2D6plus

What?! Menoth?! WTF!!!

2012-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Well I have made a New Year’s Resolution…23 days late,but still a Resolution.

In 2012, I am going to try my damnedest to finish onearmy.

Now seeing as how I am working on my Lamenters SpaceMarines for Aaron’s Badab Wars Campaign and I am also trying to save up moneyto go down to Arizona to participate in a convention hosted by the folks atBattlefoam…I am thinking I should be pouring my efforts into 40k. In anticipation of the convention inSeptember, I have worked out a 2000pt list that builds on what I already haveand requires me to order a Land Raider and an Assault Terminator Squad. I won an auction on ebay for a TerminatorLibrarian (NIB) and I have a Terminator Chaplin already. If I keep all of my HQ Models at around the175pt mark, they can be interchanged with no issues…so now I need to kit bashtogether a Terminator Captain with a burly ass power axe, eerily similar to theone my Malakim Phoros model uses…hmmmmmm

Of course I have already been sidelined once by apainting competition for a Warmachine/Hordes Tourney that is happening on the18^th of February. CURSE YOUSCOTTY!!! CURSE YOU!!!! It is aninteresting idea and I am glad I am taking part in it. I’ll probably end up giving the model awaywhen the competition is over. For thecompetition, you have to paint up a Warcaster/Warlock attachment that has beenpurchased at one of the FLGS. Aight. Well damn it, I am not buyinganother Squire for my Cygnar army and the Searforge Commission doesn’t have acaster attachment…neither do the Blindwater Congregation, so I am left withonly one option. That’s right kids; buyanother model from a different faction!

So I settled on the Hierophant from the Protectorate ofMenoth. I will admit it is a pretty neatlooking model. Very Holier-than-thou-artlook to it; I kind of like it. In grandGrant Fashion (and plain good sense) I pinned the Staff to the main body andalso pinned the little scroll case on its back in place as well, about 20 extraminutes to do all that but I really don’t want this little guy fallingapart. I primed the model black since Iam going with an alternate paint scheme from the Menoth White and went to townpainting up the robes. First thing I didwas make a black wash by thinning out some Chaos Black and painting in all thecracks and recess that got missed by the primer and then the fun began!

Mecharite Red was the basecoat and then I just built uplayer after layer of red starting with Scab Red, followed by Red Gore, then Imixed in some Blood Red with the Red Gore, and finally I added a small dab ofBleach Bone to the Red Gore/Blood Red mix for the final little touches. I tried leaving the previous shade of redshowing through on the layering but not really sure how successful I was. Just one more step on the way toblending. Over all, I am pretty happywith the look and feel of the red.

For the Vest, I am going to keep it black and highlightthe areas with Shadowed Grey. For the partsof the model that have the Menofix on it, I am going to do a BleachedBone/White background with a black Menofix. I am also planning on doing up allthe metals in gold and also painting the trim on the Hierophant’s vest gold aswell. As far as the scroll cases go, I am not really sure if I am going to givethem a metallic look or try for an aged wooden look. I suppose I’ll paint whatever suits my fancywhen the time comes.

Yellow is the color of the week

2012-01-18T17:32:00.000-08:00

So I like I said last week I opened my mouth and saidthat I would do up another 500pts for my Lamenters Army for Aaron’s Badab WarsCampaign. True to my word, I havestarted painting up the Assault Squad that will help get me there. I have primed all of the models white andthen used Gryphonne Sepia to wash the models and ‘pre-shade’ them before Istart putting down the yellow base coat.

Really I washed the models to help me avoid those damnedannoying little white spots that always manage to crop up in the deepestdarkest recesses of the models. Also, itwill help dull the brightness of the model just a tad. I have gone in and put down the yellow coatof Iyanden Darksun using my spiffy new brushes. I have also tried out something a bit different as well. I am using Liquitex Flow Aid (diluted downper instructions).

I think the hardest part about using the Flow Aid is thatI am no longer licking my brushes. Before I would roll my tongue and lick my brushes to help with keep thebrushes moist. Now…not so much…odd chemicals coursing through my body, probablynot the best of ideas. I am trying toclean off my brush after every two or three dips in the paint. So far I really like how the paint flows offof these new brushes.

Another thing I am doing is avoiding painting in therecessed areas of the models where the wash has dried and created a nice shadedarea. So far so good, though I stillneed to work on my brush control because I am going to have to go back in at alater stage and re-apply some wash to even out some of my mistakes and to help deepen those shadows. Of course you read any of the little paintingtutorials and this is one of the first steps they talk about doing. Well, guess I am a bit behind the curve. Won’tbe the first time and definitely won’t be the last time.

Of future events, I am going to try and make it down toArizona this year to attend a convention put on by the folks over at BattlefoamBags. They are going to have a tourneyfor both Warhammer 40k and for Warmachine/Hordes so I need to decide whichevent I want to attend. I have made up a2000pt list for the 40k, now I just need to figure out what I want to bring forthe Warmachine/Hordes Tourney. This isall pending I can save up the money to buy the plane tickets and Conventionticket and and and…to many ands. Neverhurts to make plans in advance though.

Well here is for hoping!

WTF!!! I have a Pocket Super Star Destroyer!!

2012-01-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

Holy Craptastic Crap Batman! What the crap! WTF! SERIOUSLY!

Okay now that the minor freakfest is over with it is timeto move on to the matter at hand…DYSTOPIAN WARS! Well let’s be honest it isn’tthat amazing but still. So Joel and Iare working to paint up our respective Fleets for Dystopian Wars beforeNorCon.

All in all, I am making some good progress so far.

My tiny flyers are almost all finished. Horray!

I finished up my Aristotle Class Battleship. Of course like I said last week; Quick,Dirty, and Tabletop worthy was the goal. I feel that I have met that goal rather well so far. It is rather simple scheme. Adeptus Battlegrey basecoat, a wash of DevlanMud (Why didn’t GW invent this stuff sooner!), a dry brush of AdeptusBattlegrey, a dry brush of Codex Grey and done! Of course on a 1/1200 scale model you are going to make some mistakesbut!!! Tabletop worthy!

I also finished up the three Plato Class Cruisers in thefleet as well. Same method again for thehull, plus I picked out some of the engine details with Scorpion Green on topof a Dark Angels Green basecoat. On someof the filigreed areas I just picked them out with Shining Gold to help breakup the rather military grey paint scheme on the models.

Also I haven’t painted up the turrets yet and probablywon’t until the very last finishing step of the fleet. They are pretty damned tiny and I am going toneed to magnetize a dowel to use as a tool when I do paint them up.

I have one of the nine Diogenes Class Frigates painted upas my test model, with eight more to go and my Pericles Class Fleet Carrier topaint. Everything is painting up prettyquick so I figure pending crazy insane things happening I should have most ofit painted up in the next week or so. Ofcourse work has been stupid busy for the past two weeks so not making anypromising.

Speaking of promises…I opened up my mouth and committed myselfto another 500 points for the Badab Wars hosted by Aaron P. for NorCon thisyear. DOH! Painting up Space Marines…yellow SpaceMarines with hearts and checkers and…and…and…dear god, what did I get myselfinto again. Actually as bad as I ammaking it sound, for a cool 1000pts of Lamenters all I need to paint up is aten man Assault Squad and either a Sanguinary Priest or a Rhino. It doesn’t seem like much but with what Ipainted up last year it is going to be pretty nasty.

Malakim Phoros, Chapter Master of the Lamentors

5x Death Company

- Jump Packs

- Power Sword

- Power Fist

- Infernus Pistol

- Plasma Pistol

- Abraxas (converted Lemartes)

Death Company Dreadnought

- Magna Grapple

10x Assault Squad

- Two Hand Flamers

- Sarge has twin Lightning Claws

Rhino or Sanguinary Priest

Seems like a pretty solid list for me. Lots of quick heavy hitters. So again my poor Blindwater Congregation isgetting pushed behind another painting project…sigh.

On a good note, my Spartan Games Battlefoam Bag (Link can be found HERE) has gotten ordered and should be in my grubby little mitts soon! Can't wait! AND!!!!!!! my Winsor & Newton Series 7 Miniature brushes just showed up today! Of course...$40 for four brushes and some brush restorer/preserver is still kind of a kick to the nuts but I am happy that I have them.

Anywho...until next time!

Quick, Dirty, and Tabletop Worthy!!

2012-01-02T22:39:00.000-08:00

Breaks Over! Backto work!

Yeah, that time has come again for me to start posting ona regular basis not like I haven’t been but I did take an extra week off forthe holidays. It was a nice break. Nothing crazy happened except Christmas! Anda Dremel 4000 with loads of attachments! That is right! I be cutting MDFBoard with a small hand held power tool and 3500 RPM!!!! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Ph33rm3!!!!

So in case you are wondering, no I haven’t exactly beenidle over the Christmas Season. Ipainted up a Dwarf Lord from the Warhammer Fantasy line for a D&D Game I amin. I also cut out a few templates (withthe circular cutting attachment for my Dremel 4000!) which I will be turninginto swamp templates for my Blindwater Congregation army, and I startedpainting up my Covenant of Antarctica Fleet after Joel and I had a friendly gameof Dystopian Wars. As you can see lotsof little things.

Joel and I have agreed to have our Starter Fleets plusAircraft Carriers painted up NorCon. Honestly it shouldn’t take a terribly long time to paint them up. First off the scale is 1/1200 so they aresuper tiny and while they are packed full of detail I have absolutely NOintention of painting each individual rivet, wooden board, and window on thosemodels. Base coat, wash, drybrush, maybesome highlights, pick out a few metallic details, done! In the course of one evening of painting Igot all of the woodwork done on my Battleship, Fleet Carrier, and threeCruisers. I am going to test out thehull paint scheme on one of the nine Frigates I have and if I like it…apply itto the rest of the fleet.

Don’t get me wrong; I applaud those painters that takethe time and effort to make their Dystopian War models look gorgeous, but thatisn’t what I am going for this time around. I want a painted fleet on the table.

Quick, Dirty, and Tabletop Worthy is my goal!!

Joel and I have also both agreed to purchase a secondStarter Box of a different nation and a Fleet Carrier (not sure on the AircraftCarrier but I am presuming we will since both of us did that last time, and Iknow Jon did as well) once our first set is all painted up. I’ll be getting the Britannia Starter whileJoel is going to get the Empire of the Blazing Sun Starter.

At any rate while on break I cannot be accused of havingidle hands. I’ll be posting pics of myprogress on my fleet next week. The gatorswill just have to be patient a little while longer. I am sure they understand.

P.S. oh yeah I also got Elder Scrolls: Skyrim so that hasbeen chewing up a good chunk of my free time as well.

A Family Photo Op...and the Rise of Gammera!!!

2011-12-19T20:16:00.000-08:00

All I needed was a small chunk of time to finish up BrunCragback and I got that on Sunday. Admittedly I didn’t get as much time as I would have liked to paint butI did finish up the figure. So that iswhat I did. I sat down for two and ahalf hours and picked out the details of the skin, eyes (good god I hatepainting eyes…cause I suck at painting eyes), the beard, and the weapons. Overall Brun fits with Lug rather well, Itossed in a little touch of green to the figure to tie him into the theme ofthe army.

I do however need to take a break from the SearforgeCommission for a bit, need to switch it up. I was listening to an episode of 40k Radio because a friend of mine wasa guest host on it and one of the hosts talked about doing little chunks oflots of different painting projects. Itmakes sense; it keeps the hobby fresh and helps to stave off the boredom thatcan sometimes slow the painting process down a lot. While it does tend to extend out paintingprojects at least you are always working towards something bigger and as longas you are painting and improving your skills who cares how long it takes.

Speaking of switching up painting projects, I am nowgoing to finish a half-finished model from my Blindwater Congregation and thenmove on to painting up a Gatorman Posse. Kind of excited actually, I am going to be painting up Gammera!!!! Also known as the Ironback Spitter…and tomake it worse, I am using the color scheme from a pokemon. Yeah, I went there. It all started as a subtle little joke thatDuane said the first time I played my Blindwater Congregation against him and Ibrought out my Ironback Spitter. Hechuckled, made some off-hand comment about painting up my then unprimeredIronback Spitter to look like Blastoise and I ran with it. I probably shouldn’t have, but I did and Ihave a half-painted Ironback Spitter that is in desperate need of being paintedup. So that is my next project and hearis the teaser picture.

Pretty risqué huh?

Da'Bears!

2011-12-13T21:27:00.000-08:00

Well at least A’Bear!

After what has taken too long on a model that should havetaken me a day to paint…maybe four hours tops, Lug is finished. I am still trying to figure out where all ofmy painting time disappeared to. Oh well,time to move on and stop worrying about it.

Lug is finished and that is all that matters. I am going to put the sealant on him sometimelater today when it is not quite freezing outside and like the other SearforgeCommission models I have, Lug will eventually receive a small patch of staticgrass to add that last little piece of something extra to the army theme.

I have already started on Brun Cragback and I should havehim finished the next time I get a good chuck of time to just sit andpaint. I have finished up Brun’s armorand now I just need to paint up the flesh tones, the weapons, and the bracersand then he shall be finished as well.

I do need new brushes however seeing as how just aboutevery brush I have is starting to either curl or the bristles are starting tosplay out into fan shapes. Pretty muchnone of the brushes I have are holding a point anymore. My poor detail brush is so curled that I haveto hold it at a 90 degree angle to get the paint where I want it on themodel. Let me tell you, that is fun(please notice the sarcasm here), sometimes it comes in handy but not as oftenas you’d like to think.

Oh well, I am hoping to get some new supplies in a few weeks;I’ll just have to work with what I have until then. I am still trying to decide on what to workon next, do I finish out the last of my two primed Searforge Commission modelsor do I move on to the Blindwater Congregation?

Hmmmmm…what to do, what to do. Maybe I'll make some terrain, you know venture into unknown territory.

Who knows?!

Slooooooooowwww Dooooooowwwwnnnnn

2011-12-08T16:54:00.001-08:00

Things have hit a slow down for me. I can think of lots of reasons why but mostlythey just end up being pretty lame excuses. Life shall be the broad category that all those excuses and reasons gounder…needless to say; I haven’t painted quite as much as I should have thismonth. I am just about finished with Lugand if I am going to try my best to get him finished up this weekend.

Once I get Lug all done I am going to move on to BrunCragback. He doesn’t look like aterribly hard model to paint up since at least a 2/5’s the model is taken up bythe cloak, which I have already painted up. After Brun, I am not really sure what I want to do. I still have Durgan and the Blaster to paintup but I kinda want to get started painting up some BlindwaterCongregation. I have also decided in myinfinite wisdom to do a project log for one of the model(s) I paint up for theCongregation.

Why you might ask…and the answer comes back as I don’t know. Not like I am using a huge range of colorsin my models. Most of them run about 3main colors and then a few washes and a couple layers of highlights and shadowsbut I do get a clean looking model out of it and that is what I want. Maybe documenting every stage will show meplaces where I can introduce a new step or add an additional color. For example, I was reading in the back ofHordes: Domination how they studio painters painted up the Swamp Horror…aretarded amount of insane steps. The modellooks amazing but holy jeebus, after reading that project log it made merealize how much of a novice I am at painting and how little I know about colortheory.

I also had the chance to see one of my friends paint upsome Retribution models. Quick and simplehe says. Admittedly on the warjacks Icould tell it was pretty much all airbrushed but his Warcaster Kaylyssa wasjust beautiful looking and he says it was a ‘quickie’. I cried a little bit on the inside. Just goes to show you that practice makesperfect. One day, in ten or twelveyears, I’ll get to that point, one model at a time.

This is what I have accomplished in the past two weeks…Iknow be amazed for it is truly underwhelming. Hopefully next week I’ll have a finished giant bear! I actually did quite a bit of small detailwork. I finished up the padding underLug’s armor, added a layer of silver highlights to the armor, blacked out the leatherstraps and metal rings, and I even did up most of the leather straps around thebear’s torso. I made the spurs on thearmor look like bone spikes, so while I didn’t finish Lug, I did a lot of stuffto get to the goal of finishing him up.

All pix no brains

2011-11-28T20:07:00.001-08:00

Well I thought I had this great big post brewing in mybrain but I don’t, so here are some pictures of my progress with Brun Cragback & Lug.

More amazing verbal discourse to follow next week.

The Four Primes

2011-11-22T09:22:00.001-08:00

I am back in business. My two cans of P3 primer showed up from Minaturemarket.com and I am backto painting again. I didn’t sit idlewhile I was waiting. I picked out thebases for the minis and made sure that they were drilled and pinned and readyto be primered up. As soon as I got the order in, I primered up a Grundback Gunner, Durgan Madhammer, Brun Cragback & Lug. I did have theinternal debate of if I wanted to prime Brun Cragback & Lug in white orblack. In the end I decided to primethem black because I really didn’t want to have to chase down all the littlewhite spots that I know will crop up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I am taking the easy way out. I figure once I am done with those four figures for my Searforge Commission list I am going to take a break and work on my Blindwater Congregation army.

