Howdy! Been a while, I know...I missed you too!

There really are not any real excuses as to why I haven’t updated the blog lately , the  truth is, I just haven’t.  I also haven’t been painting as much as I would like but that is because of a shitty ass retail schedule a bunch of closes and not actually getting to sit down to paint until well after 9pm on most nights.  Again not real reasons…heck not even valid excuses.  I need to get back into the saddle when it comes to painting.  Plain and simple. 

Now in an effort to get back into painting, I am going to do two things. 

1)      Finish up the Mountain King – Just need to finish up the Troll Whelps crawling all over the big’un

2)      Paint up two battleboxes

a.       Cygnar (My original Warmachine faction)

                                                               i.      Stryker

                                                             ii.      Ironclad

                                                            iii.      Lancer

                                                           iv.      Charger

b.      Alternate Trollbloods  Battlebox from the Journeyman League Rules

                                                               i.      Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls

                                                             ii.      Dire Troll Mauler (already painted previously)

                                                            iii.      Pyre Troll

                                                           iv.      Storm Troll

Next Monday I am being sent down to Fairfield to train for my new job, I am supposed to be down there for a month, yup a month…well at least 4 Monday-Friday Weeks. 

So during that time I am going to work on painting up both Battleboxes.  I ordered in Hoarluk and I purchased the plastic Pyre Troll Kit and Storm Troll Kit (very nice kits FYI).  I also had to order in a new plastic Charger kit, since the one I originally got broke. 

For the Cygnar Battlebox I am going to a slightly modified ‘studio’ blue theme.  I drew inspiration from the IKRPG Book and the picture they have of the Ironclad being given its Quake Hammer on page 301.  It is a bit more on the purple-side than I am thinking about going for, but the thought did cross my mind to do the purple scheme.  Really I just want the one white shoulder pad and the white cowl around where the ‘jacks head is. 

For the Trollbloods Alternate Battlebox…well I am going with the scheme I already have but seeing that the Storm Troll and the Pyre Troll are both ‘elemental’ trolls they will differ vastly from the scheme I am using on the full-blooded Dire Trolls and Trollbloods themselves.  Should be fun and make painting them up pretty interesting. 

I figure I should be able to do each battlebox in 2 weeks. 

Other notes of interest…I won two painting contests this month.  The Sons of Bragg won the Unit Category at NorCon 2013 and my Searforge Commission list which consisted of every painted ‘jack I own plus Gorton Grundback won the best painted army at the Convergence of Cyriss book release event held down at Matrix Games.  Pretty cool but in all honestly, I still have a baker’s butt-ton to learn about painting compared to my friend’s Jody, Aaron, Jon, and Kaleb. 

The Mountain That Walks again...

Some photo updates of my progress on the Mountain King.

More pictures to follow as I slowly work on the Mountain King.

The Mountain that Walks.

It was pointed out to me the other day that I haven’t been updating the blog as much.

Tis a true statement. 

I have been rather lax in my updates lately and I am hoping to change that now that some major life events, which have caused some upset in my painting schedule, are calming down.  It has been a rough February and March, but I shall not bore you with details. 

I have been getting in some painting lately.  Not a whole lot but some.  I started in on Durgan Madhammer got about ¾ done with him and then decided I didn't like the colors and so dunked him in some of my favorite liquid, Super Clean, and stripped the paint off of him.  Now I just need to reprimer him and start over =)

I have been working on the largest model I own to date and that is the Mountain King.  There is the book release event for Gargantuans at the end of April that I am going to go to, so I want to have the Mountain King painted up for that.  I have gotten his skin tone done and really, I just did a quicky couple of layers.  Base coat, wash, and then lots of drybrushing. 

The detail on the skin is amazing.  Cuts and scratches not to mention musculature, so rather than have my bumbling hands muck up the awesome detail…I just drybrushed the entire model (five or six times). 

Yup, I took the cheaters way out.  

I am almost done with the bottom portion of the Mtn King that would be impossible to reach if he is glued to his base, i.e. certain areas below the belly.  Once I finish that up I will glue him to his base and then just go on a crazy painting spree to finish him up in short order.  For that to happen I need to put one more layer on the leather belt and then give the model a thorough once over before I glue it down. You can see the parts where I have had to hold the model by the top 'mountain spire' so that I could paint the under-carriage.  When I get him glued to his base I will reprimer the top portions of the mountain with my air brush.  

Just wanted to give a quick update really. More to come, more often, I promise.

One Third the Flavor, One Third the Fun

Finished up Tor of the Sons of Bragg Character Unit.  Man, I love these trio of Trollblood Fellcallers, stumpy legs and all.  Not really sure what the sculptor was thinking giving the unit the bowed legs but I love the unit.  Fun to use on the table top as well.  

When the unit hits...boy does it hit hard (if the Dice Gods are in your favor that is and you have made the prerequisite sacrifices before the game started)

They are a pricey little unit at 6 points but they fill a nice roll as a counter-strike unit.  Run the Sons of Bragg up the flank and use them to drop annoying solos or to take down a heavy beast/'jack or to even roll into a unit and just tie it up for a turn or two.  Keep them in reserves and use them to counter-strike anything that gets a bit close to your Warlock or to even clear out a lane for said Warlock to wreak face

So next I move onto Tor's duel-sword wielding brother, Rhudd.  Hopefully I'll get him done a bit quicker...go ahead and roll your eyes now but hey in my defense I did say hopefully

Adopt a Fell Caller, Save a Trollkin for life

I wasn't even really planning on painting up the Fell Caller but when I was base coating the skin of the Sons of Bragg Unit I had a bunch of extra paint left over on ye'olde wet palette and I didn't want to waste it so...I base coated the Fell Caller, Skaldi Bonehammer, and the Sons of Bragg.

I still had a good sized blob of paint on the palette and decided to wash the models and then do the skin highlight on them.

Once I was finished with that whole layering up of the skin, I picked up the Fell Caller to look at him and then I just picked out a color and started painting.  Well of course life got in the way of painting and the Fell Caller has been getting some sporadic painting love across the week and tonight I finally finished him up.

I have kind of a mixed reaction to this model.  I like certain parts of the model and then I dislike certain parts.



Like: The leathers - I thought they turned out really nice
Like: The skin - loads of shading difference in the muscles...getting better at it. I should probably add a third 'lighter' layer
Like: The armor plates - I dig the 'highlighted' armor

Dislike: The eyes - Damn it!! they just look off to me
Dislike: The torch - I tried doing a 'yellow' fire like effect and feel I failed horribly...oh and I hate the grey colors on it
Dislike: The bronze chain mail - definitely used the wrong colors there.  I really like the Vallejo line, but I think GW has the metallics down like no other
Dislike: I used a different glue than the Zap-a-Gap that I know and love, so I didn't notice a glob dried on the joint connecting the main body to the upraised sword until I had the model primed and dusted...I painted up the glob to look like fur but it is still irksome that I missed that while the glue was still wet.  I could have cleaned off the glob of glue.  Needless to say I won't be using that shitty-ass glue anymore.



Eventually I will go back through and attempt to fix up the 'dislikes' but for the moment, I am going to keep chugging along and finish what I started even though I am going to miss the deadline for a Slightly More Possible Dream 2012 by a ludicrously large margin.

And now to start working on the rest of the Fell Callers in the list, the Sons of Bragg.  I am going to paint each one up individually, so pictures to follow as I complete them.  Once they are all finished I'll toss up the group shot.

You know...eventually I am going to have to paint up Borka Kegslayer, I mean sheesh...it is his army after all.

SHOW ME YOUR WARFACE!!!!

Well I don't think I am going to meet the deadline for the Slightly More Possible Dream Painting Challenge.   

 

I paint too damned slow and I have only painted up two models!   

 

Aside from jacked up schedules at work, it is very hard for me to paint when my daughter is awake.  She has to be at the center of it all and that means right at my painting area and wanting to touch and paint everything in sight...but enough excuses.  I finished up the Dire Troll Mauler for Borka's battlegroup.

