So now that Adepticon has been over for almost a week now and I have had plenty of time to make the long drive home and spend a few days recovering from all the gaming that I got to take part in. I figured I would fill you all in on how day 4 of Adepticon went for me and how the models fared in the Crystal Brushes and my over all thoughts of this years event.

Day 4 was spent in the Privateer Press area yet again because I was playing in the team tournament. And in that... we didn't fare so well really. I planed for people to take a lot of 'jack heavy lists and we faced people that took the bare minimum number of jacks and loaded up on troops. Not what I expected at all. I guess thats what I get for judging things by the way the local group plays the game. As for Crystal Brushes... well I think its obvious that I didn't win but I did make it to online voting. The Forge World Bloodthirster that I painted up got lumped into the 54mm category with a bunch of busts that just blew me out of the water. and the Trollblood Kiltlifter that I painted up was in the Fantasy/Steampunk Single Model category, and it fared much better. He finished in the middle of the pack. I think he would of done much better if I had taken the time to paint on the tartan onto his kilt instead of just leaving it plain red. So lesson learned there... also... don't go so grand scale as the FW Bloodthirster for a competition piece.

My over all view on the weekend things were great other than the incident on day one and the fact that I think some of the staff for the event were complete idiots. We really had a great time and I got to meet some really great people. I want to give a small shout out to Romeo and Kip from Battlefoam, Justin (Mr. Justin) from Secret Weapon Miniatures, Will Hungerford and the rest of the Privateer Press Staff that I had a chance to meet and talk to, and finally to Dan, the Baron, and Chris from the Eternal Warriors podcast.

And to close things out for the month of April... things in the Studio are back to normal and I am taking commissions again now that things have settled down.

Okay gang... I have been waiting for this moment for a while now. The voting for the Crystal Brushes painting Competition is now open. Hop over to Cool Mini or Not's website to register and vote. I have 2 models entered into the competition (not gonna say which ones to keep things fair) So please go and vote... and vote well.

Day 3 started off like yesterday really. We hit the vendor floor again picked up a thing of green stuff because I forgot to bring some with me. (I know... I am a big dummy) Then we headed off to the PP gaming hall and played a few games of Warmachine, and after playing a 50, 75, and a 100 point game I am mentally worn out. The cool thing was I got a chance to meet Mr. Justin from Secret Weapon Miniatures. Got to chat with him for a little bit. He is running around like mad though so I didn't get to talk to him all that long. I also talked to Romeo from Battlefoam as he was passing through the PP hall. After all of the Warmachine games I managed to run into the guys from The Eternal Warrior podcast. Did an interview with those guys and they were a great bunch of guys. I think it went really well and I do believe that they are going to start promoting the paint service. So fingers crossed there. Thats all for now gang... we have the team tournament for warmachine in the morning so now its time to rest and get ready for WAR!!!

One last real quick thing for the day... I finally got around to filming a video for the wet palettes... in it I review a couple different store bought options and then I give a quick how to make one... HERE is the link to the video.

Okay gang I promised I would shoot some video of the event... Well when we were downstairs last night playing some Warmachine I decided that I was going to take advantage of the fact that they had some new models on display as well as the big diorama that they set up every year. Well HERE you go!!!

Adepticon: Day 2

Posted by Chris West at 5:40 PM 0 Comments

So here we are part way into day 2 of the glorious event that is Adepticon. Today I got a chance to walk around the vendor hall and check out some new things here and there. We picked up the Flames of War rule book and the starter box because we got a good deal on it and we also talked to a couple of the guys from GF9 and they really explained it to us. Being that we are a pair of history buffs it makes sense that we play a historical game... finally. From there we grabbed the 2 models that I entered into the Crystal Brushes competition and just kinda hung around the booth for that until they had their pictures taken and then put into the display case. Actually played a Malifaux demo game with a really cool guy that goes by the name "Spoon". So I am really looking forward to getting my Malifaux models painted up and playing some more games... it actually is a really easy game to get a good grasp of. From here I think we are going to be heading down to the Iron Arena here after a while and play some games down there for a little while. I think since I did bring my Malifaux models with me I am going to take them down with me and see about playing a full game against Spoon. Thats all for now... I will post up a wrap up of how the games go.