Speaking of Brun Cragback & Lug, I am starting withthose two first. A dwarf and his pet polarbear just say something primal and while I look at their stats and I see a niceone trick pony, it will be nice to paint up something slightly different for mySearforge Commission list that isn’t mostly green. There will be some small things that tie themin with the army but over all they are going to be standalone models in theirown right.

I'll post pictures of my progress on Brun & Lug next week.

I do like the idea of the models though and I can seewhere Privateer Press got their inspiration for the models. Can anyone say the opening sequence of Worldof Warcraft with a Dwarf Hunter and his pet bear? That was the first thing that came to my mindwhen I saw these figures a few years back. Now I can’t really say where Privateer Press got the idea for these twobut like most of the Minion Mini-Warlocks pairs, they are beautiful sculpts andeach one compliments the other very well.

The one glaring issue I can see with them is the limitedcontrol range of the models do to the low Fury score. 3 Fury equals a 6” control range and sincemost of the Warbeasts are speed 5 or more, on they charge they are moving 8”and charging right outside of their control range so they can’t be forced tobuy extra attacks or boost attack or damage rolls. This is easily managed by positioning theMini-Warlock first and then getting off the charge with the other guy but againyou have to be careful because now the Warlock can charge out of the controlradius. I guess I’ll just have to playit safe with the Mini-Warlock’s and their Warbeasts.

Time to switch topics for a few paragraphs or so.

This past weekend there was supposed to be a Tournamentfor Warmachine/Hordes down at the Armory…I say supposed to be, because onlymyself and one other person showed up. Talk about a total let down. Forthe past three months every other Friday night saw at least 6 to 10 peopleplaying their Warmachine or Hordes army. The campaign nights saw at least 8 people getting in games.

I had high hopes that the tournament would have at leastthat many people…

And my hopes got flattened like a poor infantry modelgetting squished between a Ghordson Basher and a Khador Juggernaut. Man, how disappointing. Two people. Two people showed up and I was one of them. For the past three months I have been talkingup this tournament during the campaign nights and telling people they would beable to play their campaign lists in the tournament. It seemed like folks were pretty jazzed aboutit and then nothing, nada, zip, zilch. Seriously! What the *#$%people!?

To say that I was disappointed would be anunderstatement. I understand that peoplehave stuff to do, I mean life happens. Iknow of two players that had to work due to folks quitting and accidents, I knowanother player was going out of town with his family. One player couldn’t find a ride, hell Ialmost wasn’t able to show up on time because my wife was doing something atthe gym and wasn’t going to be back until 12:30 - 12:45 but I still got therewith a few minutes to spare. Maleficarum showed up about 30 mins afterI did and we both kind of looked at each other, shrugged, and threw down a 35ptgame. Our game was rather enjoyable and eventhough I lost due to poor positioning on my part (block an escape lane) for myWarcaster or possibly better positioning by Maleficarum I still had a greattime. I did end up playing Major Marcus ‘Siege’Brisbane with a ton of infantry which was a pretty drastic change for me.

Anyway, off to paint!

A-10-Ton-Wrecking-Ball-of-Destruction-with-Legs

2011-11-16T11:07:00.001-08:00

I know I am a bit late on the post this week. I have been closing at work and that meansthat in the mornings I am taking care of my little girl. She has decided that she wants to gobble upmost of my attention and I can’t say that I am disappointed by this.

I did finish up the Basher, and like the Avalancher Ijust don’t quite feel like it is finished yet. There is some extra detail that I need to add to it for ‘completeness’sake. I want to put some sort ofnose-cone art on the Basher but I am not really certain on what I want todo. For the moment, I am going to callthe Basher done at least until I can figure out what else I want to do toit. I am also waiting till I finish a few more models before I put the tufts of grass on the bases for the models. I know I am not going to need a lot to add a nice touch but I am still leery about ruining the finished models I do have. Only one way to find out and that is of course going to be just gluing the grass in place.

So far, I think the Basher was the most challenging pieceI have had to paint up for the Searforge Commission. The Driller, the Avalancher, and the Gunbunnywere rather straight forward. I knewwhich parts needed to be done up in metals and which parts needed to painted upin the green, with the Basher however I had to constantly go back to thepicture on the Privateer Press website. Also some of the angles just sucked to try and get my paint brushesinto. The Basher was fun to paint allthe same and I can’t wait to toss it onto the field on Friday night andhopefully crush some face with it.

I am however stuck in the mud at the moment. My primer is all gone and I am staring atfour figures that are crying out to be painted up: Durgan Madhammer, Brun Cragback& Lug, and a Grundback Blaster (not necessarily in that order). I placed an order with Miniature Market (www.miniaturemarket.com) since bothof the local stores didn’t have the primer I prefer which is the P3 Primer. Now I am waiting for it to show so that I canresume my painting.

I will probably end up working on Brun & Lughonestly, since they will be included in my 35pt list for this Friday. I was hoping to have the unit of HighshieldsI traded for or Bartertown but due to some ‘issues’ they won’t be showing uptill after the Campaign Night and Tourney. Not that I am worried of course, as long as I am painting something thenI am making progress.

Once I finish painting up Brun & Lug I have adecision to make.

Do I keep painting up the Searforge Models or do I take abreak from the Rhulfolk and start working on my Blindwater Congregationagain. Either way I am painting upmodels that I really enjoy looking at and also really enjoy playing (got in agame with my gators and had a blast, my buddy posted the battlereport on hisblog which can be found here). I had areally fun time doing all sorts of gator-throwing shenanigans…I didn’t win thegame but I did have a gator-chucking good time.

Guess I have as long as it takes for me to paint up Brun &Lug to figure out what I want to do.

And the rambling starts again.

2011-11-07T20:19:00.001-08:00

If I had to use a word to describe myself as a painterand gamer it would have to be ‘scattered.’ I really can’t manage to stick to any oneproject/army/faction/ for a very longtime. Maybe ‘Game ADD’ or ‘Faction ADD’would be a better description. Let’sexamine the armies I have played for 40k.

Space Marines – Pick a chapter, I have probably playedand painted a small portion of it, Eldar, Orcs

Tau. I have ownedfigures for just about every army. Painted up quite a few and sold most of them off. I am currently in possession of a BloodAngels Army (painted up or will be…maybe as the Lamenters).

Now let’s see what I own for Warmachine and Hordes…startedwith Cygnar, sold them off, got back into Warmachine, got back into Cygnar,bought Circle Orboros, sold Circle Orboros, bought Retribution, soldRetribution, bought a smattering of Mercs, I know own a sizeable Merc Army andcan field a Highborne Covenant List or Searforge Commission, I have enough modelsto field a Khador Mangled Metal list, and I own a Blindwater Congregation Armywhich I tried to sell but it didn’t sell so now I am buying more models for itand playing it.

Yeah…that was one huge run on sentence, and I am proud ofit.

Now where does this rambling lead to, simply put I like themodels as much as the game so I want to play all of them, especially withWarmachine. I am not denying that Ihaven’t been feeling the 40k bug lately as in the past few years not for lackof trying…or the 2 Space Marines armies that I have picked up and or soldoff. I think I need to pick a Factionand stick to it. The Necrons came outlast week and they are pretty sweet looking but a part of me looks at how longit took GW to update their codex and I cringe on the inside. 3 Editions later and the Necrons finally getan update…at the end of this edition’s run. So 3 more editions later and they might see an update? Hmmmm…I like the figures, they are sexy, thenew Codex is very nice but not sure I want to put a ton of investment into anarmy only to have it fall by the wayside in short order.

Space Marines…ugh…to much bouncing around on my part withSpace Marines. I don’t think I want toever want to play Space Marines again, I am sure that I will, eventually, butnot for a while, please refer to the second paragraph. Orcs were fun…to many models though. Tau…meh. Guess that leaves Chaos or Eldar again. I have never really had an interest in Imp Guard but I do really likethe varied aspects of the Eldar. TheEldar were actually my very first army way back in the 90’s and 2^ndEdition Warhammer 40k. I bought theEldar Battleforce when they last released with special edition Autarch and thensold it off for my new again Cygnar army, though I kept the Autarch. Now I am actually debating painting up thethree Eldar Figures I have; Maugan Ra, the limited edition Autarch, and theBone Singer (From the Dawn of War RTS Game).

Of course this will have to wait until I finish paintingup some Blindwater Congregation, some Searforge Commision, and some Cygnar,maybe a few Khador models. Hahahaha, Isay that now but we all know how ‘scattered’ I get.

Anywho, no pictures this week. The Basher is almost finished so I shouldhave something to show for it next week. I might take a brief moment to paint up the two Boneswarms I got since Idon’t see them as being terribly time consuming to paint, but since I am out ofblack primer, they may have to wait until I can get more.

Basher to the face! SURPRISE!!

2011-10-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

I know that I was remiss my duties last week and did notmake a post on the blog. I was justbusy. Plain and simple. This week, I figured I would get a jump on thepost and get it posted today instead of Monday. I have been painting. I paintedup a Driller for the Armory …I painted it pink! Oh yeah, that bad dog is pink as pink can get! I have already taken it down to the Armoryand set it up in the display case. Isuppose I should have gotten pictures of it first but I wasn’t thinking. So while I wasn’t exactly painting up a modelfor my Searforge lists, I was at least painting up a Searforge model.

I have started in on the Basher, I know I said I would beworking on a Ghordson Blaster, but who can resist a 10-ton-wrecking-ball-of-destruction-with-legs! Seriously! Who?! Certainly not I! Oh no!

Per my usual I have started with the metal parts firstsince it involves the messiest step, the drybrushing. I have also selected the Basher’s base anddrilled the pre-requisite holes to mount it. Actually I used the last of my last P3 Primer on the base. I have one of the 50mm bases left fromDragonforge and it is being used for Brun Cragback and Lug, both of whichshould be coming in soon. Chris and Idid a trade and he is ordering them in for me. Sweet Jeebus! A Dwarf and hisDancing Bear of Death are a comin’ to my lists!

I am still unsure on how I am going to paint some sort ofnose-art on the Basher though. I am debatingpainting teeth around the bulbous part of the model where all the studs are. Kind of like a lamprey’s mouth, just a circleof teeth. Speaking of nose-art, I didfinish up the Avalancher, I added the highlights to the gold and the bolts butI didn’t put anything on the shield. Seeing as how I haven’t killed anything with the cannon yet, I feel thatit would be inviting the Dice God’s Divine Wrath and the Avalancher wouldn’t geta chance to blow anything up. Once I startgetting kills with the Avalancher I will paint on the kill marks and then takea picture or two to post.

One a different note, it looks like James and Games is nomore and Matrix Games has been born from the ashes of a poorly run businesswith a less than savory owner. Allen,the owner of Matrix Games is very nice and amazingly enough has run a businessbefore. I had a chance to go in and talkwith him the other day and was immediately impressed by his plans for MatrixGames. Our dialogue was open and honest,we briefly touched on what happened over a year ago, and he told me, ‘New store,new start.’ Allen came across as verylaid back and very nice. His lady, whowas behind the counter when I came in, was also very polite, though I do notremember her name. I know shame on me.

Allen told me that he is going to do a Hordes: DominationRelease event…so since my Gators didn’t sell on Bartertown or down at the Armory,I am going to take that as a sign from the Dice Gods that I am meant to learnand play the Gators (Thrid times the charm right?). So I bought the newWarlock for the Blindwater Congregation for the Domination Release event and Ihope to play him during the event and wreck face with him. If I can get the time off of course.

Speaking of the new hotness…GW sure does know how to makeme want to play 40k again. The newNecron models look absolutely amazing! Wow, just wow! They lookcool. And being the fluff whore that Iam, I am going to pick up the new Codex. From what I saw in the White Dwarf, GW finally fleshed out the Necron’s,every pun intended, backstory. There isone model that I am buying and painting up just because of how awesome helooks. Imotek the Stormlord or something like that. Anyway off to paint a bit and then off to fix a friend's computer.

Every day I'm Shufflin'

2011-10-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well my plan to put the varnish on the model todayfailed. When I was getting ready tospritz the model I realized I needed to add a layer of high-lighting to thegold and that I needed to add some wash to the bolts on the shield and I neededto add a few big teeth to the bottom and…and…and…

I am going to add a few touch up details to the modelbefore I apply the finish. I was alreadydebating adding the bottom teeth anyway. I suppose I should have just listened to that tiny inner voice that toldme it was a mistake to glue the model together. BUT instead I squashed that tiny little inner voice in my excitement todrill more tiny holes in the model and pin the chest on the chassis!

I don’t think it will take me very long to do the touchup work.

Again these models are pretty easy to paint up. Don’t get me wrong, 2/3rds of any warjack youpaint is pretty much done with metallic and seeing as how I have not evenattempted to do the NMM (Non-metal-metallics) I have a sure-fire easy 3 stepprocess to great looking aged metal.

Step One: Prime model black

Step Two: Paint metal areas with Tin Bitz

Step Three: Drybrush boltgun metal

As if you didn’t see that one coming. I have only been talking about it for whoknows how many posts. At any rate, Ihave been doing a bit more than just painting the green on. Of course the color of primer makes no bigdifference but because I am trying to paint up the models a tad quicker, I amusing a black primer (so much more forgiving than white) followed by a layer ofGretchin Green Foundation Paint (GW), a wash of Devlan Mud (GW), a coat ofTraitor Green (P3), and then edge-highlighted with a mix of Traitor Green andBleached Bone.

I also really want to do something with the shield. Ithink to continue along my ‘nose art’ scheme with these guys I am going to putkill markers on the shield. Now I justhave to figure out what type of kill marker to use. I’ll probably end up going with a bulletsilhouette marker for each kill or a bullet silhouette and hash marks. I got the idea when I was cruising GoogleImages and saw all the bomb markers on the nose cones of the WWII Bombers.

Either that or that shield face is going to become onelarge set of chompers. All pearly whiteand ready to bite!

So now next week I should have up a finished picture ofthis guy and hopefully I will be on my way to finishing up another gunbunny, thisone of the Blaster variety.

Gunbunnies a go go! Well, Gunbunny...

2011-10-10T21:14:00.001-07:00

Yup…I finished a Gunbunny. Impressive I know. Ph33r my l33tn3ss!! Watch out folks…this gunbunny is gonna wreaksome face! Anyway, moving on. I finished up the first Grundback Gunner andgot him mounted on to the Dragonforge base.

One of the folks on the Privateer forums suggested a bitof flocking and I agree, while I like the bases color scheme they do happen tobe a bit plain. Joel gave me an idea fordoing little tufts of yellowed grass sticking out of the cracks. Not a lot, just a few tufts here and there toadd that extra touch to the base while keeping it as rock-like aspossible. Now I just have to go and buythe flocking I need.

Unfortunately that is going to have to wait until nextmonth as I have blown my discretionary miniature budget for the month and Ithink next month is going to see me purchasing either Brun Cragback and Lug ora full unit of Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps and the Officer. Obvious Brun and Lug are a bit cheaper but Iguess it just depends on what I put into the list.

Enough rambling I suppose. As with all of the Warjacks in the army, Ikept up with the ‘toothy maw’ theme I have going. At first I painted a top and bottom row ofteeth but it just ended up looking like a red and white diamond pattern, so Iscrapped that and painted the outside teeth all longer and vampire-like so asto inspire fear in the enemy.

Of course realistically (hahaha, fantasy game…nothingreal about it) the Gunner stands all of 4’10” tall, according to the FoW:Mercenaries book, while the Driller is at 11’6” tall, so really the Gunner isan ankle-biter. Not that it hasn’t put afew boosted Pow 12’s into its fair share of enemy models and earned its 3ptsback just about every game.

And back to reality I go.

I am currently working on the Ghordson Avalancher and Iam hoping to have it close to finished by next week. I have been pinning together the HorgenholdForgeguard so they have gobbled up a bit of painting time but I have made solidprogress so far and hope to keep up that trend.

Until next week…

Gunbunny Sneak Peak

2011-10-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

I promised pictures of my first gunbunny and so Ideliver. No real excuse as to why it isn’tfinished I just haven’t been painting much last week.

Nothing crazy really…except for the fact that I got in myGhordson Avalancher!!

Step 1: Pick the appropriate base for the Avalancher

Check!

Step 2: Drill holes into base and then bend the leg of theAvalancher so that when you glue the other leg on to the base it is ‘flush’with the stone

Check!

Step 3: Assemble the rest of the model and realize youglued on the arm holding the shield is put on wrong, use a pair of pliers torip off the glue that set way to fast so you can glue it on the proper way andhave the shield not stick out way to far

Check!

Step 4: Assemble the gun arm (assemble means pins + glue= solid piece of pewter)

Check!

Step 5: Leave chest piece off so that you can paint it separatelywith a cool looking toothy-filled maw.

Check!

Step 6: Post preview pic of the Avalancher!

CHECK!!!

A mid-week treat!

