Warpstone Pile

Painting Progress(?) - 20120207

2012-02-07T07:30:00.002-05:00

Progress painting the Empire has been slow. Despite taking a week off from work for a much-needed staycation (and even spending a morning camped out at GW Fair Oaks to force myself to focus on painting), I've somehow managed to remain too busy to paint. And, when I'm not too busy, I'm running into the "bit off more than I could chew" wall that grinds progress to a halt.

It's madness to think I'd originally considered tackling these bastards in batches of 15. 10, as with Skaven and Astartes, is too big of a batch for me. When I finally wrap these guys up, I'll go back to doing batches of 6-7, which seems to be my sweet spot between "as many as possible" and "quick accomplishment fix."

These guys are close. I need to do metallics (obviously), then red items, then base them and I'm done. It's totally doable. I just need to do it. Shut up and paint, bro!

Partly because the next session's coming up and partly because I need to feel like I've accomplished something, I knocked out my D&D character. He's not done-done: he still needs some Dullcote before I can claim that, but that's all.

He'll get better lightbox pictures after that. I'm happy enough with him. He's basically a Free Company dude (as uninspiring as those guys might be on the table, I love the minis) with a Greatsword head and a Swordsman shield. The dog is from Warlord's Unleash Hell; bases are from Dragonforge's Sanctuary line.

Beyond that, I seem to still have a ton of assembly hobby work that needs doing: I need to assemble another Mortar, have to convert up a second Arch Lector of Manann, I've got a bunch of metal squares from Wargames Accessories that need filing down (so my Greatswords have heft), and, as soon as they show up, I'll have to glue together some movement trays from Litko.

(One final note: I need to give a huge shout out to Back 2 Base-ix: since placing my as-yet unreceived order with Litko, I've placed and received two orders from Back 2 Base-ix... and they're shipping from Australia. They're amazing: I definitely plan to continue ordering from them.)

Arch Lector of Manann

2012-01-27T06:30:00.001-05:00

From Day 1, I've been planning to play up the nautical aspect of the Nordland army. (I've already got a pretty clear idea of what my display board's going to look like.) Although a general lack of easily accessible, usable nautical bits has thwarted me in terms of converting up most characters, I've been pretty determined to make sure that it's clear that my Arch Lectors and Warrior Priests can't be mistaken as Sigmarites: they serve Manann.

I'm definitely thinking Aeron "Damphair" Greyjoy, here.

Here's the first one.

He's the bottom half of a Flagellant body, with the top half sawn off and replaced with a Greatsword torso. The shield's from the Empire General kit: I shaved the skull off and replaced it with a plasticard Manann's crwon. The clerics should have portfolio-appropriate weapons, so I converted one of the Flagellant's scythes into a boathook. The head's a Flagellant's, with a paper crown reinforced with superglue.

More Progress

2012-01-23T19:48:00.000-05:00

Since the last time I really posted, I've been stupidly busy: both at work and at hobby.

On top of all that other stuff, I've done:

20x Greatswords
10x Handgunners
10x Archers
3x Wizards
1x Captain of the Empire

At this point, I just need to do up the Engineer and the Arch-Lector.

I ran out of metal squares to glue to their bases: I've had to order a heap more of them from Wargame Accessories. In fact, I had to go on a spree: ordering metal squares, movement trays from Litko and skirmish trays from Back 2 Base-IX.

I've been holding off on building the characters, since they're the most clear place to do conversions and work in the Manann / Nordland theme. I threw together some wizards (Light and Fire) without any trouble.

Nothing special, right?

Well, I also needed a Shadow Wizard... and they don't really have any bits in the (otherwise magnificent) Wizard kit.

So, I trimmed the hair off of a Fire Mage's hair sculpted the hood up over it.

Not entirely pleased with the skull on the staff, but nothing else in the bits box really leapt out at me. I might take a stab at it scratching up a crystal or something.

2012-01-18T08:35:00.000-05:00

Super-busy

2012-01-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

Ran the Storm of Magic Tournament over the weekend. I've got some ruminatin' to do about it at some point in the near-term (particularly in terms of how I structured and scored it), but that'll wait.