Adepticon:Day 1

Posted by Chris West at 1:44 AM 0 Comments

Well here we are... Adepticon has officially started. Check in was a huge mad house because everyone that was in line was waiting for a free bag that Battlefoam was giving away. It is just one of their soft sided bags so its nothing special but hey... its a free bag. So far my big complaint was the fact that we put in for shirts but their computer apparently didn't put in out cart so we didn't get our shirts. And after the attitude we got from the staff we were not going to give them any more money. Like asking the simple question as to where the "demo hall" was and where I need to go to turn in my models for the Crystal Brushes competition and then none of the staff could answer that and one guy I asked said he would go check and then he just wandered off and never got an answer for me. Luckily I found the demo hall since it is right by where the Privateer Press area is at for the weekend. Now I just need to find where to turn my model in at. On the plus side I got to meet the Quartermaster for Privateer Press and let me tell you... Will is an awesome guy. very down to earth and just fun to be around. It is obvious that he deserves to be the Quartermaster because he truly loves the games that they put out. I took my Khador and the Cygnar down to the Iron Arena and he took a look at the armies and got TONS of praise. He said that IF he has some free time this weekend that he would like to play against me. So that is a mark of pride for me being a Press Gang Member. Oh... and when he was looking at the models he was picking them up and holding them up to the light and really scrutinized them. Managed to get in a quick 35 point game with my partner that I rode up with. We had a good time. I pulled an assassination with my eButcher list. The plan for tomorrow is simple... sleep for a while... then go turn in my models (pray to make to make first cut)... go say Hi to Kip with Battlefoam since he is my go to guy when you guys want me to order foam for you. Figured it would be a smart idea to put a name to a face. I am hoping that I can also meet up with Mr. Justin from Secret Weapon. Also there is a little surprise that I don't want to go into too much until after I can meet up with the guys and talk to them. One last thing on the agenda for tomorrow is to hit the Malifaux/Puppetwars Demo area for a little bit. I hope to have have some pictures and some videos at some point over the weekend.

So here we are... one day before leave time for Chicago and I just wanted to post up one last post of a painted model before we go. This time around I decided to post up eHaley. I am super proud of the way that this model turned out. I personally like her better than the eStryker model that I painted up a while back for the team army. There are several more models that have been painted here in the studio and I will get pictures of them up eventually. This one was a bit of an accomplishment if you ask me because she was painted around us having a tornado here in town. But with that aside I also have some great news... at the beginning of the the Warmachine project that I set out on I was determined to for both me and my teammate to go to Adepticon withfully painted armies... and both armies were new to us. Well over the last 3 weeks I have managed to not only finish of my Khador but I also got all the Cygnar done too. Both armies have around 115 models in them... totaling out to over 200 points a piece. I went back and looked at the calender to see how many days I spent on both armies since I started painting on them both... and the number of days just on warmachine is 6 weeks. I feel that is really impressive...

Thats all for now gang... see you in Chicago for Adepticon!!!

Okay... Some of you that follow me on Facebook will already know the news. But as some of you may have heard this past Saturday night we had time extremely severe weather here in central Kansas. In fact the tornado that hit the city of Wichita as only about a mile from where I live and the studio is located. God was looking out for my family and myself and answered our prayers and spared us but just barely... Like I said it was only about a mile from my house. Way to close for comfort. We didn't suffer any damage other than some downed tree limbs, and we were without power for like 3 or 4 hours.

So this has not affected the trip I am about to make at the end of the week to the great city of Chicago for Adepticon. While I am there I am going to get to meet some awesome people and play some great games. AFTER the event the schedule for commission painting is going to be open again. So as of the 24th I will be back on commission duty again. IF you want models painted by me I would suggest getting your requests in now and avoid the rush. While I'm at the event I am going to be doing some filming and I am going to try to post up nightly reviews of things that are going on.

Time for another Product Review gang... this time I am giving a review of the Classic Board from Broken Egg Games. This board is FANTASTIC!!! The boards are made from wood and are really solid in construction, and since they only run $59.99 plus shipping for this board they are well worth their price. They are made to be a one piece board not a multi-part plastic board that could easily pop apart dumping your well painted models all over the floor (which I have seen that happen). I have loaded my Khador board up with heavy metal models using every single spot on the board and it can handle the weight of all that metal without a problem. No fear of flexing here. I got mine in a custom finish as you can see here... and the guys at Broken Egg Games managed to pull off a really good color match to the way that my Khador is painted. So a ton of praise for the guys on that one.