2011-09-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

After a half a dozen tries to get the 'look' on the bases that I liked here they are completed and sealed and ready to rock!

Gorton and his Driller

Gorton Grundback

Ghordson Driller

On Monday I will hopefully have up some pictures of a Gunbunny a.k.a. Grundback Gunner.

Cheers!

Drilling deep

2011-09-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

The first evening for the Slow Grow Campaign kicked offwith 8 people showing up for the night, including myself. There were also two folks who could notparticipate that said they would like to jump in on the next 25pt night andanother who was off camping with his family. Color me impressed. I was notexpecting that many people to show up. Iam by no means complaining about it. Ithink it is great! The night started offearlier in the day actually when I called up Chris and requested 18 feet worthof table space in the front room of the shop.

Two of the participants actually showed up a bit earlyand laid claim to the tables any way so I guess it all worked out any way. We got started a bit later than I would haveliked but that didn’t prevent folks from getting in at least three games, ifnot more. I was only able to stay tillaround midnight due to a special little girl getting me up early and I did haveto go in to work on Saturday as well. Italked with Scott and he said folks stayed playing till around 1am.

That rocks! Thenext campaign night is on October 21^st and will be at the 25ptlevel. On a side note, I sold off thelast bits of my Retribution of Scyrah which allowed me to purchase Thor, anAvalancher, and two Grundback Blasters. So guess I am in for a pinch in for a pound kind of thing with theSearforge Commission. For my 25pt list Iam going straight Searforge Commission and will have Gorton, a Driller, aGhordson Gunner, a Ghordson Blaster, a full unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard,Thor and his marshaled Avalancher

I have to say that I have really enjoyed my games withGorton Grundback and Co. so far. While Ionly won one game out of my three I have to say there is a ton ofpotential. I won via Scenario/Objective,lost by Scenario/Objective, and lost by assassination. The fact that the army is tough as nails isnice. I am used to squishy infantry andranged jacks (by choice). The SearforgeCommission is anything but that.

Their infantry is fairly easy to hit but most of theinfantry is rocking a 16+ ARM via Defensive Line or Shield Wall. Both Units of infantry also have rankedattacks for great screening/speed bump/tarpit potential. The Heavy warjacks are easier to hit than aMenoth or Khador warjack but have a 19 ARM themselves and plenty of damageboxes to go around. Also…and call me oddfor liking this but they are all fairly plain in regards to special abilitiesand attacks. Don’t get me wrong Rhulicwarjacks have their fair share of nifty goodness but compared to Cygnar theyare ‘utilitarian’ just like their fluff describes them.

The moment of the night was when my Driller gutted aSkrone Gladiator Heavy Warbeast with one round of attacks. He had some help from Gorton and his spell,Strength of Granite, but I don’t think I have ever completely boxed somethingin one hit with a Cygnar Heavy. I mighthave but I don’t remember. I charged inthe Driller after popping Gorton’s feat to drag it into range (and off of acontrol node) and then swung in with its drill arm (which has sustained attack)and rocked it for a fair amount of damage, then the grappler arm swung in andhit for over 30 damage, two focus later and two more 25+ damage from the Drillarm equaled a gutted Skorne Gladiator.

Well anyway, I am off to work on the bases that I gotfrom Dragonforge. Next week I’ll have upcompleted pictures of the bases and their attached figures.

Hello, is there a Dentist in the house?

2011-09-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

Okay scream at me now, I deserve it. I am a day late on posting up my painting progress for the week. Now to answer your question, yes I have made progress. I am almost finished with the Driller. All I need to do is do some highlighting on the edges and then seal the model and he is done. As you can see I decided to paint on a toothy-filled maw onto the guy before I did the highlighting. Not really sure why but I did. I am super excited though! My order from Dragonforge.com shipped yesterday. I am hoping that it shows up this week but I know I won’t have it ready for Friday Night’s campaign. It is okay but I was really hoping to have them in time. I know that Jeff ta Dragonforge.com is just one guy doing all the work so I guess I can forgive him…this time! That man has my respect to do what he does as a full time job (at least I am guessing at that is all he does)I am looking forward to Friday Night’s campaign games. I am coming in as an underdog with my list…well not really. Any list can beat any other list in Warmachine and Hordes…some lists are just a bit tougher to crack than others. I talked with one of the guys who is showing up Friday Night and he is bringing the Speed/Crack that is Legion of Everblight. Now in and of itself that isn’t a bad thing, however he is bringing Thagrosh, a Carnivean, and Angelius. Dear God! Not another one of those crazy ass lists that is just going to be a holy terror at low point levels. I was hoping to avoid any more Karchev-overpowered stupidity at low point levels…well I supposed there is no Karchev this time around but I don’t think Thagrosh is any better. At least I’ll have fun trying to crack that list with a new army.

I have gotten in one game with Gorton now and while I lost the game due to a bad damage roll (CURSE YOU DICE GODS!!!) I did realize that Gorton is a bruiser as a Melee Caster. He only has five focus and really needs to have a few of his ‘jacks marshaled but at 15pts I’ll take what I can get. Also…I don’t own to many other Rhulic models (yet) and so I am using what I have. I like my odds of winning more than a few games on Friday Night. I just have to be smart in how I play my list. Speed lists will give me some grief and the Thagrosh list is going to be a challenge but I think I can take it.

All in all as long as the games are fun, win or lose, I am happy.

May the anvils never fall silent!

2011-09-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

One more model down and three more to go! I am really gunning hard to make sure that I have my 15pt lists painted for the campaign night on the 23rd. I finished up Gorton and I got him sealed. Now, the only thing I am waiting on are the bases I ordered from Dragonforge.com. I placed the order on the 6th and the sculptor says it is a 7 to 10 day delay to get everything sent out. I have a few more days, so I don’t know if I will have the bases in time for the campaign night but that doesn’t matter because the painting can’t stop!

I started laying paint on to the Driller Heavy Warjack. Pretty solid hunk of metal, on and off the table. It has the same speed as a Menoth and Khador Warjack but it can pack a pretty mean punch. Currently the model is in two pieces. I have glued (well I should say re-glued) the arms, legs, and body together. I left off the chest piece because I wanted to make sure the entire chassis got painted and because I want to do some freehand one the chest piece and it will be easier to do without it glued to the model.

Again I started with my staple technique for doing metal. Tinbitz with a drybrush of Boltgun metal on top of it. Easily 3/5’s of the model is metal so within a few hours the metals are almost done. I know have to go in and pick out which parts I want to be done in the gold hue that I used on Gorton. When I do that it will take a bit longer because I no longer get to do the sloppy work. While I laying down the initial Iyundan Yellow layer, I’ll also put down the Gretchin Green layer on the armor plates and probably wash the green with the Devlun Mud wash.

I have to admit that these models are painting up rather quickly. I am putting all the effort into them that I have in previous models with the extra step of washing the model to give an additional layer of shading. I am highlighting the models and try to do little extra things with them but even with all the extra things happening this little project is still going pretty quickly…for me at any rate. Remember I am the world’s slowest painter after all.

The hammer falls...

2011-09-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

So here are the pictures that I have promised.

I have only had about 3 hours to work on Gorton Grundback but I have gotten pretty far on him. I started by doing the metals. Following my usual pattern, I first layed down a base coat of Tin Bitz (Citadel) and then I drybrushed over the Tin Bitz with Boltgun Metal (Citadel). I really like the ‘aged’ look it gives to the metal, hence why I do it so much. I then got started in on the next biggest part of the model which is Gorton’s armor. I put down a few smooth layers of Gretchin Green (Citadel Foundation), followed by a heavy wash of Devlan Mud (Citadel Wash), and finally with a top coat of Traitor Green (P3). I edged the armor with a mix of Traitor Green and Bleached Bone (Citadel). It added a nice little high light to the armor and separated all of the armor plates nicely. The pictures are pretty dark so that separation is a bit hard to see…one of these days I will get myself a proper light-box.

The next thing I am going to do is work on the rest of the metal parts. Kaleb K. told me a great technique for getting a very ‘warm’ gold and I am going to use it on Gorton. If I can pull it off, this will also be the technique I use on the golds for the Constance Blaize list. It starts with a coat of Iyanden Darksun (Citadel Foundation), followed by a coat of Titanium Gold (Tamiya), and a light wash of Devlan Mud. Again this creates a great ‘warm’ gold color that I think will compliment and offset the dirty nature of Gorton’s armor.

Gorton has been painting up fairly quickly. I know he is a small model but the detail on him is still pretty solid. I have been wanting to paint and to play the Rhulic Folk for a while now. I am not sure why I am always drawn to the Dwarf factions in all the games I play but I just am. Dwarven Bloodbowl Team: The Pistonberg Steelers. My last two D&D Characters have been Dwarves. I even had a Dwarf Army for Fantasy…not that I played it but that is beside the point.

I like the look of the models, pretty simple really. The gun-bunnies (a.k.a. Grundback Gunner and the Grundback Blaster) are great little light jacks; the Driller, the Avalancher, and the Basher all have a great look about them. The infantry models are solid (every pun intended) and while they don’t have a lot of choices, I like the aesthetics about the faction as is. Now I am not playing a Searforge Contract this time around. I am playing these mercs as a part of the Highborne Covenant which gives me access to some other great models that offer a ton of tactical variety. My initial 15pt list is Gorton Grundback, a Driller, two Grundback Gunners, and a unit of Gun Mages. The jump up to 25pts sees me add the ATGM Officer and a Mule (Critical Devestating Sniped Cannon fire = fun). At 35pts I will add in a full unit of Forge Guard, the Piper of Ord, Gorman Di Wulfe, and Thor.

These seem to be a pretty sound set of lists…of course no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Dystopian Wars Goodness

2011-08-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I forgot to make a post this week. So I am going to stick with the adage: Better late than never. I guess this past week was a bit busier than I thought. I finally quit Best Buy and have embarked full time upon my career as a pharmacy technician. I am hoping within a year or two to either be working for the VA or for one of the local hospitals. Any way on with the painting/review news…

Joel and I have gotten in a few games of Dystopian Wars. I really like it.

A: It is a naval warfare game (Land, Air, and Sea to be honest)
B: It was fairly easy to pick up for me and Joel, but keep in mind we are Veteran Tabletop Wargamers.
C: For me at least, it is something totally new

There are a few issues that have cropped up but both of us have looked at them and then make a decision that kept the game flowing. The lack of having clear deployment zones is a bit annoying but a quick search of the forums shows that most folks play with 6” to 8” deployment zones or as if your forces are just moving onto the table. Aside from having to wait a while to gain access to the forums, most of the rules questions that Joel and I have had were pretty easy to find on the forums and I have seen that the folks at Spartan Games are fairly quick to answer most questions that do get posted.

The game itself is dynamic in its nature. Both players roll a D6 and the player with the highest roll deploys one squadron, then the other player deploys…back and forth, back and forth, until all squadrons are deployed. Then both players roll a D6 and the player with the higher roll goes first. He activates his squadron, moves it, and then fires with that squadron. The next player goes and again it is back and forth, back and forth, until all squadrons have moved. When the next turn starts roll a D6 and again the player with the highest roll goes first. So the player who goes first each turn can possibly change.

Pretty awesome in my book.

Each unit has multiple guns and can fire them each activation; gunnery, torpedoes, bombs, mines, and rockets to name a few. Each squadron also has multiple counter measures to potentially lessen the hit from the attack. Ack Ack, Concussion Charges, Shield Generators, and more.

Again pretty damned awesome in my book.

I really am enjoying myself with Dystopian War. I have also started painting up my fleet. I magnetized all of the turrets (Standard & Energy Turrets) and the turret emplacement on all of my ships. I primered them black because I’ll be damned if I try to use white primer on those little buggers. I used Tin Bitz as the undercoat for all of metal on the ships and the tiny flyers and then I drybrushed over the Tin Bitz with Boltgun Metal. I then started in on the Tiny flyer bases. Man…15 bases with three tiny airplanes on each base = lots of tiny aeroplanes to paint. I’ll get some pictures up next week; I haven’t had a chance to snap any shots with the camera.

But…finishing my fleet will have to wait. I have sent out the info about the Slow Grow campaign that I am starting down at the Armory, and because I am running it, that means I have to get off my butt and paint up my Merc Force. Oh…and go ahead and /facepalm on me because I have decided to get rid of my Blindwater Congregation force after all. Yeah, I know…I said I wasn’t. Sorry. At any rate, I am going to work on my Merc list which stars Gorton Grundback and his Rhulic Warjacks, which I have honestly wanted to paint up for quite some time now. I’ll start working on Gorton Grundback and his battlegroup tomorrow.

Next week, I will have pictures of both the Dystopian Wars stuff that I have been working on and also my progress on Gorton and Co.

Black or White...and no I am not talking about Michael Jackson

2011-08-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

Oh white primer, how I try to love you but I just can’t. Actually on certain models I really dig the white primer. I like the lighter undertone that it gives to the model and for those vibrant colors like yellows and even reds; it just tends to make them pop. However, this comes with a pretty hefty drawback. White primer is not forgiving….at all.

I have had a model finished and right when I get ready to go and seal it, I notice this little white dot tucked away in the nether reaches of the model that is just staring at me and daring me to paint it. Oh how I hate those little white dots. So I find my tiniest brush, I get out as close to the color as I can get of the surrounding paint, which at this point has been layered up nine different ways from Sunday, and I gently try to exterminate that white dot of doom that is just staring at me. I am successful about 50% of the time and don’t screw up the paint. Not so much the other 50% of the time however and the resulting clean up takes about another hour to make it look passable to the not so discerning eye.

I figured I would go with the White Primer on my Covenant of Antarctica Fleet and try this spiffy new washing technique that I learned from Aaron at NorCon. Looked pretty snazzy actually! I bought the flow aid, diluted it per instructions, mixed it with the paint and the water to get that skim milk consistency and started washing my primer’d white model. Everything was groovy until I started painting on the model and dear lord did I miss a metric shit ton of spots. Disgusted with myself and only a few hours in, Dystopian Wars are on a 1/1200 Scale so a few hours is really an almost finished model if you aren’t getting all detailed and shit. Some of the paint jobs at the Spartan Games forums are rather impressive FYI.

So I dunked the whole fleet in Super Clean, busted out a tooth brush, brushed off the P3 White Primer and grabbed my trusty can of P3 Black Primer, a few spritzes later and poof…I now have a black primer’d fleet that will be much more forgiving of my screw ups and mistakes. The detail on these models is crazy impressive. Just insane really but honestly, I just want some playable painted models. Nothing award winning, not that I am there yet, but something that will look good on the field and won’t be just a primer’d model. So I am going to do a few very simple layers.

- First Layer: Base Coat (obviously) – Debating on going with a grey scheme or a green scheme (Gretchin Green Foundation Paint)
- Second Layer: Wash – Devlen Mud!
- Third Layer: Drybrush – With what every color I decide to go with as my base coat
- Add some sort of striping or pattern in a darker shade
- Pick out details (such as deck plating, metallic surfaces, windows, turrets, etc…)
- Done

Sounds fairly simple in its execution and it should churn out a pretty clean and table-top quality models. I just have to make sure I write down all of the paints I use and on what layers so that if I pick up other models, which I invariably will, I can recreate the scheme without having to re-invent the wheel so to speak.

I did however run out of Badab Black wash while washing the fleet and typing up this blog…

/sigh

One stone at a time.

2011-08-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the late post, but at least I am tossing up a post. I have just about finished up all the Dragonforge bases. All the tile work is done, the three different colors the drybrushing to ‘age’ the stone and then just need to finish painting the rims of the bases black. I am going to leave the arc markers off of the bases until I glue the mini onto the base and get it all positioned up. Then I will paint in the arc markers.

Well it doesn’t look like I will be getting much painting done this week. Had an outpatient procedure prep yesterday, the outpatient procedure today and for the rest of the week I am working 16 hour days at both jobs…joy. I have decided to keep this one short and sweet because I really need to catch up on some sleep.

Soon I shall begin painting up the Army of Light...soon.

Square Cut MADNESS!!!!

2011-08-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

It has been a week now since I have started working on the bases that I purchased from Dragon Forge. The clean up on the bases was done as soon as I got them, they had been washed, all the flash trimmed off, and ready for primer and so I did exactly that as soon as NorCon was over.

I have been putting in a few hours each night on the bases, primer’d the bases black, then painted them with a super thin coat of black to fill in any of the spaces that got missed in the cracks and crevasses (and man are there a lot of them). Just for chuckles, I even washed all the bases with Devlan Mud.

I then went in and separated all of the bases into two categories: ‘broken’ and ‘whole’ and then separated them again into like bases for the 20mm sizes. I did this so that I could avoid having each tiled base look the same. Well…I did this after I figured it would be a good idea to do this so that each tiled base wouldn’t look the same. Ah the joys of hindsight. There are a few bases that have the white tile (which is actually Astronomican Grey) that are in the same place but once the figures get put on them, I doubt anyone will be able to see them or really care. Once that got sorted out I just started the batch painting.

