Author: Joe B

Cool Tools: Feedly – Feed Reader Review

Published by Joe B

Today I bring a review of a non-hobby product, but one I use every day to keep up with my favorite blogs: FeedlyÂ – an awesome feed reader. This free tools pulls in the latest posts from all the blogs I follow and keeps track of which articles haven’t been read – which saves me a bunch of time from opening each site up just to see if anything is new. What are RSS Feeds The magic behind feed readers is tech almost as dated as emails: Rich Site Summary, or just RSS. Blogs use RSS to publish a simple text descriptor of each post and push it into a feed that other sites can subscribe to. Many sites include the icon like the screen shot below which has become the universal icon for RSS. The link itself will often take you to a page full of text that isn’t very pretty, but others, such as this blog’s feed atÂ https://www.brokenpaintbrush.com/feed/rss/Â use tools to help you subscribe using feed readers. What a Feed Reader Does Back in the …

Making Some Updates – Why and Whats Next

Published by Joe B

For you loyal readers, you may notice that things have been cleaned up here on Broken Paintbrush. The Why Since I haven’t been able to put paint to brush for a few weeks (or a few more weeks to come) I have been thinking of what’s the point of this site – a sort of personal retrospection. I started this blog nearly 6 years ago to showcase my growing Iron Warriors army, and while I haven’t posted consistently (only 210 posts over those 6 years),Â I have been trying to improve the quality with each iteration. This year I have been working on the userÂ experience on the site – loading time, quality pictures, and page navigation.Â While I liked the previousÂ theme and its focus on images, it just took way too long to load and I kept having issues with sections not loading at all. The new theme is more minimal and has more focus on loading speeds, in part because I removed all the side bar widgets as well. But the blog rolls? Among the items …

Iron Warriors Warpsmith

Published by Joe B

Another of my photo updates, this time, my Iron Warriors Warpsmith. I had posted an original review of the Finecast model here, as this was my first experience with the experiment by GW. When the Warpsmith was released, I loved the new look of the Chaos Space Marines and the demon engines – though they are a bit dino-ie. One of the things I like about the Warpsmith is the motion and three dimensions the tentacles give the model. It is something that many of the older TechmarineÂ models lacked due to the metal bits and old processes requiring the pieces be thicker and clunkier. Even the back of the model is full of cool little bits such as the different types of tubing and connections. You can just imagine this guy sitting is some crazy throne controlling his demon engine minions. It also gave me a spot to add some of the iconic yellow chevrons and even a bit of the purple demon flesh. The inner glow on the smoke stack and skulls was a …

The Interment of Brother Gud Kaninkarr – A Dreadnought Short Story

Published by Joe B

With all this awesome DreadtoberÂ action going on I couldn’t help but get caught up in the spirit. With all my paints and models packed away I decided to get involved another way, by writing a short story of newly fallen brother being interred into a Dreadnought. I based the dreadnought short story off of my own Mentor Legion Dreadnought and Command SquadÂ and have been inspired by many of the other hobbyists who write bios for their Inq28 characters. As this is my first ever public short story I really hope for some feedback and if you like it, I have a few more story ideas floating through my head. The thick, acrid smoke clung to the walls like bloated slugs. Brother Tons re-adjusted his optical augurs to compensate, the lenses straining to focus on the intricate work. The flickering candles were drowned out by the surgical light but still managed to create anÂ irritatingÂ motion in the peripheral. As the next binaric chant began, his gloved hands paused briefly before the autosensesÂ re-calibratedÂ to block out the frequencies.Â Reflexes honed …

Iron Warriors Baneblade

Published by Joe B

Editor’s Note: I painted the Baneblade a few years back but didn’t have great pictures for it, so while I am busy packing and moving, its a great time to finally get him a new post. Now a days every 40k army needs a super heavy to bring to the table. An Ork Stompa, a Knight Titan, or in this case, an Iron Warriors Baneblade super heavy tank. IÂ built this tank nearly 4 years ago shortly after it came out, at the time it was the largest, and most amazing kit Games Workshop produced and part of the launch of Apocalypse. At the time I didn’t have any loyalist army so I clearly needed to build an Iron Warriors Baneblade for the 14th Grand Company. In keeping with my other Iron Warrior tanks, the Chaos icons are kept to a minimum and the tank is mostly the typical iron and gold trim. I did spend a good deal of time scraping away the Imperial Iconography that decorates the standard build, but a good chisel blade …

Mentor Legion Combat Scout Squad

Published by Joe B

So the scout squad hasÂ been sitting around waiting for pictures for a few weeks now, so its about time I post them up here. I present the finished combat scout squad for my Mentor Legion, armed with bolters, bolt pistols, and of course a big-arse heavy bolter. The are meant to support the sniper squad and provide a bit more mass to an otherwise small Mentors army. You can check out the WIP shots here if you like, but since then I have managed to finish the highlights, weathering, and a good deal of gore – well more so on the combat guys further down. The first half of the squad is to add a bit of mobile fire power with their bolters and the infernal bolts blasted out by the heavy bolter. Plenty of gear for these guys, and a couple of extra ammo packs for the heavy. The combat squad received an extra bit of gore as I figured these guys would be the midst of it and haven’t showered in a few …