I was also extremely productive Sunday and Monday: grinding through wrapping up the remaining Empire models.

In two days:

20x Archers
20x Handgunners
10x Greatswords

Before my current list is ready to field, I still have 10 Handgunners and 20 Greatswords (10 of which are in progress) to assemble... plus characters. Beyond that, just 10 Archers and 24 Knights are still on the sprue.

Fimir Balefiend - Complete

2012-01-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

I wrapped up the Fimir Balefiend over the weekend. Come Monday, it was all over but for waiting for the water effects to cure.*

I'm extremely pleased with the green skin. It's different, somewhat, from the approach I took with the Gremlins, but still worked really well. I absolutely feel like I've Solved how to paint green skin... now I just need the spiritual fortitude to undertake a Orc or Ork army. Also, the claws/horns worked out very well, too. Distinct from the flesh, but not out of place.

The much hanging from him could be better. I might return at some point to repaint it. It's too similar to the Fimir's flesh; a series of different washes didn't darken it up enough to make it distinct.

I'm quite pleased with the barnacles / fungus / whatever that stuff is. I think it goes a long way to breaking up the flesh and making it more interesting; the same way the boils do on Skaven.

The little conversion details came out okay. I think they definitely accomplished their goals, though I can't shake the feeling that there's something else I could have done with the gut plate. I did try adding verdigris: which completely ruined it... so I had to repaint it. That little plant coming up in front of his right foot made painting the gutplate super-difficult.

The water effects didn't come out quite as well as I'd have hoped. Unfortunately, they photographed even worse than they actually look. Take my word for it when I assure you that it's not amazing but it's not terrible.

And, 'cause I was at it: some scenic/HDR photos (HDR Fusion, no Picasa tweaking):

Composition on these might could be better. I tried to crop out the sides of the base, but maybe didn't do myself any favors with it.

Anyway, what do y'all think?

* Not entirely; after photographing the bastard, I noticed a few spots on the side of the base that needed repainting... I retouched the photos to cover it up since it's just the flat color and I don't feel like taking the photos again. Not something I normally like doing, but I'm untroubled by it here.

Fimir Balefiend - WIP

2012-01-05T06:30:00.001-05:00

So, in my Storm of Magic list, I'm taking a Fimir Balefiend: Shadow's a pretty happy lore.

I'd considered just cracking open my copy of HeroQuest; there are a handful of Fimir Warriors in there:

But Casey pointed out that they're a little small. According to Wikipedia, initially (and when HQ was published, Fimir were man-sized... but then an ogre-sized sculpt was done at some point and it's clearly had an impact: in Storm of Magic, they're Monstrous Infantry.

So, I converted one.

The base, as is probably clear, is a River Troll. There's a Chaos Spawn tail on there, which was kind of a no-brainer.

I rolled the dice and bitz-ordered the Troll: unfortunately, it didn't come with arms that would work at all. I was lucky enough to trade them to a club member for better arms, though. I thought they needed a bit more, so I stuck on an old Skaven banner bit to (hopefully) breakup the shape and make it look less like River Troll arms. Same thing with the ring. The sculpting there to make that banner bit fit? The hardest part of the dang conversion.

The head is from a Krootox; the eyes and brow were drilled out and resculpted into a single eye. The balefiend has horns, so I used some Gor horns I had left over from a Daemon conversion. To make them fit, and to sculpted him a bigger head (since I'd list the three most distinguishing features of the HQ Fimir as single eye, club tail, and big head). It's not huge, but it's a lot bigger than it was, and it should be the right size for the model now.

And, just as I thought I was done with it, I realized that it needed a gutplate. From day one, the lack of clothing had bothered me: Fimir are civilized (under certain definitions for the word) and wear clothes and armor, but I couldn't figure out how to sculpt something on that would work. Then I realized that Fimir have always had gutplates: that's easy enough to do. I sculpted a stylized Fimir face on it: I don't think it's photographed well, but it should paint up okay.

I'm leery of the chain: I don't think it works well... but I think getting it to hide under the Troll's rolls (which is what it really needs) is beyond my skill.

Anyway, I hope to have it done and painted before tournament in case I end up ringing.

