Facing The Grey Tide Podcast - Episode 78: So ManBeardPainting Stumbles In......

What is up Everyone? In this episode, Chandler sits down with Zach Bowles of ManBeardPainting fame and lore.  We sit down to talk about his origin story into 40k (Dawn of War is a gateway drug people), his love of Orks, some of the craziest commission stories he has, and of course about shenanigans that happen both on and off the table.  We talk about his painting on Twitch, for his hobby, and his commission work and get an insight if anyone is looking for a great painter to help get your army to the table.  We also talk about our thoughts on 3 color armies, and really just sit down to tell stories.

Don't fear the Beard; Embrace and love the Beard!

2018 In Review and 2019 Resolutions

Over the last year, while post frequency remained lower than we'd like, I started the year with a Year Review and Look Ahead post. So it seems appropriate to kick off 2019 with the same, looking back at 2018 and my resolutions for the year, and then making new resolutions for 2019.

FTGT Turns 5

Facing the Grey Tide has now celebrated its fifth birthday (as of a couple weeks ago). As I mentioned in last year's birthday recap, we still have no intentions to close up shop. Even if we're not as active as we would like in getting content out, our attempts to face our Grey Tides have not stopped, even if sometimes it feels like I'm going backward.

2017 In Review and 2018 Resolutions

Happy New Year! Another year gone and a new year dawns, and with it I'm resolved to help lead a resurgence for the blog. We'll get into my resolutions further on, but there's no denying that 2017 was such as slow year for the blog that we barely deserve the name. Despite the lack of written content, we were generally a bit more regular with the podcast in the second half of the year, coinciding with the release of the new edition of 40k.

Shameless plug moment: we recently started a Patreon page to support the podcast. As you may know, it takes some degree of funding to produce and host a podcast. Thus far we've been covering the costs ourselves, Chandler in particular. Any support you can provide, as little as $1 a month, will help us immensely and mean a lot. Please check us out at https://www.patreon.com/FTGTPodcast and consider supporting. Thank you.

Now, onto the year in review and resolutions!

NOVA Bound: The Final Push

Amazing how time flies; NOVA is less than a week away at this point (more exact time in the side-bar counter), and I still have a good bit to do (to the surprise of no one). I've got a couple projects I need to finish up before I head out the door to NOVA, and some more I will probably be working on in the hotel room.

FTGT Showcase - Warhound Titan

I just recently completed this absolutely awesome "miniature" commission: a Warhound Titan. This was an absolute monster of a project and I'm really happy with the final result.

Miniature Monday FTGT Painting Showcase: Reaver Jetbikes

For today's Miniature Monday, I wanted to share with you a part of a Dark Eldar commission I recently completed. These are the five Reaver riders. I also recently finished painting 30 Kabalite Warriors for the same army, but they're not based yet so I can't call them completely done.

WIP Wednesday - Kabalite Warriors and Spyder Bases

This week I've gone back to the Kabalite Warriors from about a month ago and have been working on the details.

 

FTGT Painting WIP Wednesday - Spyder Bases

Hey guys, back again for another WIP Wednesday update. Things have been a bit slow the last couple weeks, despite knocking out the Tankbursting Mawloc over the weekend. The Warhound was temporarily shelved, but I should be getting back to him next week.

WIP Wednesday: Warhound Titan Assembly

Hi all! Back again with another WIP Wednesday from the FTGT Painting Desk. I've been putting in a lot of the unglamourous early work required in a big kit like this Warhound Titan. Last week was literally simply laying out pieces and cleaning flash and mold lines from larger pieces. This week I've finally been able to begin the process of assembly.

 

FTGT Painting Desk: WIP Wednesday

Hey guys, FTGT Evan back again with another WIP Wednesday post. I missed last week in part because I didn't have much in the way of an update. I have made a little bit of progress on the Kabalite Warriors I've been working on, but also took a bit of a detour to jump-start my painting mojo, which had been dragging for a bit.

Painting Desk: Dark Eldar Commission

Over in my FTGT Painting Studio I've been working on a Dark Eldar army commission for Bryan. It's taken a bit longer than I originally anticipated, and is still ongoing, but I have some of the first completed models to show off. The army is being done in the Kabal of the Flayed Skull scheme. I've finished off the Venoms and Razorwings, and started on the Reavers and Warriors.

Commission Showcase: Deathwatch Marines

I just finished up Phil's Deathwatch Marines to a display quality. These are some amazing detailed and characterful models. Plenty of images below. One thing I need to work on is taking better pictures. A lot of these aren't as clean or as focused as I'd like. Nonetheless, enjoy.

Kill Team Cassius

FTGT Painting - Patreon and New Website

As I mentioned on Monday, this week marks the first week of me working full time as a commission painter (in addition to being a stay-at-home dad, so full time is more like 4 hours a day if I'm lucky). In addition to painting, I've started a Patreon page, as well as created a new website just for my commission service. The website is primarily a portfolio of completed work; I'll still include in progress and completed project posts here.

FTGT Painting - A Brand New Day

Today marks my first day alone as a stay-at-home dad. With this, it also marks my first day devoting nap time to commission work, which I'm looking to do more or less full time. In support of this, over the last couple weeks, my amazing wife suggested and helped build up a pretty awesome studio area for me in our house. Nearby are plenty of baby hangouts and supplies.

FTGT Painting: Malifaux Guild Death Marshalls Commission

One of my first commissions, that has taken me too long, was to paint up six Malifaux Guild Death Marshalls, three metal first edition, and three plastic second edition. These were to be above table top quality, bordering on display quality. Jesse wanted them to be in a "high undead" style, with green tinged pale skin, dusty looking overall, and some minor Object Source Lighting from the greenish blue flames.

FTGT Painting: Eldar Avatar Commission

As mentioned a couple weeks ago, while I got the majority of Phil's Eldar army done before NOVA, I still needed to wrap up the Avatar. This weekend, somewhat at the last minute (as he's taking the army to Battle for Salvation this weekend), I finished up Phil's Avatar and got him mailed off.

Phil wanted to do the base to match.

FTGT Painting: Eldar Jetbike Army

In the week leading up to NOVA, I was off of work (between new and old jobs) and asked around if anyone had some quick turnaround commissions they were looking for. Sure enough, Phil had an Eldar army he was looking to put together and wanted it painted, predominantly at a tabletop level. The models he needed were 18 Scatter Laser Jetbikes, 3 old jetbikes, 6 Warlocks, and 4 Farseers, as well as an Avatar.

NOVA Bound: The Final Countdown

We are in the final stretch to NOVA; just over a week remaining, and for me, just about five painting days remaining. As I've mentioned, I got a new job recently, but don't start until after NOVA; my last day at my current job is tomorrow, leaving me five business days of painting time, and I have plans for just about every minute.

FTGT Painting: 10 Pink Horrors - Commission

Hey guys. I recently did a sort of "soft-open" for my commission painting service and took on my first couple jobs from some local guys who were awesome enough to give me a shot and also patient enough to deal with me and my crazier than expected schedule. First up was a Daemon commission for Sha of 10 Pink Horrors and a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch.