And I do mean WHEN, not IF.

I may be slack, but I have painted some toys

I've been far too slack about this whole blog thing, so here are some new pictures - A new Imperial Fist Sergeant for the new 2008 Codex: Space Marines and the fifth edition of Warhammer 40,000.


The main differences between what will be a new army and the previous one are:

• I'm using Vomit Brown instead of Chaos Black to shade, which gives a more subtle effect (and is much easier to paint)


• I'm putting much more detail on the bases to gimmick them up a notch (I blame Andrew and Nicola for this)


• More conversions and gimmicks. Continuing the theme of my abortive Ultramarine army, I'm going with the 'Every Space Marine is a hero' idea, so each model should have something unique about him, such as a silly bolter, some bionics etc.

I've already painted a Terminator squad (painted whilst in California - thanks to Tyler, Eric, Paul and Matt at GW Stoneridge Mall, Dublin for putting up with me!), but the first of the new Tactical Marines is here. Apparently this is a US only model available via a website offer, so ultra-rare here in the UK. Which is nice. Paul at GW Stoneridge gave me this for helping him and Matt out with some terrain - Ben Brooks would be proud, it's all his tips. Incidentally, Stoneridge Paul is one of the angriest men I've ever met (although he had just had his wisdom teeth removed) and does tell a good story. If you happen to be passing, ask him about the 'Nurgle's Birthday' story.

Over here...

Several people have asked me over the last few weeks when I'm coming home. Right now, I'm planning on coming home in a week's time. But I've been saying that for the last 4 weeks... And I'd quite like to come home! Not least to see my girlfriend Laura.

On the other hand, I am writing this from beside a pool under a brilliant blue sky and sun in the California Bay Area. So it's not all bad.

Anyhow, today I visited the biggest classic car show on the West Coast, the Good Guys Car Show. Not an event that Greenpeace are likely to attend - I've never seen so many V8's in one place before. I can still here the burbling of supercharged hot rods from here - no, really! The cars ranged from the cool to the ridiculous. The Good Guys is generally a club for anything pre 1957 - hot rods and customs that whilst cool, unfortunately don't mean an awful lot to me (all those pre-war Fords and Studebakers look the same to me). Thank God they snuck some muscle cars in.

There were also a few examples of British Automotive history. There what looked liked a lovely old Austin Healy, until the owner proudly informed me he'd butchered it by shoe-horning a big blog Chevy motor under the bonnet. Sorry, hood. Also present was a genuine Filton bult, Bristol Motor Vehicles double decker bus. No idea how that got there - the organisers appeared to be using it as some kind of control vehicle.

Anyway, nobody wants to hear about obscure buses - on with the hot rods...

Start off with some of the newer ones:

The 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T.

A 1932 Ford Coupe. Apparently this vehicle has been modifed from the original.

I think this is (was) a Studebaker.

This is an awesome 1937 Cord Supercharged 812 - compulsory driving for a 1930s villain. Although James Bond drives one in the book version of 'Live and Let Die'.

A little out of place here, a Freightliner conversion with Dodge flatbed and cabin. This is basically a Big Rig Tractor with a cabin mounted where the trailer would normally mount. You know a vehicle is too big when Americans exclaim, "Wow, that thing's big!" As you can see, this thing is so ridiculous that a small boy is fleeing in terror from it...

Tomorrow I'm off to exchange my Mitsubishi Spyder for a much more manly Ford Mustang Convertable. Review to follow.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

In a shameless piece of copying, I've decided to start posting random odds and ends on a blog, dropping my two pennies into the Great Pit of Carkoon that is the internet. Maybe those random odds and ends will spend a thousand years digesting. As the title suggests, it'll probably become a repository of all things geeky, whether toy, cartoon or automotive related.

'Umbrella Graveyard' is the name of Mr Ben Brooks' emo-blog, from which I've drawn my inspiration/ruthlessly stolen the idea of. Except that mine will be much less emo (blogs are automatically a bit emo). Years ago Ben used to be my manager (before I started working for 'The Company'), but I like to think our relationship is now closer to one of equals. Or at least when I do something ethically ambiguous now, he doesn't have to consider sacking me. This was all back at what Jefferson 'A-Bomb' McDeath, Urban Destruction, Lord of the End Times used to euphemistically refer to as 'The Art Shop'. At least that's what he used to call it around women. In reality it was more a Games and Hobby Store / Daycare Centre / Nerd Cave (delete as applicable).

But I digress. I need a place to divert that pent up buffoonery when it all becomes too much pretending to be a sensible engineer during the day job. And I don't think it does much for career prospects capering, hooting and tooting through Project Hall 1.