On the dirt sections of the broken tiles I went in with a basecoat of Bestial Brown, applied a heavy Devlan Mud wash, did a Graveyard Earth drybrush, and then the final layer was a light drybrush of Kommando Khaki.

All of the bases follow a similar pattern. Each of the 50mm bases have four ‘white’ tiles and four brown tiles, the 40mm bases have three ‘white’ tiles and three brown tiles, and the 20mm bases have a minimum of one ‘white’ and one brown tile but no more that two of either color. The rest of the tiles are painted with Adeptus Battlegrey and then a final highlight/drybrush of Rainy Grey (part of the Master Series Paints by Reaper) to add the weathered look to the tiles. I haven’t painted any arc markers on the bases yet but for all intents and purposes I have finished one base. I do need to go in and put down one final coat of black before I paint on the arc markers. I am pretty pleased with the results.

1 base down…46 more bases to go.

It is actually going pretty quickly. I put in two hours last night and finished putting down the Adeptus Battlegrey layer on last 50mm base and on all five of the 40mm bases. Once I am done posting to the blog tonight, I am going to try and finish at least 10 of the 20mm bases and then the real fun begins.

To say that this is a vast project, for me, is pretty accurate. It is fairly daunting but I plan to see it through to completion. When I have finished all of the bases, including arc makers; I get to work on Constance Blaize and her battlegroup. Now that has me excited.

I switched up her list a little bit since my initial post/announcement of what I was planning on doing. I still have Gallant in her battlegroup but I removed the Centurion (waiting on the plastic kit to release for this one) and have replaced it with an Iron Clad and a Lancer. Gallant is fairly focus efficient due to his Accumulator and on most turns will only need one or two additional focus to be fed to him The Iron Clad is a cheap-Cygnar-version-Beatstick Jack and with three focus just run it in, Tremor special attack, and then scrap something quick. The Lancer is in the battlegroup for the occasional use of the arc node and the much coveted reach weapon for the Sword Knights.

I am still deciding on how I want to paint up Constance and her battlegroup. Constance has this alabaster white armor…which while it looks great in the art work, I don’t think I am going to really like it on the fig, I am still up in the air about it and I may decide to challenge myself by trying something new again like I am doing with the Lamentors Space Marine Army. I am also debating on doing the brilliant silver look for her and her warjacks. I’ll start out with a darker metal like Boltgun Metal and then follow up with a Chainmail and have the final highlight of Mithril Silver. In between the Boltgun and Chainmail, I’ll probably toss in a Badab Black wash, thinned down of course, to add an additional layer of depth. I may or may not attempt the white on the warjacks but I am still having issues getting the whites to look smooth and not so chalky. As of this moment though I am leaning towards the gleaming metal look for the entire army; I did just watch Excalibur(1981 edition) and their gleaming suits of armor looked really damned sexy and have really gotten me psyched about doing this ‘knightly’ army.

On the flip side of the painting coin, I have decided on the 15pt list I am going to field for the Slow Grow Campaign I will be hosting down at the Armory and the Blindwater Congregation will be represented in all of its glory by Bloody Barnabas, a Blackhide Wrastler, an Ironback Spitter, and a Bull Snapper. Should be pretty fun and all I have to do is finish up the Ironback Spitter (which is already half way finished) and the 15pt list will be all painted up and ready to play!

So until next week folks…

The end always means a new beginning...

2011-08-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, NorCon 2011 is over. I have finished (for the moment at least) working on the Lamenters and I can finally start in on the Tale of Two Tiers project!

Of course I have already started the Tale of Two Tiers in a small fashion, I ordered in a few sets of the Dragon Forge bases, the ‘Square Cut Slate Tile with Round Lip’ bases to be exact. I decided to go with the Square Cut Slate (for short) because I wanted that walk-into-a-temple type feel to the army or maybe more-of-a-bunch-of-holy-warriors-marching-along-the-palisade-at-the-front-a-church-type feel.

Needless to say the bases are beautiful…and I haven’t even painted them up yet. Well, I have primer’d them and I did a quick black wash to get in all the cracks and crevasses that the primer missed but…I haven’t even painted them and they are amazing!

As soon as you get a batch of these bad dogs in your hand you know there is something cool about them. They are solid resin, so they have some weight to them. All the flash is along the bottom of the base and it was very easy to clean up. Also, there is no warpage at all, the bottoms are completely flat. The tops are well detailed and have a certain texture to them like they really are miniature tiles of slate. In my opinion, they are worth the money for some great looking bases that will add a nice unifying theme to my Constance Blaize Tier 4 list.

Now my big decision ahead of me is do I use the ‘classic’ Iron Clad and Lancer which are made out of pewter or do I go with the new plastic kits. I am kind of leaning towards the plastic kits because I have already assembled the Gallant upgrade on a new plastic kit and I would like to keep Constance’s battlegroup fairly uniform. Looks like I made up my mind already…it is a good thing I have one of the new Cygnar Battleboxes already and I can just cannibalize models from that. Eventually I will have to replace them for the demo kits, but at the moment I think I am safe.

And now for a change of Topic.

Hi, my name is Grant McMasters, and I am addicted to table-top Wargames. I know I have a problem but I have no intention of fixing it! Suck it!

So yes, I am admitting to myself and the random amount of people that read this blog, that I am a Mini Wargaming Whore! 100% through and through. To solidify my position on this I am going to be trying my hand at ANOTHER tabletop war game called Dystopian Wars.

Something totally different than Warhammer 40k or Warmachine/Hordes (/rant Fuck you Warmahordes people, I am going to say and type both of them separately until I die! It is Warmachine and Hordes, stop being so fucking lazy! /rant off). Dystopian Wars is a Victorian Era Steampunk Naval Battle wargame from Spartan Games. They also make Uncharted Seas and Firestorm Armada as well. I ordered the rulebook tonight and I have talked with Joel and Jon into joining me in this mad endeavor!

Per my usual recommendation to folks that want to get into Warhammer or Warmachine/Hordes (HA!!! See look at that...seperate), I went to the Spartan Games website and picked out the Nation that most appealed to my aesthetic side; which turned out to be the Covenant of Antarctica. Through a bit of research I found out that the Covenant of Antarctica hadn’t been release yet, so I decided to go with the Federated States of America (something about Paddlewheel steampunk ships just spoke to me).

I jumped online to purchase the rulebook for Dystopian Wars and added the Federated States of America starter box to the list, when low and behold…what dost my eyes see…but the Covenant of Antarctica starter is releasing today! So out went the Federated States from the online order and in went the Covenant of Antarctica!

Time to learn another gaming system. Hahahahaha! What can I say I am a glutton for punishment!

Speaking of punishment…Chris down at the Armory and I are trying to revitalize the Warmachine/Hordes (BWHAHAHA, I did it again) crowd. The gaming community around here is predominately Games Workshop, so I am going to have quite a bit of work ahead of me. But!! I did it once here in Redding before the dark times happened, so I know I can do it again.

Starting in September, I am going to start up a Slow Grow Campaign in hopes of breathing new life and interested back into Warmachine and Hordes. I talked with a few people at NorCon and they seemed genuinely interested in starting lists and getting into the game, so that gives me hope.

First month will be a simple 15pt list. Everything is allowed provided you can fit it into 15pts. Chris and I both agree that painted Miniatures are preferred but not required. Second month sees a build up to 25pts and finally the third month sees 35pt lists…hopefully with some form of tournament at the end.

Anyway enough rambling for the night…I have 47 bases to paint! Pictures next week I promise.

Not forgotten, just delayed

2011-07-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't forgotten about the blog, I am trying to finish up some figs before this weekend for NorCon 2011 and so I am devoting all of my free-time to that.

Normal postings, with pictures even, will start up again next week when I begin to blog about the Army of Light. All of the pieces (sans Runewood who releases in Sept) are in and so it is time to start gearing up for that project.

The lazy end

2011-07-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

There comes a time at the end of painting every model , I mean right near the end where there are just a few things left to paint to finish the model up…where I just can’t wait to finish the model so I can move on to the next one. This time, at the end of a painting a model, however is not a good time for me; I get super lazy and don’t want to work on said current model anymore because my brain has already started in on the next model.

I am at that point now with the Death Company…with three death company models actually. Most of the work is finished. I just need to do up the tear-drops and blood vials, touch up the weapons, and do the flock. I also have to do the freehand work on the shoulder pads. It sounds like a lot of work but in reality it is a few hours and I can call it good.

I just don’t want to finish them; I want to get started on painting up Constance Blaize and her Army of Light. I have taken the first step and ordered all of the required bases from dragonforge.com (around 45ish or so) and I am waiting for them to come in. I figure I have about 10 days then to finish up the Death Company for the Badab War Campaign that a friend of mine is doing for our local gaming convention up here in little ol’Redding before the sexy new bases come in and I completely forget about painting up Death Company for a while.

I don’t have the motivation though, so I suppose I need to find it and fast. I’ll work on them tonight of course and I’ll grumble about painting them but I will work on them. Stupid me and painting deadlines, I never quite manage to stick to them, no matter how many I set.

Just a short post, need to actually sit down at paint…looks like I found my motivation.

A Tale of Two Tiers

2011-07-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

So in a remarkable fit of self-restraint, I have chosen NOT to purchase a Khador Army for a Tale of Two Tiers. What I have chosen instead is to work with the models I currently possess and work on painting them up instead.

Don’t get me wrong, I will have to purchase a few models here and there but currently I pretty much own at least 90% of the models for both Armies.

But Grant, you are all saying, WHAT is ‘A Tale of Two Tiers?’

Pretty simple actually…I am going to work on painting up two 50pt Tier 4 Lists.

I have always liked the fluff that Privateer Press puts out. It is one of the main reasons why I love the game…it isn’t a static story line that gets ret-conned every time a new edition/codex comes out to make it all fit together. Privateer makes all their stories flow fairly well and the continuity between books is amazing. The figures are generally pretty damn beautiful (there are some I look at and wonder), plus I like the rules-set much better than Warhammer 40k.

Being the Fluff Whore that I am, I have been itching to put together a Tier List and I have really been itching to play a ‘Knight’ Theme list with Cygnar. With the release of Wrath and Constance Blaize, I can play that fluffy Knight themed army with her Tier List. Admittedly, her Tier List is okay and like most tier lists you lose out on a TON of options and/or versatility for your Army (Pssst…when I play her in a High Bourne Covenant List, she will have a few Nomads to work with), but you do however get a pretty sweet Theme to work with. So here are the two lists I will be working on.

Tier List One: Army of Light
Battlegroup:
Constance Blaize, Knight of the Prophet
- Gallant
- Centurion

Units:
Precursor Knights x10
- Precursor Knight Officer & Standard
Precursor Knights x10
- Precursor Knight Officer & Standard
Sword Knights x10
- Sword Knight Officer & Standard
Field Mechanics x4
Field Mechanics x4

Solos:
Journeyman Warcaster (Alt Sculpt)
Archduke Alain Runewood
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One

Thoughts on the Army of Light:
I own all of the figures except for those figures that have not yet been released and one unit of Field Mechanics. I am not entirely sold on including two units of Mechanics and I can go one of two ways with them. I can either field a full unit of 6 Mechanics (with 1 point left over) or I ditch both units and include a minimum unit of Sword Knights. Any way you look at it, I will have to buy one more unit to make the 50pts

Tier List Two: Apex Predators
Battlegroup:
Bloody Barnabas
- Blackhide Wrastler
- Blackhide Wrastler
- Ironback Spitter

Units:
Bog Trog Ambushters x10
Gatorman Posse x5
Gatorman Posse x5

Solos:
Croak Hunter
Croak Hunter
Croak Hunter

Thoughts on Apex Predators:
I will have to purchase a full unit of Gatorman for this list…and seriously who doesn’t love some Gatorman!? The Ironback Spitter is optional and can be swapped out for some Bull Snappers; still kind of one the fence out this one thou.

Now, not to contradict myself here, so I am going to just toss this one out there:

I do remember saying that I didn’t like Hordes or the Fury mechanic very much (I am still not a big fan of it), but after seeing my Gators on the field the other day when I let a friend borrow them so we could play a small 15pt Mangled Metal/Tooth & Claw game, it made me really want to finish painting up the Minion figures I have. I currently own Bloody Barnabas, Calaban the Gravewalker, 1 Gatorman Posse, a Full Unit of Bog Trogs, 3 Croak Hunters, the Feral Geist, 2 Blackhide Wrastlers, 2 Ironback Spitters, 2 Bull Snappers, the Swamp Gobbers, Alten Ashley, Victor Pendrake, Wrongeye & Snapjaw, and a Thrullg. Might as well get them all painted…eventually! Hey I am only human and therefore fallible. Plus I may have mentioned it once or twice, before I have Faction ADD pretty bad.

That being said…this project is by no means going to be a quick project. I am not the fastest painter in the world and some of the units are going to take a bit longer than the others. Most of the Gator figs are screaming to be drybrushed and honestly they look pretty good on the table. The majority of the ‘Knights’ are done with Metallics and so should also progress along at a fairly decent pace. Other figs are going to need a bit more love and attention to work with, yes I am looking at you Croak Hunters.

So there you have it. Two 50pt lists to be painted one figure/unit at a time till they are all done. Looks like I need to order those bases from Dragonforge.com after all for the Army of Light, you know, since my Gators all have spiffy bases…I hate to see one Army get jealous of the other.

2 for 2!

2011-06-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, so far so good, this is 2nd week in keeping true to posting to the plog. I have been painting. I wish I could say that I have been painting more, but I haven’t. Working two jobs can really put a crimp in the ol’paint time. Usually my two jobs don’t gobble up a lot of my time but this week and next week are going to be rough. Between both jobs this week I am working between 40 to 60 hours. What makes it bad is that I go to my first job from 7am to 2pm and then I usually have to be at my other job by 4pm and stay till 9pm…by the time I get home the last thing I want to do is paint…needless to say, I am pushing to get in an hour a night. For NorCon, which is a local gaming convention in Redding, I am to take part in the Badab War Campaign. I have committed to fielding 500pts of Space Marines.

I have chosen to play a Blood Angels Successor Chapter, the Lamenters. I am fielding a Reclusiarch, 5 Death Company w/Jump Packs, and a Death Company Dreadnaught; the models count amounts to about 500 or so points, give or take a few. I know this doesn’t seem like a lot especially considering that the Death Company are basically painted black with a few splotches of color.

So why am I having such a hard time actually painting up these models. I had a great time painting up the Chapter Commander Malakim Phoros that I scratch built and I really enjoyed painting up my converted Reclusiarch Abraxas. I think I am having a hard time painting up the Death Company because the Death Company are just different versions of the same model and are fairly boring to paint.

I can hear you all now…most miniature games only have a few sculpts and I do understand that it is more cost effective to have a few sculpts than each one being an individual sculpt. I can also hear you saying, “Well, why don’t you just convert your figs?” Pretty easy to answer really…limited funds and lack of belief in my own abilities, more of the former than the later really. Also I have a few new models for Warmachine coming out and I really want to paint them up and my painting ADD has kicked in hard.

Anywho…enough woe-is-me-bullshit.

Speaking of painting ADD and faction ADD and Game ADD, I think I am going to try and paint up two 50pt Tier 4 Lists for Warmachine different factions. Roll your eyes, I know you are, hell I am rolling my own eyes but that doesn’t change the fact that I really want to do it.

One list will be headed up by Constance Blaize leading her Army of Light. The other faction will be Kommander Harkovich, the Iron Wolf leading the Wolf Pack.

Constance Blaize’s list is filled to the gills with Precursor Knights, Sword Knights, Mechanics, two Heavy Warjacks, a Journeyman Warcaster, Harlen Versh, and Archduke Alain Runewood…around 42 models total.

I am still working on a list for Kommander Harkovich, but I know it will have three Heavy Warjacks, two Man-o-War units, Man-o-War Kovnik a War Dog, Kovnik Joe, and some Morter Crews.

Two totally different armies and two totally different playstyles…now let’s see if I can actually do this. Here’s for hoping!

Warmachine: Wrath

2011-06-21T17:19:00.001-07:00

I figure it is time for me to at least make an attempt at writing in my plog/blog again. I know it has been a few months and so I look at myself as an abject failure as far as being faithful blogger to the 7 followers I have.

Finding 30 minutes to write up a post sometimes is the most difficult thing in the world. I never realized how much crap I put on my plate. Two jobs, two kids, wife, working on a 7th Sea Campaign, writing characters for our LARP down at DunDraCon (sometimes), wargaming every other Friday, RPG Night every other Saturday night, playing entirely too much Xbox…you name it the list could possibly go on and on.

I know that there is a lot of ‘free time’ activities in my lists and that once a week I could take a few moments to write up something quick, and that is what I am going to try and do. So I make a solemn vow here and now: To the best of my abilities I will attempt to post at least once a week to this blog. Please, everyone, take this with a grain of salt but I will try.

So here we go.

Man, I love Warmachine and I don’t care if I am the only one that still shows an active interest in this town or that I am the only one that really got super excited about the release of Warmachine: Wrath.

