Golden Bat Summer 2012 results and why I didn't post for a month

     So trying to focus back into hobby mode right now, just finished up my quick review of Dark Vengeance and started checking out a few forums that I frequent. I remembered the Golden Bat Summer 2012 over on Carpe Noctem has come to a close and the winners have been announced. My Death Korps of Krieg Demolisher took first place in the 40k master painting catagory! There were only a few contestants for the 40k section though, but hey a win is still pretty nice. Here is a pic to recap if you haven't seen it here a hundred times already.

     So I've been quite busy with real life stuff lately and thought I would share a bit of it here. I am quite proud of what I have accomplished so please bear with me or just skip on to the next post. Some of you know I am in the restaurant business, which consumes most of my time. The little free time I get I spend either studying my schoolwork or focusing on my hobby. Lately I've been building a bar in my restaurant. It's been an amazing experience! I was a little nervous at first since I've never built something so big or permanent before. And quite honestly without experience you just never know what surprises wait for you once you get started. Here are some photos.

      Here is my framework being lined up. My counter tops are also being cut to size, planed and sanded. This was an all night project, just Belle and myself. We assembled the frames the morning prior while closed and had everything ready to go. Once we closed at 11pm we started.

      The holes took about 6 hours to be drilled into the concrete, here I am pounding the anchors into the holes. We also planned about an inch off of one of the counter tops. Unfortunately we didn't have time for a lot of WIP photos. Sleep deprivation didn't help us remember the camera either.

     Here is a photo taken last night. The first beer to be poured at the bar, Lost Abbey Deliverance. My personal favorite beer and the beer that got us into craft beer to begin with. It seemed fitting that we should drink one to start the bar off right.

     I just took this photo about two hours ago. Here we are in the morning light. Nice reflection from the liquid glass coat over the counter tops. Those are solid by the way, each weighing a few hundred pounds. The whole bar comes to 21 feet and has ten seats. It's still going to need a foot rest, I am thinking of running a pipe out of the ground on each end and across the middle for it.
     Well there it is, tonight will be the first time it's open to our customers. I know they've been anxiously awaiting it so it should be a good night.

Dark Vengeance part 1

     Hello all, it's been a while since my last post, but I'm still here. Just busy with life, leaving very little time for the hobby. A couple of weeks ago my pre-ordered Dark Vengeance Limited box set arrived at my local GW store. I finally found the time to pick it up last Saturday. From all the reviews I've seen I knew the models would be pretty nice and after opening it up I think nice is a bit of an understatement. The models are fantastic! So here is my quick unboxing review on the set and after I assemble, clean and primer I'll hopefully find time to update again. Then perhaps I'll paint them, even though I haven't touched my Trollbloods yet. :(

 Here is the box cover

 The box contents together.

 The reason most people are interested in this box; super thin rulebook.

 All of the basics for a game of 40k, rulers, dice (with scatter die) and blast templates. Also pictured are the bases for the miniatures.

 The miniature sprues! I won't go into detail since there are many reviews out there already. You get four sprues for the regular Dark Vengeance and one extra little sprue for the limited edition.

 The limited edition model. Very worth it in my opinion. This model like all of the models in this box is cast at a very high quality of detail.

 The paperwork! You get a fancy small rulebook, a quick start guide, an assembly guide, a couple reference sheets and a special rules card for the limited edition model.
 
     Well that concludes my 'unboxing.' I believe most of the models are snap fit, so assembly should be a piece of cake. Just sifting through the sprues I can also tell that there are very few mold lines and so far no mis-cast parts that I can see. This is quite a high quality set, I am impressed.