 

As you can see he is very angry and has very very large hands with which to rip your 'jack apart with

 

 

I did a lighter shade on the belly and the palms but it doesn't quite show in the photograph like it does when you are holding the model.  Next time I think I need to mix in another drop or two of the lighter grey with the basecoat to help separate it out more.

 

 

 

Over all I am pleased with the model but I think next time I paint up a dire troll I am going to leave much 'thinner' lines in the recesses of the musculature.

 

This guy really is just plain angry and those are some rather big meaty firsts!

Borka's Troll Axer, Krugg

I finished up the Troll Axer.  Not 100% sure I like the fact that I painted the entire front arc, but so be it, it might grow on me and if not, I'll just paint over it with black.

I have already put down 3/4 of the shadow grey basecoat on the Dire Troll Mauler and some of the dark fleshtone on the 'spines/hair'

Hopefully I'll have the Mauler finished up by tomorrow night or at least almost done.  

Borka's Drinking Buddies

There is an event on the Privateer Press Forums called “A Slightly More Possible Dream” that I have decided to take part in.  Basically, you have a 35 point list and you have one month to paint it up and then you play in a tourney with other folks who have done the same thing…now I am horrible at meeting painting deadlines, Nov 16^th in this case, but damn it, I am sure going to try!

Well I am going to be painting up a 35 point list (or trying my damnedest to do so) and while no one else is participating in Redding, I still plan to play the list in the next tourney and see how I do. 

I did choose a list that is not very model heavy because as the world’s slowest painter and I wanted to make sure that I have time to paint it all up.  Now I have been playing this list quite a bit lately in casual play and so far it has treated me well.

Borka’s Drinking Buddies (for a Slightly More Possible Dream)

Borka Kegslayer – WB: +5
Pyg Carrier
Dire Troll Mauler - PC:9
Troll Axer - PC: 6

 

Fell Caller Hero – PC: 3

Trollkin Champion Hero – PC: 3

 

Trollkin Champions – Leader & 4 Grunts: PC: 10
Skaldi Bonehammer – PC: 3

Sons of Bragg – Wrathar, Tor & Rhudd: PC 6

Just about every model in the list has weapon master which I really didn’t notice until I was staring at the cards one night while I was playing a game and Borka is just fun to play.  I love the sculpt for the model and his fluff is pretty great also.  On top of that he has some pretty solid spell list…and considering he only has three spells that is saying a lot.  I gave him a Mauler and an Axer and so far they have acquitted themselves rather well on the battle field.  The Trollkin Champions + Skaldi + Champion Hero + Fell Caller Hero is a pretty brutal combo that, pending the love of the dice gods, generally tend to wreck face pretty well.  The Sons of Bragg are a great character unit that can stand on their own and are a viable threat to most pieces on the table.

The one down side to the list is of course the low model count.  When you think about it, I only have 14 models on the table and one of those models is carrying a keg and doesn’t do much other than top off Borka with a few extra Fury.  I mean once I start losing models, the games tend to go downhill rather quickly for me. 

All in all, I am really enjoying the list and have even bought a few of those ‘crutch’ models that make the Trollblood synergies really come to life.  I have a full unit of Fennblades + UA and I picked up a unit of Kriel Stone Bearers + UA but I shall not get ahead of myself.  Before I put any paint down on any other model until Nov 16^th (other than primer of course),  I must and shall paint up the above list.  I’ll post progress pictures as I finish up each model.

On the plus side, there is a possibility that the armies painted up for this little painting shin-dig could end up in an issue of No Quarter.  How cool would that be, my table-top quality models on display in a magazine. 

HAHAHAHA epic…extra incentive…must finish painting them up!

Off to the painting table I go!

To become or not to become a Spartan Vanguard...that is the question.

I finished up the Russian Coalition Fleet, Tiny Flyer Tokens and all.  So I submitted my application to Spartan Games for their Spartan Vanguard Program.  They ask for up to 14 days to process the application, so now I get to sit and wait.

When I set up both fleets for pictures, I realized that I really liked the Russian TFTs turned out.  So in the future (at some point), I am going to be striping my Covenant of Antarctica TFTs and repainting them up all blue sky and flying like I did the Russian Coalition TFTs.