FYI, the fiction is awesome and I highly recommend reading ALL of the fluff from Prime Mk. II and all of the Forces of Warmachine books before reading the fluff in Wrath.

Two things happened for me with the release of Wrath. I can now play a Knightly Orders Theme Army thanks to a new Knight of the Prophet Warcaster, Constance Blaize, her character warjack, Gallant (both have already been ordered thru the Armory), and Archduke Alain Runewood (a Sword Knight Solo).

In Mk. II, the Sword Knights got hit with the nerf bat pretty hard. They lost a ton of great abilities that pretty much made them an auto-include in just about any list. I love those little guys. Now they are super cheap; 6 points nets you a unit of 10, 8 points if you grab the unit attachment, add in Runewood (3 points in case you are wondering) and now you have a Unit that gets ‘Jack Marshall, Defensive Line, Flank, Penetrating Strike, Practiced Maneuvers, , Precision Strike, AND Reform. You get all that for a mighty 11 points. I am not even taking into account the other stuff that Runewood does on his own.

That is 2 points cheaper than a full of Trenchers plus Unit Attachment…1 point cheaper than a full unit of Longgunners and Unit attachment; and on top of that you can have two units of Sword Knights (only one unit attachment thou) for 17 points total…and both units benefit from Archduke Alain Runewood’s abilities. Phew that is a lot of ‘and’s

BUT SERIOUSLY HOLY SHIT BALLS BATMAN!!! That is a ton of little melee guys running around with a HUGE ass utility-belt full of abilities

Toss in the mix two units of Precursor Knights + Unit Attachment (Go go Constance’s Tier) along with a Journeyman Warcaster, and another heavy ‘Jack and that is just about 45 models on the board…all with pretty solid Melee Abilities. So happy! Sooooooo happy! Can’t wait to play this Army.

The second reason for me that happened with Wrath is my love of the 9 point ranged ‘Jack and I get another one. Yeah I know Cygnar usually pays more for their ‘Jacks because of “their superior technology…blah blah blah” but I just got a 9 point ‘Jack (or will have two of them when the Kit releases) based on the Centurion Chassis (one of my favorites by the way). This guy is an absolute badass mofo that is going to make the local meta (me and myself) cringe when I bring this bad-dog to the table and start firing off Range-10-Direct-Hitting-Power-14-Earthquake-shells from its sweet ass looking Seismic Cannon!!! A SEISMIC CANNON!!! And a Pow 18 Sword that causes the Stall Effect.

OH DEAR SWEET JESUS!!!! I just popped a chubby thinking about this thing and some poor kitten just died somewhere….

Go go Utility Jacks, good in at Melee and at Ranged

Quick Lesson in 9 point Ranged ‘Jacks that Cygnar has:

Defender – Reach out and Touch someone with a pow 16 howitzer shell
Cyclone – Dual Chain Gun Wielding Board Controlling craziness
Avenger – Who says sit-down-shut-the-f-up-and-don’t-go-anywhere for a turn or two…

Now imagine if you will, Kara Sloan running one or two Defenders and an Avenger, supported by Gun Mages, Rangers, the Black 13th, Holt & Aiyana , and Reinholdt…and you have just seen the vast majority of my future lists.

Earthquake to knockdown the screening models, and allow for Kara to line up 3 Weapon Master pow 12 hits on an enemy Warcaster followed up by 2 shots each from some Defenders and two more shots from an Avenger. Oh boy…another chubby…be right back.

…
…
…

Okay back…and another kitten has died.

Of course around here the people don’t like it when I line up shots with Kara Sloan and her battlegroup through that half a nanometer space between the bases…so a common saying has sprung into existence: Grant, these models are in Base-to-Base Contact!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Makes me laugh every time someone says that. Go Go LOS Rules and Volume Rules. If I can see your base, I am taking the shot…oh wait, now I get to knockdown your cover and get to see even more of your base?! EVEN BETTER!!!! Looks like I get to add even more names to the List of Honorable Dead

Bite me Base-to-Base Contact!

And I’m spent.

Until next time…

Painting ADD

2011-04-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

As per my usual, it has been a little while since I have posted anything to the plog. The nice thing is…is that I am still painting. I have decided to put my Blindwater Congregation Army on hold. I know, I know…I said that I was going to continue to work on painting up my Blindwater Congregation Army while I was working on the Lamenters. I stopped for a few reasons:

1) The local meta has chilled to Warmachine/Hordes pretty considerably in the past few months. Occasionally there is a game but honestly, I got tired of waiting four hours for someone to show up that might have a Warmachine/Hordes army to play…hence why I picked up some 40k figs again. Most folks are playing 40k and as a Wargamer, I want to be able to play games myself.

2) I just don’t like the Fury Mechanics of Hordes. This is the 2nd Army I have bought for Hordes and there is something about the Fury Mechanic that I just don’t like. The models are beautiful, don’t get me wrong. Early game, Hordes is over-powered.; the ability to purchase a ton of extra attacks, or boost the attack/damage roll, or even the ability to shuffle the damage off to a Warbeast. It is all a part of the Fury Mechanic. Come late game however the Warlock loses a ton of hitting power due to the attrition game. My tactic against a hordes list is to drop the most powerful Warbeast first. This usually means the opposing player loses out on their high-fury Warbeast and there is an immediate draw down in power for the warlock. Rinse, Recycle, Repeat, and possibly by the second or third turn, the Warlock is down to a couple of fury a turn and is hampered by their lack of heavy hitters. Now the Warcaster starts to shine…getting focus every turn regardless of Warjacks on the board equals a Warcaster that has a constant utility and survivability through every turn of the game. Yes, losing a Warjack hurts but it doesn’t directly affected the Warcaster. However, losing a Warbeast directly affects the Warlock effectiveness by loss of fury generation and loss of a spell.

So I am willingly calling myself a liar. Sorry folks, hate to disappoint, but on the upside, I have been painting, in my typical, slow as a snail, painting method.

I finished my Death Company Dreadnaught and I am fairly pleased with the results. However, my freehand skills are well, sucky to say the least. I decided to do the Lamenter’s Space Marine Chapter because of the challenge it presented to my painting skills: Free-Hand, Yellow, Layering & Blending. So far I am up to the Free-hand part and it is pretty “bleh” to me. I know the saying that we are our own worst critic and oh yeah…I am mortified by my free-hand. It will get better as time progresses but I see this model and want to claw out my eyeballs with a rusty spoon and smash my face into a brick wall and then go run and hide in shame from my lack of free-hand skills. (sigh) BUT…I won’t and I am going to leave it as is and eventually go back and touch up after I have gotten a few more free-hand checks and hearts.

I have also put down quite a few layers on to Malakim Phoros, the Lamenter’s Chapter Master. I am to the point now where I am going to be doing up some of the small detail work and starting the cloak. I hope to have him finished by week’s end.

So until next time!

Completion Issues and Space Marines

2011-03-08T16:56:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had an issue finishing a model?

Especially when it is a model you are just not too keen on painting? I am sure most of us have…and the model I am finishing up isn’t an exception to this little issue. First off let me preface this little statement by saying, I absolutely love Kara Sloan. I love her fluff, I love her spell list, I love her feat, and I love the assassinations I have pulled off with her…that being said, I really hate painting her model! The model is just boring to paint and she has been half painted for months. I figured I could take a little break from my Blindwater Army and finally finish painting up one of my three favorite Warcasters for Cygnar (the other two being Siege and Caine). I mean half painted and killing fools seems like an injustice to the model

All I am going to say is wow; I can’t wait till she is finished. Maybe it is her pose (not keen on the whole gun in the air pose) or that I have waited for so long, but I am finding that I am just trying to get her done as fast as possible. Really, this just means she will be table top quality, which is kind of a shame. I like having my ‘character models’ look better than the rank and file troops; as it should be, but I want her done and off my painting desk as soon as possible. Tonight, seems about right.

I must confess to a few things though.

A: I am going to be trading off/selling off about 2/3rds my Cygnar army in anticipation of the new Warcaster, Constance Blaize – Knight of the Prophet. I am going to get rid of the stuff I just don’t use. Cygnar to me equals Arcane Tempest Gun Mages and Knights (Sword & Precursor). The lighting theme is pretty sweet and I like the idea of Lightning Theme but I have never played that theme and I don’t plan on starting now. Give me guns, guns, a few more guns, with a side of guns, topped with a bit of guns. I have always liked the idea of the Precursor Knights and the Sword Knights. In the ‘Wrath’ expansion, both units are getting some lovin’! So stuff has to go to make room for the swelling ranks of Knights and Gun Mages

B: I am working on a Warhammer 40k Army for a local Campaign, the Badab Wars.I have recently purchased a Box of Death Company, a Storm Raven, a Blood Angels Dreadnaught, and Lamartes. They will be getting converted and painted up in the livery of the Lamenters Successor Chapter. I have to have the models painted and ready to go by the end of July. Even me, the world’s slowest painter, can do this.

So far I have converted Malakim Phoros, Chapter Master of the Lamenters (from Imperial Armor 9), using parts from the Death Company sprues, the Sanguinary Guard spures, and the Space Marine Commander spures. I also have the Storm Raven in three pieces as I am painting it from the inside out.

Now that having been said let me say this. I will still be working on my Blindwater Congregation Army. I have one of my Ironback Spitters primered up and ready to go and I am also going to be getting my Gatorman Posse ready for priming as well.

Now for a special treat!

I am proud to present you all with the first image of Malakim Phoros, Master of the Lamenters, Lord of Ruin, Watcher of the Deeps

One Blackhide Wrastler to go please. Thx!

2011-02-28T19:38:00.000-08:00

Well it has been about a month since my last update. I got my glasses in…finally, which is sweet. I got pretty damned sick of not being able to see as I am sure you can imagine. That also meant that I no longer had any excuses to not paint.

That being said, I finished up my Blackhide Wrastler for my Blindwater Congregation list. I went with the studio theme of green. I don’t know why, but I like how the greens all work together. I am debating on doing up my next Blackhide Wrastler in the brown scheme like I put on Bloody Barnabas. I like the idea of separating the duplicate beasts by using browns instead of greens. Brown and green work rather well together as a theme so I have no doubt that if I do decided to switch it up the models will work well together, aesthetically speaking of course.

I did finally get in a game with the Gators and let me tell you that I pissed off the Dice Gods something fierce. Lacking dice, I grabbed the dice I use for my Cygnar lists. Nice opaque grey. They work well with my Cygnar which are painted up in the Fort Falk alternate scheme. Well…I should have known better, and yes you can say “I told you so!” Dear lord did those dice hate being used for the Blindwater Congregation.

I don’t even think I can claim average rolls that night. Needless to say when I needed them to roll well they didn’t. It was fairly typical for my dice to roll just under what was needed to hit a model and then if I did actually hit to roll a pip or two above minimum damage. And as if that wasn’t bad enough when I had to roll a Frenzy check, they box car’d…TWICE!!! Twice, with different warbeasts. Well one roll was an 11 and the other roll was a 12. And THEN to just add lemon juice to the wound, the dice rolled max damage to eat a Gatorman.

(hangs head in shame)

I can just imagine the conversation between the Gatorman and the Blackhide Wrastler right before the most horrible accident in Blindwater Congregation history took place.

Blackhide Wrastler: Hey Tom, how’s the clutch doing? I hear your lady pushed out twelve of those babies in short order.
Gatorman Tom: Oh yeah, man was she pissed. I was blamed for everything. Armageddon, Ragnarok, The Rapture, the kitchen sink being dirty! I seriously thought she was going to bite my arm off.
Blackhide Wrastler: Wow…sounds rough. Hey hold on, Bloody B wants me to go chew apart that Everblight chap over there.
Gatorman Tom: No worries, B can be a total ballbreaker I understand, do what you have to do bud.

(Scene deleted due to too much intense violence)

Gatorman Tom: Damn Bud, you tore that mofo a few new ones...Hey, wait a second, why do you have that look in your eyes? Calm down, just calm down!! NO NOT MY LEG!!! Aaaaarrrrgggh I only have one arm left!!!! Oh god, ma’face!
Bloackhide Wrastler: [frenzy attack: auto boosted for MAX DAMAGE, CARNAGE, AND DESTRUCTION!!!] NOM NOM NOM!!!! (burp) Tom? (looks around) Tom?! Hey Tom, where did you go. Meh, oh well. Seemed like a pretty nice fella.

Oh yeah, my Blackhide Wrastler did more damage than any other model in the game. Of course, he did that to one of my gatorman and pretty much ate the gatorman as a light snack...although I am fairly certain the Blindwater Congregation follows a gator-eats-gator kind of philosophy.

So while I was down at DunDraCon 35, I made sure to pick up some new dice to only be used for my Blindwater Congregation forces. Green Speckled and everything; I hope my choice appeases the dice gods.

Do you hear that Dice Gods! No more using the wrong dice! Now bless my damned rolls and let me rip the faces off of my opponents and win the rest of my games!!

Amen

No Painting to Report

2011-02-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Well haven't been doing much painting lately...my glasses broke in a way that no amount of glue or tape or other amazing adhesive could fix, but my Blackhide Wrastler is almost finished and soon as I can see again, I shall finish him up and get pictures posted.

The Mad Bull Snapper that snaps at midnight!

2011-01-23T15:13:00.000-08:00

Finished up my first light warbeast for my Blindwater Congregation army. Technically it is the second one I painted up. The first Bull Snapper met a grizzly fate in vat of Castrol Super Clean engine degreaser as I stripped all the paint off of it because I totally screwed it up. It was a pretty sweet paint job and I figured I would just do this one more thing and it would be totally awesome looking...

Well 'one more thing' turned into like three more things and the sweet looking albino bull snapper turned into poo. So I stripped it and started over in the more 'traditional' scheme.

The only thing I hate about taking photos of my minis is that when you use the macro function on a camera...you see EVERYTHING. When I hold the mini it looks pretty clean and then you take a picture and it looks like a ton of extra stuff got added to it. Oh well.

The Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Himself, Calaban the Grave Walker

2010-12-30T22:30:00.000-08:00

Just finished up my Calaban and I am pretty pleased with the results. I know I could probably do tons better on him if I was more than just a part-time painter, but on the table top he looks pretty sexy. I liked the idea of painting up the two Warlocks for the Blindwater Congregation radically different.

I know you are supposed to have a prevailing theme through your army’s paint scheme but can’t them all being reptiles count? Well most of them at any rate, the Swamp Gobbers and Bog Trogs not withstanding…or the feralgeist or the Totem Hunter or Prof. Victor Pendrake but the rest of them are all reptiles.

Anywho I like how he turned out. I am especially proud of the glowing ‘crystal’ skull and the Voodoo Mask. The stupid thing is I got the colors for the mask from the Sen’jin Fetish vanity pet from World of Warcraft. I should hang my head in shame but they just worked so well together and I didn’t really care for the studio mask look. At least I am done playing WoW, nuff said on that one.

I finally put the front arc markers on my feralgeist. So figured I’d snap a few shots at the same time. He was all about getting drybrushed which is a fairly common idea with this faction so far. All of the shading and highlighting is done via drybrushing and washing. It makes for some pretty quick paint jobs. I finished up the feralgeist in about two hours if you count assembly, flocking, primer dry time, and then actually painting.

Now I have to decide what to paint up next. I have three Croak Hunters that arrived on Christmas Eve or I can work on getting the Warbeasts painted and finish out the battlegroup for my two warlocks or I can paint up the Gatorman Posse (which will be super easy…more drybrushing) or start in on Wrongeye and Snapjaw…so many choices and I am a super slow painter.

It amazes me how people will crank out six to eight hours of painting a night. I admire their dedication. I get in about an hour and a half, maybe two before:

A) My back starts giving me hell
B) I get bored and must do something else
C) I go play video games and kill stuff in a genocidal rage

Any amount of painting makes me a better painter and in the long run that is all that matters!

Peace out and see you on the flip side. I am off to go pimp slap the atmosphere

(In reality, I am off to bed. Night!)

Merry Croc-Mas!!!

2010-12-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

Merry Croc-Mas! (Just for you Mr. H, because I know you loved Happy Croctober)

Figured I would do a special edition update to my plog/blog. Christmas has been a blast. My entire family is in town. So my mom’s house is packed with my brother and his wife and their three kids; my sister and her husband and her two kids…then you add in me and my wife and our two kids and you can imagine the chaos that is ensuing at my mother’s house. All my nieces and nephews are great and it is always amazing to see Christmas through their eyes. This year my daughter got into the whole presents thing and enjoyed tearing all of the wrapping paper off the gifts, she also enjoyed the gifts as well but let’s be honest, the boxes are still the best presents. My son got a Nintendo DSi XL which I am already regretting buying him but one step at a time and my wife (who is an exercise fanatic) got one of those crazy heart-monitor-gps-tracking-make-you-a-cup-of-coffee-I-can-do-everything watches. I scored an IPod Touch (go go Ibodger) and of course the requisite Christmas cash, which as you can guess is a tie in to the title of this little post!