As you can see here we also got one of the standard finishes this one being the Cigar box finish with blue felt. It is for my Cygnar playing teammate that is going to Adepticon with me.
So 5 out of 5 on the design of the boards. They have plenty of spots for smaller point tournaments without a problem. So unless you load up on warjacks of weapons crews or anything that take the 50mm base then you can fit a pretty good sized army on the board. They also have larger boards like the Extreme and the Tournament. Also these guys get a 5 out of 5 for their customer service. Honestly I think its better than some of the big gaming companies that are out there. I had a small problem with my order and these guys were on top of it and we had it all straitened out and things back on track super fast. And they are also really good about answering emails really fast too. When I ordered the custom finish on my Khador board I actually got a phone call from them to make sure they understood my request properly.One last thing... I did a video review and that is posted up HERE and in this review I show off something really cool that I discovered with the boards. For that little secret you have to follow that link and watch the video.

More Cygnar that I have helped out with for my teammate. This time its Stormclad...

Remember When...

Posted by Chris West at 3:53 PM 0 Comments

Do you, my readers remember back a few days ago when I showed you the new logo. And I said that I liked it so much that I wanted to put it on a shirt.

Well here is the official 2Ton Studios t-shirt. It is an olive drab v-neck shirt that has the logo big and bold on the front of the shirt. IF I get enough interest in the shirts I will actually look at getting a bunch of them printed up and put them up for sale. But there will have to be a lot of interest in them because getting a small run of shirts done up is not cheap.

So with all the Khador done I have set my sights on helping my teammate get his Cygnar done... that and I really wanted to paint Thunderhead.

So here we go again with pictures of my Khador which is actually 100% done now... I just need to find time to get pictures of the last few Warjacks.

Well now that we are officially into April and past the first so there is no fear of April Fools day jokes... here is something really cool that I have been saving back that I haven't wanted to share until we were closer to Adepticon. Well here it is... the NEW 2TS LOGO!!!

This was designed by my good friend Tim P. When I was talking to him about a new logo I described what I wanted and told him to think Pirates... so he managed to pull a really cool Pirate font into it. IF... and that is a BIG IF there is enough interest in it I will look into getting shirts made. I am getting a couple made just for us to wear at Adepticon like prototypes.

Well as march drew to a close I new it was going to be a big month for the studio. I managed to get a to of Khador painted for the Adepticon run as well as a few other things that came along the path. Then there was the sheer number of views that the site managed to get. Let me tell you that this is a one man show and normally does not receive a lot of traffic really on a daily basis but over the 2 years that it has been in existence the site has managed to scrape together roughly an average of 600 views a month which to me is a lot since normally I post on average about 15 posts a month. What this means is that some months I have very low amount of views the lowest being just over 200 and the the highest (until March) was 1389 views... for some reason the site exploded with views this month and pushed it to a new high of 1762. Which makes it 4 months in a row to be over 1000 views and 7 months in the last year. So I now wish to thank all of my followers and my readers for all the times that you have come by and checked out my progress on things to see how I am coming along with projects and such. I hope that this trend continues well into the future and that the number of views goes even higher. Now what does all of this mean for April... Well we are officially on the Road To Adepticon. From the 19th to the 24th I will be in attending Adepticon in Chicago this year. I missed last year and I vowed that I wanted to go back. So things were set in motion last spring for us to be able to go this year, and this year everything has fallen into place for us to be able to go. I am entering 2 pieces into the Crystal Brushes Painting Competition hosted by the gang over at Cool Mini or Not. This competition will be bringing out some of the best in the world cause it has a fairly large grand prize. Honestly I don't think I will quite rate that high but I am aiming for first cut and honorable mention slots. Also I will be playing in the Warmachine Team tournament on Sunday as one half of Team Rolling Thunder. Also Most all weekend I will be playing in the Privateer Press Iron Arena so if you want to play against me or see the Khador army in person shoot me an email and we can set up a time so that I am sure that I don't miss the opportunity to meet people and get in a few games with my followers. I would like to hit some of the gaming demos that are going to be going on all weekend because there are some new games out that that I want to check out and I actually want to be shown how to play Malifaux so that I know that I am doing things right. All Weekend I am hoping to be able to hop on here and post up a Review of the event and the goings on of that day. Until we get to Adepticon I am going to be busy finishing off the Khador Models in this massive project as well as helping my team mate out with all of his cygnar to get all of it done in time for the big event. As I type this the Khador is sitting at 98% painted and the Cygnar is 40% painted so this is going to be a mad rush as I am only 18 days from leaving for Chicago. So keep checking back to see the Progress of both armies and Maybe IF I have time I will thrown up a couple tutorial videos as well.