Since painting up both Fleets quick, dirty, and table-top worthy, I definitely believe that the Russian Coalition fleet came out better.  I am sorely tempted to strip and repaint up my Covenant Fleet but I am going to try and stick to my guns and leave it as is, rather than change it and possibly make it worse similiar to how George Lucas fucked up the original Star Wars trilogy.



I placed a rather large order with Battlefoam the other day.  With the sheer amount of Trollbloods that I own now (Hush Scott!) I figured it was time to get some foam and fill up my P.A.C.K. Air.  So 5 custom cut foam trays are incoming as well as trays for my Storm Strider, a Stormwall, the Mountain King and the War Wagon.  I figured since I would eventually own all those models (having recently purchased a Mountain King, and already owning a Storm Strider) I should own the foam to protect them.  The new foams will also allow me to store all of my future purchases for my Searforge Commission lists and Trollblood lists as well as possibly storing other random models.

For my next project I am going to finish painting up the Runebearer for the Trollbloods and paint up Borka Kegslayer and his brew buddy.  Hopefully by then, I shall have General Ossrum firmly in hand and will paint him up and the Wroughthammer Rockram for my Searforge Commission army.

Quick, Dirty, and Tabletop Worthy!!

Breaks Over!  Back to work!

Yeah, that time has come again for me to start posting on a regular basis not like I haven’t been but I did take an extra week off for the holidays.  It was a nice break.  Nothing crazy happened except Christmas! And a Dremel 4000 with loads of attachments!  That is right!  I be cutting MDF Board with a small hand held power tool and 3500 RPM!!!! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Ph33r m3!!!!

So in case you are wondering, no I haven’t exactly been idle over the Christmas Season.  I painted up a Dwarf Lord from the Warhammer Fantasy line for a D&D Game I am in.  I also cut out a few templates (with the circular cutting attachment for my Dremel 4000!) which I will be turning into swamp templates for my Blindwater Congregation army, and I started painting up my Covenant of Antarctica Fleet after Joel and I had a friendly game of Dystopian Wars.  As you can see lots of little things. 

Joel and I have agreed to have our Starter Fleets plus Aircraft 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 are super tiny and while they are packed full of detail I have absolutely NO intention of painting each individual rivet, wooden board, and window on those models.  Base coat, wash, drybrush, maybe some highlights, pick out a few metallic details, done!  In the course of one evening of painting I got all of the woodwork done on my Battleship, Fleet Carrier, and three Cruisers.  I am going to test out the hull paint scheme on one of the nine Frigates I have and if I like it…apply it to the rest of the fleet. 

Don’t get me wrong; I applaud those painters that take the time and effort to make their Dystopian War models look gorgeous, but that isn’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 second Starter Box of a different nation and a Fleet Carrier (not sure on the Aircraft Carrier but I am presuming we will since both of us did that last time, and I know Jon did as well) once our first set is all painted up.  I’ll be getting the Britannia Starter while Joel is going to get the Empire of the Blazing Sun Starter. 

At any rate while on break I cannot be accused of having idle hands.  I’ll be posting pics of my progress on my fleet next week.  The gators will 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 has been chewing up a good chunk of my free time as well.  

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

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

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

Speaking of switching up painting projects, I am now going to finish a half-finished model from my Blindwater Congregation and then move 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 to make it worse, I am using the color scheme from a pokemon.  Yeah, I went there.  It all started as a subtle little joke that Duane said the first time I played my Blindwater Congregation against him and I brought out my Ironback Spitter.  He chuckled, made some off-hand comment about painting up my then unprimered Ironback Spitter to look like Blastoise and I ran with it.  I probably shouldn’t have, but I did and I have a half-painted Ironback Spitter that is in desperate need of being painted up.  So that is my next project and hear is the teaser picture. 

 

Pretty risqué huh?  

Da'Bears!

Well at least A’Bear!

After what has taken too long on a model that should have taken me a day to paint…maybe four hours tops, Lug is finished.  I am still trying to figure out where all of my 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 sometime later today when it is not quite freezing outside and like the other Searforge Commission models I have, Lug will eventually receive a small patch of static grass to add that last little piece of something extra to the army theme. 