MORE CROCS!!! OH YEAH! So I now have a Blindwater Congregation list…which I have yet to play but that is but a small minor detail. I have no idea how it is going to work but I have a month and a half to prepare my list for the Tourney that is happening in February down at the Armory.

Warlocks:
Blood Barnabas
Calaban the Gravewalker

Heavy Warbeast:
Blackhide Wraster (x2)

Light Warbeast:
Bull Snapper (x2)

Units:
Gatorman Posse, (unit of 5)
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Solos:
Croak Hunters (x3), finally got the little bastards after six weeks of trying to find them
Professor Victor Pendrake
Wrongeye and Snapjaw
Feralgeist

So…again I ask, how does it work?

And again I will answer: I have no clue…but that is half the fun. I fully intended to lose a lot of games with this army while I learn the ins and outs of the lists; which synergies work best with which caster and how many of each warbeast to take. The nice thing about this particular faction in Hordes is that there are not a whole lot of models I can pull from, I suppose it could be a curse as well but hopefully Privateer continues to develop all of their factions (which they show every intention of doing). So my choice of models is limited and thus the main difference comes from the Warlocks and the flavor they bring to the lists. One of the things I like about Warmachine & Hordes is that even with the same list, each list will play differently due to the Warlock or Warcaster taken to head up the army.

With my Cygnar Army, I have sooo many choices…too many to be honest and in reality, I play a gun line. All guns all the time…this means that I can get typecast against some ‘casters in a bad way. Asphyxias or whatever his name is for Cryx who is the very much anti-range or now Bloody Barnabas. I have a bunch of models that will probably not see play anytime soon since I don’t care for how they work. Not that I am against the lightning theme that is Cygnar, I just like their Arcane Tempest Gun Mage theme more. Hence Allister Caine and Kara Sloan being my favorite casters (Fluff wise) and Major Marcus “Siege” Brisbane (cause he is just a bad-ass)

Now for Hordes I am playing an anti-ranged-all-melee Faction, at least for the moment, I am sure they will get a ranged unit or two later on. So my play style has to adapt and change to maximize how the Blindwater Congregation faction works.

I have enough models now to start playing and learning. As I get a bit more free money, I’ll slowly fill out my options and integrate the new units into my lists. I am missing a unit of Bog Trog Ambushers, a Totem Hunter, and a Thrullg. I am also missing the Ironback Spitter but seeing as how the model hasn’t been released yet I don’t know what it does (all things point towards a ranged heavy warbeast).

In the meantime, I am painting up (slowly of course) the models I do have and getting ready to trash other lists and subsequently get trashed by other players in preparation for February. I am even making swamp templates to represent the 3” swamps I get for playing the Blindwater Congregation and the 5” swamp from the “’Swamp Pit’ spell that Bloody Barnabas has. Yup…getting all fancy now with the new faction and getting in more practice with “Real Water” by Woodland Scenic. Until next time!

Before

After

Oh yeah and on a side note. Tron: legacy is well worth seeing in the movie theaters and the Soundtrack is absolutely amazing and I can’t stop listening to it.

Bloody Barnabas the Crocadile

2010-12-18T09:54:00.000-08:00

Well it has been over a month since I last posted an update or blog of some sort (Yeah, yeah, Scott, I hear your grumbling). Not that I have been idle with my time; it is more along the lines that I have had so many other things that I have been doing. Between starting up the creative prep work for the TIAT Productions LARP down at DunDraCon, playing Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, painting up Bloody Barnabas and Calaban the Gravewalker, stupid extended hours at work and planning world domination…my poor plog has been sorely neglected.

First off I suppose, is that I have indeed finished Bloody Barnabas. I even have him glued to his very scenic swamp-like base. I am pretty happy with how he turned out. I went with a ‘crocodile’ scheme vs. the green-gator studio theme and I even posted some pictures over on the Privateer Press Forums and got some pretty good reviews.

Calaban on the other hand is all about the green! Though I think I am going to stay with a darker palate throughout my Blindwater Congregation army. I do like the idea of using the colors found in nature but I can also see how the realistic alligator colors could lend itself to not translating very well into miniature painting. Calaban is green but he is not that vibrant green of the studio scheme.

Eventually I will work my way into the Blackhide Wrastlers! I think I will probably do one up as a crocodile and then one up as an alligator. I am not certain what I will do for the Bull Snappers (which I get two of on the 22nd of December) and of course the Ironback Spitters (a.k.a. gamorah or however it is spelled). I suppose I will just have to tackle that bridge when I get there.

Now the Croak Hunters are going to be a labor of love. I can tell it already. The model looks like a giant Poisonous Tree Frog that is standing on its back legs and has spears and turtleshell armor…AWESOME! These guys I want to paint up like their real life counter parts. I have three on order again… (just about every website/store I go to is out of stock on the damn things! Curse you Privateer!! Make more of them just for me!), now if they actually show up I want to paint up each one like a different tree frog. Of course I actually have to get the damned things first but eventually I will be able to put paint on the little bastards. I found this picture of a super rare tree frog and it gave me inspiration, now to translate that inspiration into my mediocre painting skills will be another matter entirely but I am up for the challenge.

Real Water, Swamps, and HAPPY CROCTOBER!!!!

2010-10-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

Well I have decided to branch out from the safe boundaries of my typical bases and I am trying something different.

Water on the Bases!!

DUNT DUNT DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHH!!!

After three 50mm bases and six 40mm bases I finally figured out how to make a convincing looking swamp-like base.

Take One: My first attempt saw me hacking out the center portions of the bases and then gluing some plasticard (Sheet styrene) into the bases. Followed by a health smattering of green stuff and Zap-a-gap to seal any cracks and holes and then using Woodland Scenics Real Water. The immediate effect was great looking. There was depth to the water and the bases looked sweet as all get out. So I waited 24 hours for the Real Water to dry...

That was when I noticed the problem. In the center of each 'swampy' area there was a divot. This nice area where there was only the thinnest layer of Real Water. I was expecting some sort of shrinkage as the Real Water dried but I was not expecting for all intents and purposes...a hole in the middle of my swamp.

Take Two: I get out another 50mm base and two more 40mm bases. Having read the instructions this time, I can only guess that I had exceeded the 1/8 inch depth on my first test run. This time around I didn't hack into the bases but everything else was painted. When I put down flock, I use white glue, then dip said base into the flocking material, let dry, and then add a watered down mix of glue and water to make sure it sticks. This usually means that I have to let the base dry for a few hours. Impatiently I waited until I got the brilliant idea to place all three bases under one of my painting lamp that puts out a lot of heat (or entropy as my college Biology Professor always called it). Forget about said bases while playing Fable III...remember about bases while talking with Scott...and discover melted bases a few moments later.

Son of a b!&#@$@#%^&!!! Mother F(#$@#*$&! G#@$(@#$ A@#$@#$

ARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!

Take Three: I got this! Redo all processes from Take TWo except this time let the glue/water mixture air dry and then apply Real Water

EUREKA!!!!! SUCCESS!!!!!

I am pretty happy with the results as you can see from the two pictures. I haven't finished up the swamp bases completely as I am still working on the models that go on them: Blood Barnabas, the Blackhide Wrastler and Wrongeye for my new Blindwater Congregation Army for Hordes. I might go look for some other swampy-things to put on the base the closer I get to finishing the models.

Breast Cancer Brawl Painting & a Mangler

2010-10-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well I know my updates are rather infrequent but I am sure that is a natural process of writing a blog. I guess I am just not dedicated enough to be considered a true blogger. Meh…ouch my poor little feelings.

At any rate this is just a quick painting update and it goes talks about the models I have been working on. One Mangler and one Woldguardian.

The Mangler is for my Drake McBain Battlegroup. I really like the default colors of the mercs palette so I am going to stick with that. This picture is of the Mangler before I did the brown layer and also without any wash. I have done more with the Mangler but I just don’t have any pictures of it. I did a super heavy wash on it of Devlen Mud because while I really enjoy ‘clean’ models they are rather boring and have no real character to them. The Mangler is also the first model that I will be painting with the majority of the paint coming from the P3 line. So far I am enjoying painting with them very much. I do plan on at least one or two more layers and then I am also going to do some EXTREME highlighting on it as well. I am still up in the air about doing another was to dirty it up one last time. We shall have to see, I might chicken out near the end.

The other model I am working on is the Woldguardian. This one is a bit special because this model is going to be my entry into the Breast Cancer Brawl Painting Competition down at the Armory. So far I have gotten most of the drybrushing done and I am hoping that I can keep my hand steady enough to get the pink into all the cracks and etchings without a tremendous amount of screw ups. Again, we shall have to see.

Keep in mind both of this models are not even remotely finished. Hopefully I will try to be a bit more frequent with my updates.

Project Battlebox

2010-09-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

Sooooooooooooo…I am super excited! I received a large shipment from Privateer Press today. I knew what was in the box, it contained the last vestiges of my Pressganger points that I earned from when I was a Pressganger. Totally stoked because contained within this box of supreme happiness was the battlebox of each Prime Faction (for those that don’t know anything at all about Warmachine or Hordes, the Prime Factions are the four factions outlined in the Warmachine/Hordes Prime Mk. II rulebooks. Go Go Gamer-slang). I crack open the most unassuming brown box to see the wrapping paper so carefully protecting four brand-new-right-off-the-assembly-line Faction Battleboxes, plus the Precursor Knights Chaplin and Standard Bearer, and what was supposed to be the Iron Kingdoms Knight of the Prophet Figure which turned out to be Potent Bradigus Thorle, Blackclad Druid (pretty darned cool figure, just not the one I wanted).

In the angry red box the new plastic sculpt of Kommander Sorscha, and two plastic monsters known as the Juggernaut and Destroyer.

The serene looking off-white box contains Grand Exemplar Kreoss, along with his Crusader, Revenger and Repenter…all in plastic of course

The necrotic green box holds Warwitch Deneghra, her Slayer, two Deathrippers, and a Defiler (psssst…yup plastic as well).

And of course, I must save the only other faction (in plastic) for last, the best faction; Cygnar!!! Within the confines of this electric blue box of legendary awesomeness is the Man, the Myth, the Legend…Commander Coleman Styrker, along with his retinue of unstoppable Warjacks: the mighty Ironclad, the noble Lancer, and the accurate Charger.

Within about three seconds I had tore open the box like it was Christmas day and was ogling the new hotness that I held in my hands. My buddy Scott was next to me and he accosted me as he ripped the Menoth Battlebox out of my hands, well not really but it is much more dramatic this way, and besides it is just Menoth…pffft.

I start opening up all the boxes and looking at all the individually wrapped plastic kits. I must say pretty damned sexy. The sculpts are beautiful. The folks up at Privateer Press have done an amazing job with their new Battleboxes. Of course they are all in a plastic/resin hybrid with these cool little socket-like joints so that you can’t screw up when you assemble them (someone will screw them up trust me). Pretty snazzy stuff…sorry to all you hardcore converters out there Privateer has some pretty harsh rules about conversions (this is the one thing I wish they would lighten up on, but not my game, so not my rules). Carefully I look at each box. Khador has shoulders that connect to the body that allow for some pretty dynamic posing of the arms. Menoth has ball-n-socket shoulders that connect to the body to allow for some pretty dynamic poses. Cryx also has a ball-n-socket type shoulder for dynamic poses…at least on the Slayer. Not much you can do on the Deathrippers or Defiler, besides they don’t have arms so they don’t count anyway.

Cygnar…Cygnar gets poo’d on. The Ironclad chassis is one large hunk of plastic. Shoulders and body are one, I knew about this since I have already assembled a Defender and Cyclone out of the heavy kit. This is mirrored on the Lancer and Charger (both of whom share the same chassis)…one big chunk of plastic.

::le sigh:: SOOOO annoyed. Such great looking models that are stuck as they are in these fairly static-esk poses…seriously!? Oh well I suppose.

::cry::

Still aside from that being the only gripe I have against the Battleboxes they are all amazing looking, each and every one of them. My hats off to you Mr. Hard-working-plastic-model-maker-guy! I salute you…feel free to spend your money on beer, drugs, and hookers. Though if you do the second part you might end up Mr. Not-so-employed-junkie-type-guy…which is no bueno.

Now onto the next part of this little blog of mine which is the announcement of Project Battlebox. Project Battlebox entails the following things.

1) Paint each battlebox. Note to all readers: I am a slow painter and I suffer from Painting ADD (as well as Faction ADD and the occasional bout of N.E.R.D. Rage). It is a rare but treatable disease that requires lots of focus (of which I generally have none), patience (lacking this one as well), and discipline (depends on if the lady is bring out the cat-o’nines, at which point I will just put down the paint brushes and go and enjoy myself…yeah right, I wish)
2) Take a few pictures
3) Post to blog

The plan is to paint up each battlebox and have it ready for use down at the FLGS a.k.a. The Armory for demo purposes and to help bring more folks into the crazy good world of Tabletop Wargames. I really haven’t settled in on a paint scheme for any of the boxes yet but I know that will come in time. I will assemble the figures and toss them into foam and play them but I do want to have them all painted up eventually. I do have a few projects ahead of them which may or may not get finished. I am currently starting work on a Wold Guardian for the Breast Cancer Brawl Painting Competition and I am getting my Mercs forces assembled and ready to field. Of course I still have an entire Battlefoam bag packed with Cygnar figs to finish…

Anyway I think the big point here is I have four battleboxes that need to be painted up. Time to batten down the hatches, tie myself to the rigging, and get ready for a long bumpy ride as I try to commit myself to finishing them…well here’s for hoping!

N.E.R.D. Rage: An Expose

2010-09-12T09:33:00.001-07:00

First off a definition from Dictionary.com:
Opinion: a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.

Second: This is my opinion and as such, my opinion is subject to change at any point and time of my choosing. Really this is just me snapping off about stupid stuff and has no actual bearing on who or what I am. Hope you enjoy the read and maybe get a chuckle or two out of it.

N.E.R.D. Rage: Never Ending Ridiculous Disputes

Usually Nerd Rage is some child or adult venting their frustration over a video game that is vexing them, according to the Urban Dictionary (credible source, I know).

I would even go so far as to expand Nerd Rage into a much broader category. No longer is it just limited to video games but I feel that it also to encompass all aspects of nerd-dom. To include, but not limited to: Pencil’n’Paper RPGs, Table Top War-games, Board games, Movies, CCG/TCG, and of course Video Games.

There also needs to be some sub-categories of Nerd Rage called:
1) Butt-Hurt Rage
2) Wish-I-Could-Move-Out-of-My-Parent’s-House-and-Get-Laid Rage
3) All-I-Think-About-All-Day-is-RPG Rage
4) I-Play-With-Little-Metal-Army-Men-on-an-Imaginary-Battlefield Rage
5) My-Naruto-Ninja-Shadow-Jutowhichimically-thing-will-kick-the-crap-out-of-your-Naruto-Ninja-Shadow-Jutowhichimically-thing Rage.

Mainly though it comes down to a bunch of nerds getting pissed off at each other because of some stupid game (and I will stress the word ‘game’ here folks). It could be as simple as a rules dispute or bringing the wrong figures or even just the fact that someone else is playing a game and you are not. Again anyway you look at it, Nerd Rage is nothing more than whining by a bunch of bitchy ass little kids and adults who have nothing better to do than waste their time and money on toys…and before anyone decides to call me a hypocrite, I am one of those bitchy ass adults who does indeed waste my time and money on stupid little metal/plastic army men, not to mention the hordes of Pencil’n’Paper RPG books that I have…some days I seriously wonder if maybe I spent all my money on the wrong stuff. Beer, Drugs and Hookers do look awfully tempting now that I think about it.

Yeah I have had those Never Ending Ridiculous Disputes about why my army will trash your army and how I have spent tens of billions of agonizing hours building an army list that then gets crushed in 2.3 seconds flat by some 6’ 2” beat-stick playing piece of ass (yeah you know who you are)…do I get upset and suffer from a small bout of Butt-Hurt Rage?

You bet your ass I do…but I think the difference is, I may complain on occasion but I don’t internalize it or take it home with me (well I try not too at any rate, some days I succeed better than others, but I am human and fallible after all). Generally I go spend another ten billion hours trying to come up with a counter to what crushed me in 2.3 seconds and hey, if I last 3.5 seconds next time before I get my poop packed in by a better list, then it is a moral victory for me and on top of that I have a good time, even when I lose.

It boggles the mind that some folks take something that is imaginary and make it so real that they live and breathe a game. I have tried to have normal conversations with these people and inevitably the conversation is railroaded and detoured back to a talking about a game…seriously talking to these people is like ramming your face into a brick wall about 100 times and then having Timmy from down the street kick you in the junk from behind at the same time while your leg is being chewed on by a rabid Chihuahua.

OR when people get so upset that you misquoted some god-awful obscure rule that you are fairly certain they pulled it out of their ass type thing and then they have the gall to call you a cheater and refuse to play you any more even though you have seen them use this same rule to their advantage 150 billion times before against some noob.