Good Reads 2015 Week 36 – Tanks, Titan, Beasts, and Monsters

Published by Joe B

Welcome back to another week of Good Reads. I’ve got a doozy for you this week with great posts on tanks, titans, beasts and monsters! For the new here, the Good Reads posts are where I gather some of my favorite post from the week and share them with my readers. There are so many great hobbyiests out there posting great content that it can be easy to miss some of their amazing work – I know I keep finding new blogs every week! So this is my attempt to gather a few that caught my eye and I wanted to share with all of you, so enjoy and click on through to check out their posts! I love tanks, and when someone goes so far as magnetizing them for options, I am always impressed – it has always been way too much work for me. Well the GunGrave not only painted an amazing PredatorÂ for his Heresy Death Guard, but magnetized three different turrets to go along with it. The Apologist over on Death of …

Mentor Legion Scout Squad WIP

Published by Joe B

As I mentioned in my last post when I finished myÂ Librarius squad, I plan to mix in ‘required’ painting with the fun projects. As the librarians were my fun conversion, I am working on finishing my Mentors Scout Squad as my required choice. I had these guys nearly base coated a long while back and decided they would be a great unit to finally finish. While scout squads are not everybody’s cup of tea, I like the diverse look they bring to the Space Marine armies, especially since I tend to always put helmets on my Mentors (they are smart guys after all). Unlike my other scout squad which was armed as snipers, this squad was built for close up action with half armed with close combat weapons and the other half with bolters. The idea was that I could combat-squad them into a ‘hold position and shot’ squad, and a ‘take out the soft targets’ squad. As with the sniper squad, I am keeping the colors a bit more muted than my traditional Mentors, …

Good Reads Week 35 2015

Published by Joe B

Welcome back to another week of Good Reads on the Broken Paintbrush, where I’ve gathered some great articles and inspirations from my blog feed. I hope you enjoy and check out each of the blogger’s works. First up is The Hunter by Jeff Vader over at the Convertorum. Its an amazing work of his imagination for anÂ alien warrior for his Inq28 games. He even goes into naming the Skadii and giving story to their alien society. NafNaf over at Objective Secured keeps knocking his Dark Eldar Carnival out of the park, and this time with his completed Beast Pack. With a mix of lions, monkeys, and parrots,Â it makes for a greatÂ riot of color and movement. Greggles from Feed the Nerd is passionately attempting to finish his Ork hoard for Nova Open. Between using crackle paste for the display boards, to painting 16+ vehicles yellow, and more troops to go, he has been a machine at cranking them out. Alex over at Lead Ballony took the free AoS model and turned it into a clock-work automa …

Iron Warriors Sorcerer

Published by Joe B

Haven’t picked up the brush much this week, so I figured I would post another of my older models. Timing is fitting considering I just finished my Mentor Legion Librarians. Another classic sculpt, this metal Chaos model painted up as Iron Warriors Sorcerer has been part of my collection for probably 15 years – crap that makes me feel old. Anyway, of all the four chaos deities,Â Tzeentch has always been my favorite both from a story and model perspective, so it was only fitting that the 14th Grand Company’s representative be of the Great Schemer’s ilk. It also adds a great way to experiment with additional colors in an otherwise drab looking army. I mean, no one picks the Iron Warriors for an army based on the cool, vibrant paint scheme. While I have itched the color bug over the years with the multitude of other armies, I always come back to my original favorite. Its also fun to come back to this classic sculpts as a reminder of how fantastic we have it now. …

Mentor Legion Librarius

Published by Joe B

This weekend I finished my Mentor Legion Librarius built out of converted and kit-bashed models for each Librarian. First up is Austu Jorimund, who is among the most aggressive of the Mentor Legion’s Librarians. The model is a small conversion from the Dark Angles Master,Â Balthasar from the Dark Vengence set. A simple head swap, added psychic hood, and removal of the Dark Angles symbols. The original model is such a fantastic pose that I didn’t want to change too much. The very large sword was a challenge to paint the crackling yellow power weapon look, and I’m not completely happy with it. The second Librarian,Â Inae Janykchim, is based off of the Assault on Black Reach Captain. Both arms were swapped out and I built the staff from parts from the AdMech Iron Strider’s lance and a Chaos Knight’s mace. I believe the book on the back is from the amazing Flagellants kit. The transfers were done using the Forge World Raptors sheet and painted over with the reds. Robed space marines have just a cool …

Mentor Legion Librarius WIP

Published by Joe B

So life is getting back to the new normal again, started a new job, our house sale has closed, and we can start looking for a house to buy. In the mean time I took the inspiration left in my last update post and started building out a Librarius from the new Space Marine codex. I already converted the Librarian from the Dark Vengeance kit, and while I considered buying the new models from GW, IÂ decided that it would be much more enjoyable to hack together my own from bits on hand. First up was the Dark Angels Company Master,Â Balthasar in his striking robes and huge sword. Fairly straight forward on this guy as I just removed the DA insignia from the robes and gauntlets, replaced his head, and added a Psychic Hood from the archives of From the Warp. The head is from the Centurion kit but couldn’t tell you where the back ordainment came from. Librarian number two was originally the Ultramarine captain from the Assault on Black Reach set. I didn’t like …