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

I do need new brushes however seeing as how just about every brush I have is starting to either curl or the bristles are starting to splay out into fan shapes.  Pretty much none of the brushes I have are holding a point anymore.  My poor detail brush is so curled that I have to hold it at a 90 degree angle to get the paint where I want it on the model.  Let me tell you, that is fun (please notice the sarcasm here), sometimes it comes in handy but not as often as 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 work on next, do I finish out the last of my two primed Searforge Commission models or 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

Things have hit a slow down for me.  I can think of lots of reasons why but mostly they just end up being pretty lame excuses.  Life shall be the broad category that all those excuses and reasons go under…needless to say; I haven’t painted quite as much as I should have this month.  I am just about finished with Lug and 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 Brun Cragback.  He doesn’t look like a terribly hard model to paint up since at least a 2/5’s the model is taken up by the 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 paint up but I kinda want to get started painting up some Blindwater Congregation.   I have also decided in my infinite wisdom to do a project log for one of the model(s) I paint up for the Congregation. 

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

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

This is what I have accomplished in the past two weeks…I know 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 detail work.  I finished up the padding under Lug’s armor, added a layer of silver highlights to the armor, blacked out the leather straps and metal rings, and I even did up most of the leather straps around the bear’s torso.  I made the spurs on the armor look like bone spikes, so while I didn’t finish Lug, I did a lot of stuff to get to the goal of finishing him up.

All pix no brains

Well I thought I had this great big post brewing in my brain 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

I am back in business.  My two cans of P3 primer showed up from Minaturemarket.com and I am back to painting again.  I didn’t sit idle while I was waiting.  I picked out the bases for the minis and made sure that they were drilled and pinned and ready to 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 the internal debate of if I wanted to prime Brun Cragback & Lug in white or black.  In the end I decided to prime them black because I really didn’t want to have to chase down all the little white 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 with those two first.  A dwarf and his pet polar bear just say something primal and while I look at their stats and I see a nice one trick pony, it will be nice to paint up something slightly different for my Searforge Commission list that isn’t mostly green.  There will be some small things that tie them in with the army but over all they are going to be standalone models in their own 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 see where Privateer Press got their inspiration for the models.  Can anyone say the opening sequence of World of Warcraft with a Dwarf Hunter and his pet bear?  That was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw these figures a few years back.  Now I can’t really say where Privateer Press got the idea for these two but like most of the Minion Mini-Warlocks pairs, they are beautiful sculpts and each one compliments the other very well. 

The one glaring issue I can see with them is the limited control range of the models do to the low Fury score.  3 Fury equals a 6” control range and since most 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 to buy extra attacks or boost attack or damage rolls.  This is easily managed by positioning the Mini-Warlock first and then getting off the charge with the other guy but again you have to be careful because now the Warlock can charge out of the control radius.  I guess I’ll just have to play it 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 Tournament for Warmachine/Hordes down at the Armory…I say supposed to be, because only myself and one other person showed up.  Talk about a total let down.  For the past three months every other Friday night saw at least 6 to 10 people playing 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 least that many people…

And my hopes got flattened like a poor infantry model getting 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 talking up this tournament during the campaign nights and telling people they would be able to play their campaign lists in the tournament.  It seemed like folks were pretty jazzed about it and then nothing, nada, zip, zilch.  Seriously!  What the *#$% people!? 

To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement.  I understand that people have stuff to do, I mean life happens.  I know of two players that had to work due to folks quitting and accidents, I know another player was going out of town with his family.  One player couldn’t find a ride, hell I almost wasn’t able to show up on time because my wife was doing something at the gym and wasn’t going to be back until 12:30 - 12:45 but I still got there with a few minutes to spare.  Maleficarum showed up about 30 mins after I did and we both kind of looked at each other, shrugged, and threw down a 35pt game.  Our game was rather enjoyable and even though I lost due to poor positioning on my part (block an escape lane) for my Warcaster or possibly better positioning by Maleficarum I still had a great time.  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!