SERIOUSLY WTF PEOPLE!

Am I prone to the occasional moment of temporarily induced insanity of the same kind I just mentioned? Yup, sure am…but I will point out the ‘occasional’ and ‘temporarily induced’ part because I don’t live breathe, and eat the game. Everyone is prone to having those occasional bouts…for some people it is just one long continuous bout.

Gaming is just a ‘cute’ hobby for some of us. It is kind of like owning a puppy, only a puppy is a living creature and needs constant attention and you have to clean up the poo piles in the back yard and pay the vet bills...okay so maybe it isn’t like owning a puppy but still adults playing games is cute (like a puppy! HA!!)

N.E.R.D. Rage…not so cute.

Rather damned annoying actually. I can think of at least 3 unique instances in which N.E.R.D. Rage has caused some form of friction between people in a game store that are playing… GAMES!!!!! And by friction I mean stupid shit that directly affects me in some way, shape, or form.

I mean, it is not like Snuffy the Fire Breathing Unicorn is REAL!!! Reality equals bills and work and crying children and responsibility. Snuffy is a fictional piece of crap card or figure or character (I’ll let you pick your poison on this one) that only does something almost important when you play a game!

Hell I’ll admit that I play the grown-up version of Army Men. I’ll even admit that when I am around my fellow Nerds, my Nerd-dom knows no bounds but when I leave the game store and check myself back into reality I remember that I am just playing a game and maybe next time I’ll spend my money on stuff that matters…you know, like beer, drugs, and hookers.

Just a quick update

2010-08-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

It has been entirely too long since I have posted anything so I figured I would get off my lazy bottom and post something.

I am painting...not my Cygnar but a Menoth Vigilient. My buddy plays Menoth and I saw the model, plopped down the 20ish bucks and instantly loved the new light kit. Ball-and-socket joints abound. This is giving me high hopes for the Cygnar light kits when they come out (no I haven’t picked up the FireFly yet because I don’t play that particular theme yet). The arms are all sorts of pose-able and once I am finished the model will look very dynamic...well I hope so at any rate. It is a slow process but I have never said I painted fast.

The next little blurb is about Infinity. Such a fun game! When the webmaster over at Redding Gamer suggested I get into it, I vaguely remember uttering something about not picking up another miniature game because I was already involved into many. Well I am going to eat a bit of crow and mention that out of our group I think I have the most Infinity Models. Plus I really enjoy the back-and-forth nature of the game every turn.

The most exciting part is that there is a downloadable Army buil….errr LIST builder (I would hate to get a cease and desist order from a certain company who are being idiot nazi’s about two stupid and ultimately COMMON words) that is free and totally 100% AMAZING!!! It blows away any other List Builder out there. It utilizes Adobe AIR software and is beautiful to look at…oh and did I mention it was free.

Anywho if nothing else go download this List Builder and look at it. I now have a new standard (and it is high) for all list generating programs out there.

Here is a link to the website (it is in Spanish, I use Google Translator but go check it out) that hosts the file and to the main Infinity Website, …totally worth taking a peak at.

Devil Team

Infinity the Game

I has a coin! Hindsight is 20/20. Common Courtesies

2010-07-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well the past two weeks haven't quite been that dramatic (at least one of them wasn't). I haven't gotten any painting done in about three weeks. I know, I know, shame on me. With a looming deadline to get Kara finished for the Privateer Press Forum Painting Compitition. On the other hand, I have glued together a TON of mini's for both my Circle Orboros List and my Warriors of Chaos army so while I haven't been productive with a paintbrush, I have been productive doing other hobby related things.

Some good news to report. I did take the Ladder for the Blasted Heath League and earned the League Coin, which I happen to think is pretty cool. I ended up with about 50ish or so points ahead of the next closest competitor, which goes to show you that the Ladder (any ladder) is based upon how often you can show up. I made it a point to show up every night and get in at least one 35pt game. I lost quite a few but because I had the most amount of games played I won the Ladder. I was a bit disappointed in the turn-out of players compared to the Nightfall leg of the Shattered Grounds League but I know that there was a whole-lotta-Warmachine going on for the past 6 months and folks needed to take a break.

Some bad news to report. I have been removed from the Pressgangers for violating policy. Specifically the Code of Conduct...I didn't even make it past the first paragraph.

To be exact, this is an excerpt taken from the PG Basic Information.pdf:

"Code of Conduct

Members of the Press Gang are expected to maintain a code of conduct. You’re a legitimate Privateer Press representative on official Press Gang business! Members are expected to act courteously and professionally, always putting their best foot forward. Failure to follow the code of conduct can result in suspension or removal from the Press Gang program."

And as it says, Failure to follow the code of conduct can result in suspension or removal from the Press Gang program...and it my case it meant removal.

I messed up, plain and simple. No other way around it. While there is a huge debate going on between myself, a bunch of friends, and one of the local gaming stores as to whether I was acting in an official capacity as a Pressganger (well there is more to it than that but I am not going to get into it. Needless to say I wrote over 3 pages, single spaced, for my point of view of the problem)...it doesn't change the fact that I messed up. I got too comfortable around people and in the store and had no idea that the actions I was doing would have such far reaching consequences for me. Then again as we all know...Hindsight is 20/20.

For me at least and I know I can't speak for the rest of the human race, but if some action that a friend committed is really bugging me, then as that person's friend I feel obligated to tell that person to their face what is wrong. Hopefully my blatant honesty doesn't cost me a friend, but if it does, that is the risk I knew I was taking and I was willing to accept the consequences.

In this case however, I was completely bypassed. Instead of talking to me first, the offended party(ies) went straight to the Quartermaster. I honestly do just wish folks would have talked to me and allowed me to correct my actions before things spiraled so far out of control. It didn't happen that way and things progressed along a different course. Such is life, time to move on, and when things calm down a bit I will try and make amends with everyone involved.

I have a feeling that some people will never see any of my apologies as being sincere, no matter how many times I tell them they are but everyone is different and everyone is entitled to have their own opinion. So the best thing I can do is learn from my mistakes and hopefully never commit them again.

So from here on out I will remember all of those common courtesies that we were all taught in Kindergarten:

1) Remember to say please and thank you.
2) Chew with your mouth closed.
3) Keep your elbows off the table when you are eating.
4) If you burp, say 'excuse me'.
5) Be polite and be mindful of everyone else around you.
6) Treat others how you want to be treated
7) Clean up after yourself
8) Share
9) Win respectfully and lose graciously
10) Perception is everything

Okay, so that last two we didn't learn in Kindergarten but they are worth remembering none-the-less.

Curse you Blasted Heath!!!! Curse you!!!

2010-06-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Not really because I am enjoying playing in the Shattered Grounds League again. This means that I have barely touched paintbrush to model because my painting time is usually between 8p and 11p most week day nights. And since that is my free time I have chosen to spend that time down at the local gaming store trying to get in at least one game a night.

So far I haven't missed a night and I am 10 plus games in with quite a few points. I think I am on top of the ladder but I am not 100% certain. I guess I'll have to wait to find out at the end of the league. Win or Lose I am still having a great time and I think that is what it is about. I do have some concerns though because I am playing one of the most hyper-aggressive Warcasters that Cygnar has to offer. I am not saying hyper-aggressive in a rush-forward-punch-in-face type of way but just so useful that he is good at just about everything.

Major Marcus "Siege" Brisbane

Siege has one of the best spell lists in the game as far as balance goes. He is able to help out on the offense and defence with both ranged units and melee units, allows all friendly models to ignore line of sight, give his battlegroup the ability to ignore stealth/camo and on top of that his feat (when combined with the offensive use of his spell "Foxhole") almost always results in a caster kill.

The problem I see is that when I play him, my opponents are not always having fun. I am a firm believer in the fact that Warmachine/Hordes or any mini-game for that matter, is just that...a game. I know there is usually always a winner and always a loser but I have this infallible sense of fair-play and I feel bad when, from what I am perceiving, my opponent is not having a good time. Yeah I know what you are going to say, "Warmachine/Hordes plays aggressively and you have to go for the win all the time." Which to a certain extent is true but somewhere in there I think the concept of 'having fun' and it 'just being a game' gets lost in translation.

For instance in the last Shattered Grounds League, I played Kara Sloan almost exclusively to learn her inside and out. And I did. I would say that as far as the local gaming group goes, I am the best at playing her. Please keep in mind I am not trying to boost my own ego but when an entire group of people starts saying, "Grant, these models are in base-to-base contact," just about every time I play has to mean something. I still laugh every time someone says it because I think it is pretty damned funny but I digress.

Of course I had to play against folks to learn how to play Capt. Sloan and that required me to delve into the rulebook to find out which rules I could take advantage of. Well one of my main opponents is a very good friend of mine and we always have these drag-out-knock-down-bloody-as-all-get-out fights but during a few of the games I would look across the table and just see this utter look of absolute frustration right after I got off the kill on his warcaster. He assured me he was just mulling over the fight in his head but, to me at least, it looked like he was pissed and not having fun. Which in my opinion diminished the over gaming experience.

So now that I am playing Mr. 'Siege' Brisbane for the Blasted Heath leg of this league, I encountered another situation in where I looked across the table and my opponent, another very good friend of mine, and he just had this look of abject frustration on his face (as far as my perception goes). Part of that look, as I was told later, was due to a whole lot of sunburn and the other part was just the annoyance of playing against Siege with his ability to stop/ignore the rules of line sight. Other things where in play as well with the look of frustration, none of which I will discuss here, but when I saw the look it just kind of killed my enjoyment of the game. He assured me that he likes playing against skilled opponents so that he can become a better player and I can respect that. Heck, I love losing a hard-fought game much more than getting an easy win

I know that in order to win games in Warmachine and Hordes you have to play aggressively, the game is designed that way...but I do sometimes wonder if it is too aggressive or maybe I have gotten too competitive trying to get a League Coin that I am sacrificing my friend's enjoyment of the game so that I can get a little piece of stamped metal. All in all, I know that I will remain friends with these two and that there will be a huge chunk of kharmic retribution coming my way...at least on the tabletop battlefield.

The journey has ended.

2010-06-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well the painting journey has ended, at least for this model. I finished it up and put the seal on it a.k.a. Krylon Matte Finish. I like it. I even went ahead and added in a small piece of goodness to the base. I took the sawblade from the piece of the Decimator Plastic Kit (Boo! Khador), hacked it apart and then painted it up in the 5th Border Legion, the same scheme Joel uses, put some bullet holes in it and poofta! One Cygnar Defender from Fort Falk ready to rock'n'rolla.

I did a bit more on this model than I have in the past. Namely I washed all the recess and then did some highlighting around the edges. I am still not ready to jump into trying blending but I know that it just takes time and the more that I paint the more comfortable I become. So now that I have taken the extra steps on this model, all future models must also benefit from the extra bits of depth. It is possible that I will go back and touch up some of my older models as well...but let's not get too hasty now. I am glad this defender is finished because it just puts me one step closer to having a full 35pts painted up. Not sure which model I will start after I get Kara done, but I believe I'll only have a Charger and the Black 13th to finish.

After that I think I am going to take a break from Cygnar and either start working on my Circle (again) or finish painting up the Gorten Grundback Battlebox I have, which may just turn into a full Searforge Commission list...

The rivets are speaking to me

2010-06-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

So all the stupid rivets are done. All I am going to say to that is...stoopid rivets! But it does give the Defender a bit of depth and helps to bring out more of the character in the model. I like how this one is turning out so well. It does have a similar scheme of the first Defender I painted up but since this is an alternate sculpt it does lend itself to be different because of that.

Some of the big differences are the metal. Instead of doing just the boltgun metal I added another layer of Dwarf Bronze and then a Gryphonne Sepia Wash to mellow down the luster. I added more layers to the eyes to reflect the furnace glowing (hey baby steps...one day I might try blending even) and I am going to be doing some highlighting on 'new defender' armor ridges to bring out a bit more depth. I haven't quite figured out if I am just going to line the model with a lighter shade or if I am going to add another entire layer to the model. I guess it just depends on how much work I want to create for myself.

All I know is that the Defender is lacking something and I have a sneaking suspicion the extra layer may help a bit. I can't make the new layer too light or it won't fit in with the rest of the army but then again it has to be light enough to show as a new layer. Arrrrgh! The growing pains of becoming a more accomplished painter! I guess Kara gets to wait till next week.

/sigh

Rivets?! Why did they have to put so many damned rivits on the model...

2010-05-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

The Defender I have been working on is almost finished. In a week I have put quite a bit of time into it. I figure I should have it done by the end of the week unless some odd happenstances prevents me from putting any paint onto the model. So far I have finished up two shades of gray and I am thinking of adding a third shade of gray for some "EXTREME" highlighting and I do mean "EXTREME"...not really but I thinking at this point in my painting career I need to add a bit more than just two layers. I have decided to paint this Defender up just like the picture from the Mk. II Prime book sans the blue paint job. So far I think I am doing pretty well. Keep in mind I still need to add the yellow on the shoulder pads(?) to make it an official Fort Falk Defender and a few spots of touch up but here for the first time, presented for your viewing pleasure a comparision...

Here is a picture of the Original Artwork by *Mr--Jack (Luke Mancini)

And here is my Defender so far...

I think I am pretty close, well as long as you don't consider the lack of multiple layers of blending and a huge booming explosion out of the cannon and the fact that his artwork is amazing looking, but yeah...close. Though I still need to do some touch up on the metals. Kind of like that possible third shade of gray, I am also looking into doing a very light drybrush of gold on the bronze surfaces to 'attempt' (and I use the word lightly) some additional depth. We shall see.

I am not however looking forward to doing the rivets. I am half tempted to count them just to see how many are there but a rough estimation puts them at oh, a metric f#$@ ton of the little bastards. Still when the Defender is finished having all those little P.O.S. painted will add a nice touch to the model. Guess I should get off my butt and finish up the bronze work on the model and if all goes well, by this time next week I should have some more paint on Kara Sloan.

Stoopid Tinbitz...

2010-05-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

STOOPID TINBITZ!!! Blech...so much of this particular color is used when I paint up my Warjacks. For any metal it is my basecoat, it is the shade that starts it all. Once I get the tinbitz down I then drybrush on the Boltgun Metal to give the appearance of aged metal. One of these days I will have to attempt the rust-stains when I get more experience with washes. As much as I hate the tedium of doing one color for so much of a model it really does make a difference for my metals. If there is any bronze on the model, it gets painted on over the boltgun and then highlighted with a bit of gold and silver.

For this Defender I have chosen to paint up the model just like the picture in the Prime Mk. II book so there will be a lot more bronze on the model than on the first Defender I painted up. I think the biggest batch of bronze will be on the ball'n'socket joint for the arms. They should look similar yet different enough so as not to be confused when they are on the table.

I put some paint on Kara but I think I am going to finish up the Defender first. It should paint up fairly quickly since there is a limited palette on for the Warjack vs. the tripling of paints that is going to be on Kara.

Go for the Eyes Boo! The EYES!!!

2010-05-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

I hate painting eyes. I have said it plenty of times before but Dear Holy Lord Almighty do I hate painting eyes. I think my biggest issues is that I can't make my own eyes focus down to that level. I am sure if I had some sort of crazy jeweler's magnifying glasses super contraption I could do it...but I don't. So for the time being and since I need to get cracking on painting up Kara and her pet Defender for the PPress Forums Painting Contest, the eyes of the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages shall remain unpainted.

The nice thing about finishing up a model is that if you need to go back and correct little errors or say paint some eyeballs...you can! Then just apply a quick coat of matte finish (Krylon Matte Finish is da'bomb'digity) and poof-ta, none the wiser. Now when I start in on Kara I will paint up her eyes. I like it when my warcasters are complete and as much as I'd like to say the ATGM are complete, eventually I will finish them (eyes and all). They are sealed because I want to field them and they are definitely tabletop worthy but when it comes to a character model, I like to spend even more time make sure the fig looks damned good. Not pro-painted mind you but better than my units.

So there she is...Mrs. Super-Magically-Enhanced-Sniper-Gun-Toting Kara Sloan. Makes me quiver inside really. She isn't this crazy competitive caster according to the Cygnar Tourney Scene Gurus that you find on the PPress Forums but I think she acquitted herself rather well in the Shattered Grounds League. Admittedly she isn't terribly hard to beat and for all intents and purposes she is a glass cannon, I mean, seriously have you seen the gun she wields...it really is a cannon (50 cal. enchanted sable rounds FTW Baby!!!) and her one glaring weakness is that she still requires line of sight to be deadly but it is the psychological warfare she brings to the table.

I put her on the table and I see the gears cranking in my opponents head trying to figure out how best to protect his/her caster. Don't get me wrong my gears are spinning as well to try and lineup that shot but the big thing is that I get to play an offensive game while my opponent plays a defensive game and has to dance to the tune that I play. The second I can draw line of sight to the enemy caster, I win. Provided of course, the dice gods are smiling upon me and granting me their blessing for maximum damage. Now there are some great players here and I thoroughly enjoy playing against someone that makes me feel like I am on the ropes. It just makes me want to win that game that much more and as always I congratulate my opponent on a game well played, win or lose.

Well off to paint Kara and her Defender I go. The contest ends July 23rd. Here's for hoping I win.

One Down, Six to go.

2010-05-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

Actually it is not as bad as the title suggests. I wanted to see what a finished Arcane Tempest Gun Mage would look like so I just pounded one out really fast to see how I liked it. I haven't put the Front Arc marks on the base or sealed it but all-in-all this guy represents what my ATGM + UA unit will look like.

Well...I like it. At first I wasn't sure if I would like the brown hats but seeing the finished model I have to say it adds a very 'colonial' look to the model. My first thought was to do up the unit with brown great-coats and a grey hat with yellow trim. Now I am really glad I am going with the gray coat with yellow cuffs and a brown hat. Eventually I will pick up another ATGM Unit to run in larger point games with Kara (man do I love playing her as my primary warcaster) or possibly run with a Caine List, seeing as how both the pCaine and eCaine tier lists rock out multiple ATGM Units. When I go to paint them up I will probably use the same techniques I did on these guys and just change up the color of the tricorn.

Of course I hate macro photography because you see every little-itzy-bitzy-tiny-blemish-known-to-man on your painted figure, but on the tabletop no one will notice. I did pick up a tripod to help with the clarity of image (no touchy, means no shake, and out of focus images) and I am hoping to get a Lightbox for my birthday from the in-laws, or failing that I will just build one but that doesn't change the fact that I hate how junky my models look under the macro mode.

I have never claimed to be a 'Pro' painter but I am decent enough to do tabletop worthy minis. I really can't complain since painting for me is very much a part-time hobby along with, video games, reading, GMing Legend of the Five Rings/DND/Seventh Seas, and photography. I think I am a fairly decent painter and I hope that as time progresses I will just get better with practice but it sure would be nice to rub that magic lamp and have a genie appear and let me make a wish to be the best mini painter in the world...to bad I am not a diamond in the rough. Oh well. Next week I hope to have the whole unit done and then have Kara on the paint table.

More Gray for the Masses

2010-05-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well I have been painting at least one to two hours each night. The length really depends on how long my back will allow me to sit in a semi-hunched position. I finished drybrushing on the 3 different shades of gray and then rather than go with an all gray look I broke up the monotany with brown Tricorns. A little bit of Cathan Brown with a heavy Devlen Mud wash really gives the hats a nice weathered look and depending on where the wash lays each tricorn is unique in its own little way. I also finished up the flesh tones and I am dreading doing the eyes.

I hate eyes. I never manage to get them right. One is always a 'lazy' eye. It just bugs me. Oh well I guess this is what a plog is about though, documenting your not-so-great moments and hoping to improve upon them. My next step will be to put the yellow on the great coat cuffs and then do all the leathers on the models. I am still trying to figure out if I want to do their pistols in a more traditional black iron look or make them all 'blinged' out and go with lots of gold and ornate bits and pieces. One step at a time I suppose and I will figure out what to do when I need to do it.

Short and sweet this time but after this unit is done, Kara Sloan and her pet defender hit the painting bench.

List of Honorable Dead

2010-05-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

Kara Sloan she has assassinated the following Warcasters/Warlocks.

Gorten Grundback
Supreme Kommandant Irusk
Feora, Protector of the Flame
Pirate Queen Skarre
Adeptis Rahn
High Allegient Amon Ad-Raza
Madrak Ironhide, World Ender
The Butcher of Khardov
Grand Exemplar Kreoss
High Executioner Servath Reznik
Supreme Archdomina Makeda
Lord Assassin Morghoul

More will be added to the list of Honorable Dead as she kills them.

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages or Bust

2010-04-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

So, I have gone and done it again. I can't even commit to my own plog. It has been over a week and a half and as things tend to go some things do change. Such as I am putting my Circle on the back burner for a bit. Yeah, yeah I know what everyone is thinking. I committed to painting up the Circle figs before Hordes Prime Mk. II came out and now I am dropping the ball but some amazing games with my 35pt Kara Sloan List that treated me so well during the 3-week Shattered Grounds: Nightfall League, that I am compelled to paint it up first.

Out of the 18 games that I played across the course of the league, I lost 4 games. While it wasn't enough to gain the coin (the winner had something like 130pts) I definitely put up a solid showing for Cygnar. After trying out just about every warcaster Cygnar has to offer I think I finally found the one that I like playing. Something about playing Kara Sloan just seems to fit. Depending on the player I am usually outnumbered and I get that feeling that I am fighting an up-hill battle. Something about that has made me just want to win even more and prove that I can and will win. I approach every game with the intention of getting off that head-shot. Getting down to board level to eye-ball the field and just so I can see if I can line-up that shot. Most of the time it happenes...that one lucky shot that won the game. Other times I just can't work my way through the wall of troopers and warjacks that are in the way to end the game by killing the warcaster/warlock. Such is the nature of the game.

After the stellar performance of the 35pt list with Kara I felt it would just be a grave injustice to not paint up the models I used and will most likely continue using in the next incarnation of the Shattered Grounds League.

Warcaster:
Kara Sloan

Warjacks:
Defender
Defender
Charger

Units:
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team

Solos:
Squire
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Professor Victor Pendrake or Alten Ashley.

The nice thing is, a few of the models are already painted. A defender, the Squire, Reinholdt, and Capt. Strangewayes. And now to work on the rest. The first to see paint is the ATGM + Officer. I have already started and I will leave this fine plog alone for a week or so with a picture.

So much has happened in such a short time.

2010-04-20T17:28:00.000-07:00

As much as I'd like to say that I have finished the Woldwarden this past week, I would be lying. So much has happened this past week. I was finishing up the last week of my externship and I was also studying for the final for my Pharmacy Technician class. On top of that the Nightfall league is still going strong and I have been wanting to get in as many games as possible. So my time for painting was used for other things; studying , playing league games, even assembling some new figs that I picked up. It wasn't that this week was a bad week, I did do some painting.

About 1/2 the Woldwarden has its Adeptis Battlegrey undercoat. It is a bit time consuming because I am trying to leave all the green I painted into the 'runes' free of the grey. Yet again I wonder why I painted all the green into the runes. Of course when the model is finished it should look pretty cool and I am debating on adding a secondary highlight to the runes. Really it just depends on how much time I want to spend on the models. If I am going to meet my deadline for having the 35pts painted up for the launch of Hordes Mk. II then I need to just leave some parts as is and go for solid table-top quality. I will say this, those megapixels sure do show the spots you missed...oh how I hate ye white primer! Oh how I hate! Some areas I was planning on going over with a smaller brush...now I see it is going to be a few more than I expected.

I did manage to add a few more names to the Kara Head-shot roster, notably, Adeptis Rahn and High Allegient Amon Ad-Raza. Although I will admit that it was a bit unfair of me to play so aggressively in the games. One of my opponents was learning the game and learned a very valuable lesson in blocking line of sight. I knew he was still picking up the finer points and I did ask if he wanted me to play a different caster, he said 'no,' so I suppose it is on him. Great player and a good guy. I can't wait to go up against him again after he has had more games under his belt. In the other game I thought my opponent was more experienced. I didn't know that since Mk. II came out this was only his 3rd game. So while I will add the names to the list of the honored dead, I do so with a bit of reluctance.

Kara Sloan's List of Honored Dead:
Gorten Grundback
Supreme Kommandant Irusk
Feora, Protector of the Flame
Pirate Queen Skarre
Adeptis Rahn
High Allegient Amon Ad-Raza

I would have posted all of this yesterday but I ended up spending eight hours in the ER with my mother who ended up having to go into emergency surgery for appendicitis and two hernias. Of course we didn't know the severity of the situation at the time but apparently she wouldn't have lived out another day if we hadn't gone in that night. So the appendix has been removed and the hernias will be fixed later but she is lucid and chattering away, probably has something to do with the morphine drip that they have her on.

Wold...not quite a Warden yet.

2010-04-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

Well another week has come and gone, and I will admit I haven't painted much. The Shattered Grounds Warmachine League kicked off last week and I have put aside the paint brush and taken up the call to help Cygnar in its bid to take over the world!!!! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I have gotten in more games over the past week than I have in the months that I have been a Pressganger. It is awesome. I am growing more and more comfortable with Kara Sloan. She is quickly becoming a favored warcaster of mine. I find myself looking at the tabletop with a more critical eye, deciding how to move and which units benefit my caster and her play style best. Out of six games, I have played in the League, I have used her 5 out of 6 times and I have only lost two matches. Most of my wins have been assassination runs, well really it more about lining up the shot and placing a magically-enhanced 50cal Sable round into the poor brainpan of the enemy warcaster. My opponents however are becoming wise to her tricks which is making the game even more challenging for me. I love it! Here is her current tally of Headshots.

Kara Sloan Headshots:
Gorten Grundback
Supreme Kommandant Irusk
Feora, Protector of the Flame
Pirate Queen Skarre

But I digress.

I have made some progress on my Woldwarden. Slow to be sure, but progress none-the-less. By next week I am hoping to have the stone portions finished and drybrushed and just doing some touch up and basing. I am still not sure which model I will start up next and I am toying with the idea of rounding out my 35pt list by adding 15pts and making it a 50pt list for the inevitable Hordes release event that is going to happen. Oh well, so much for keeping it at 35pts.

The Stones...how they shift!

2010-04-02T22:44:00.000-07:00

I finished up both sets of Shifting Stones and figured it was a great time to do an update rather than wait till Monday. Here it is. I can't decide which ones I like better however, the first set of Shifting Stones I painted up, has a lot more effort put into it and it seems to have a bit more dynamic feel to it (an earlier post has the steps listed)

The second set of Shifting Stones took about two-thirds less time to paint, as in I finished them within a night. The longest dry time was the Devlan Mud wash I did. I laid it on super heavy because I wanted to darken it up and then I just did a few different layers of drybrushing to it.

My first impression of the two sets of Shifting Stones next to each other was that the darker set, was in-active and waiting for some command, while the set with the green on the inside was powering up and getting ready to do something like teleport in a Blackclad Wayfarer. Now that these guys are done, my next project is to start working on the Woldwatcher. So my Monday post should have pictures of some work in progress on the light warbeast.

A crazy week, but no real complaints

2010-03-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

One week into my little forced servitude of painting has yielded some pretty positive results. I didn't get as far along as I was hoping too, but then again when you work 7 days a week with little to no break in-between, just sitting down for an hour to paint is a luxury.

I am currently (and soon to be graduating from) a Pharmacy Technician licensing course. It has been about 8 months of Saturday classes and the end is in sight. This means that I have to do an externship in a Pharmacy for 120 hours. Honestly that isn't too many hours and if I was able to pull it off I would have just done three 40 hour weeks but then I wouldn't be able to pay my house-payment or any of my other bills because externships equal free grunt labor for which ever pharmacy I am at. I go to work in the morning at Best Buy then get maybe a 45min break before I head to the pharmacy from 5p to 9p Monday through Friday. I get home around 9:10ish and then take a brief 30mins to unwind before I set up shop and start painting.

For the previous week I decided to start simple and test a few paint schemes I have in my head for my Circle Orboros models. I like the studio scheme with the browns/tans, green, and gold, so that is what I decided to go with. The nice thing about my Sticks'n'Stones list is well lots of sticks and stones. To test out some ideas I grabbed my two sets of Shifting Stones. One set I am going to paint up with the recessed ares painted green and then a lighter looking stone around it with reddish-moss on it. For my other set of Shifting Stones, I am going to basically copy the basic scheme that can be seen in the gallery over at PrivateerPress.com.

I started with a white primer and then I used the GW Thraka Green Wash to pre-shade where I wanted the greens. I layed on the wash fairly heavily. Once the wash was dry, I started with Snot Green. I thinned it down a touch. That step took far longer than expected to finish. After the Snot Green was in place I grabbed a pot of Scorpion Green and dry brushed all of the models. I thought about applying another wash but decided against it because I wanted that kind of 'chalky' look that you get when drybrushing.

Now on to the actual stone portion itself. Citadel Foundation Adeptus Battlegray formed the basecoat. I tried to keep it out of the cracks since I had washed all of them with Thraka Green to give the appearance of the power making the stones crack apart. Once all of the stones where basecoated I then drybrushed on a layer of Citadel Astronomicon Gray, which is a much lighter (almost to the point of white) gray. Like I said nothing fancy.

Moving on to the spots of moss. First I put down a wash of Baal Red, then I added a layer of Red Gore followed by a layer of Mecharius Solar Orange and topped off with a subtle dry brush of Iyanden Dark Sun.

For the small amount of work I put into them, I think this set of Shifting Stones turned out pretty well. Pro Painted? Nope. Table Top Quality? Oh yeah. See for yourself. I still need to finish the bases and I still have some touch up but I will have both sets of Shifting Stones done by next week, and hopefully a good start on a Woldwyrd.

For the second set of Shifting Stones I am basically going to use the same paints but instead of using the Astronomican Gray as a dry brush I am going to go with Codex Gray for a dark look and I will wash the stone with Delvan Mud to kind of 'dirty' it up a bit.

And so it begins.

2010-03-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to actually finish one of the multitudes of armies that I have lazily stashed about my house I have decided to create a "plog."

In my plog or painting blog, for all of the non-gamers out there, I am going to hold myself accountable for meeting goals and deadlines that I have set for myself. Hopefully each week I will be able to post up the work that I have completed and note how much closer I get to my goal of actually fully painting up, basing/flocking, and sealing my Circle Orboros force for the table-top.

As an aside, let me give a brief note about myself; if any word could come to mind when it comes to my table-top gaming persona and painting, it would have to be: Distracted.

Fairly straight forward actually. I managed to jump in feet first on just about every army that hits the shelf. Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Warmachine, Hordes...and now potentially Infinity. I see the 'new shiney' and instantly covet it like it is "my precious." I am not even going to go into the amount of money I have squandered away on new armies, buying them, assembling them, painting a few of them, and then selling the army off. For instance, with W40k, I have owned every army available (about 4 Space Marine armies, and yes I currently am selling off the last vestiges of my last batch of Space Marines).

Warmachine on the other hand I have been fairly loyal. I did sell off my initial Cygnar army a few years back when the gaming group I run with (TIAT Gaming) stopped playing Warmachine because of some douchebaggery that happened because of an outside source. I am now a Pressganger for Privateer Press (http://www.privateerpress.com/) and I am able to do demos for both Warmachine and Grind. I have painted up the battleboxes for Cryx and Khador and I am in the middle of painting up the Rhulic Battlebox. I own a fairly large force of Cygnar and just about all the Retribution of Scyrah models currently released. I also own a small amount of Circle Orboros models and that leads into why I decided to start the plog.

With the imminent release of Hordes Mk. II, I have decided that I want to paint up the 25 models I have in my "Sticks'n'Stones" Baldur Theme List. I have had these models since early 2009 and when I made the list up for Mk. I, it was all about the least amount of living models in the list and I never really had any plans to actually win any sort of serious game with the army.

Well...now I am going to get serious and the first step is getting it all painted. 25 models is not a lot to paint up and honestly, most of the painting on these models will be different layers of drybrushing with a bit more time put into Baldur and the Stoneward (since currently, they are the only living models in the list).

Most of the models have been primed with Tamiya Fine White Surface Primer. I try to wash the models beforehand to:
a) get a rough idea which colors go where.
b) think of washing as kind of a pre-shading.
c) Dear god, do I absolutely hate painting on white primer (at first) because when you look at the model and notice a white spot in a crevasse that your paint brush will never reach and everything else around it is painted up and perfect...you go back in to fix it and 15 hours of touch-up later, that stupid white spot that you have been trying to fix is still wonderfully white and harder than hell to miss because it is white....but in the end, when the models are all finished man, oh'man do I love that they are on white primer

I do have a finished Baldur, well he was finished till he decided he'd rather commit suicide than be the only painted model in the foam and dived out of the carrying foam and broke into his constituent parts and chipped himself all up...so I am starting over. I acquired an un-primered Baldur in a trade from Bartertown (http://www.bartertown.com/) figured it was easier to start over than to try and fix the now deceased painted version.

Here are the goals I have set for myself
Goal 1: Finish all of my Circle Orboros models before Hordes Prime Mk. II hits the shelves in July...or is it June. Ah crap, some Pressganger I am turning out to be.
Goal 2: Refer to Goal 1
Goal 3: See Goal 2 for instructions, but make sure to ignore the quip about being a Pressganger
Goal 4: Look at Goal 3 and honestly I just figure if I keep making myself look at Goal 1 that I will get it all done.

Today is Monday 3/22/2010 and I managed to get my first post on my plog done...hardly what I would consider a successful painting night but I'll take all the small victories I can get. Here are some pictures of when I am working with and as the days, weeks and months progress I shall post more and more models in a completed form.