Of course, I was 90% done with this (just tracking down an appropriate set of arms) when ForgeWorld posted theirs:

C'est la vie.

2012-01-04T07:10:00.000-05:00

It's just occurred to me that a stacked chart communicates hobby points better a lot than a layered multi-series line chart.

Much easier to read, and conveys as much information as, like, three other charts.

Also, man: Excel charts are way prettier than Google Spreadsheet charts.

2011 Year in Review

2012-01-03T06:30:00.009-05:00

This'll be the the third one of these I've done (madness!)

Year in Review

January saw me dropping my Hobby Status Spreadsheet into the wild for public consumption. (There's no way for me to know how many folks are actually using it, but I still get the occasional ping for input and help with it, so someone out there's getting use out of it.) I painted up a Gremlin crew (that, after not touching for nearly a year, sold off) and recommitted myself to finishing my Skaven army. This was really a year ago?
February I painted Skaven. This was a theme for the year. Plus, I went back and added some to my Daemon army.
March saw me focusing on adding shooting elements to my Khornate Daemon army in hopes of making them a bit more table-viable for our annual Battle for the Cure tournament.
April was back to the Skaven: setting a clear painting project plan. And I picked up a lightbox! It's had such a marked improvement on the quality of my (still far-from perfect photography) and was so (relatively) inexpensive, I think everyone who put effort into painting their miniatures should get one so they can better share their work.
May was Skaven, Skaven, Skaven. Plus, we had our first annual Clash for the Cure (which was just like the 40K Battle for the Cure, but for Fantasy).
June was Skaven... plus I finally (with some help) picked up the gumption to start selling off unused stuff on eBay, which was quite a success.
July - You guessed it: Skaven. Also, I ran a tournament, partly as NoVA Open prep and mostly because hadn't had a local tournament in a while.
August was a busy month. We picked up a display case to store minis in, I painted a bunch of Skaven, and played in (and did quite well at, winning Best Overall and Best Army Appearance) the NoVA Open Fantasy GT.
September saw, again more Skaven... and I played in the Blob's Park Fantasy GT. Started off the month playing in a 40K tournament where I had a really unfortunate math mistake (and won Best Appearance).
October saw the last Skaven model I've painted in 2011: the Ratwyrm (winning Best Appearance with him). I also started messing around with HDR photos, something I'm likely to continue playing with. Despite all of that, I spent most of the month too sick to accomplish much.
November saw my first true commission painting job. Although I'd done some before for charity, this was my first "I will give you money to paint these minis for me" job, and it wasn't too unpleasant. I'm probably going to look into doing this again in the future, since it solves my problem with enjoying painting for skirmish games (while being unable to enjoy playing them). I also briefly looked into playing Necrons (an idea abandoned after a few weeks).
December was a sweatshop month. I ground through assembling an unbelievable number of models: over 90. I was an unstoppable building machine. Unfortunately, when my hobby waxes my gaming waned, and I didn't really play many games at all.

A key takeaway here is that, when I say it takes me three and a half forevers to paint an army, I'm not exaggerating. I started actively painting my Skaven in January (which seems to be when I commit myself to an army for a year: 2009 was Daemons, 2010 was Skaven, 2011 will be Empire) and then had to actively worked on them almost constantly for eight months before they were ready: and many of those models (particularly the ones that helped me win Best Appearance) were actually converted quite some time before, in late 2009.

Additionally, early in the year, the Iron Fist League, the local gaming club I was a member of, schismed (for lack of a better word). The two main subgroups went their separate ways: the subgroup that plays at my FLGS (Game Parlor) renamed itself the Chantilly Gaming Legion (CGL, pronounced "seagull"). Although it wasn't a clean break (a few folks, in both groups, seemed to go out of their way to make it acrimonious), it appears to have been an extremely healthy one. There's almost zero drama around our parts and, from the few times I've checked in on the IFL Forums, it looks like there's precious little drama there, too. I think both groups are the better for the split. Furthermore, while I can't speak for parts South, the break really invigorated things for our local group: more people turn up to the store to play and more events get run. The club just seems healthier.

Hobby Activity

Here's a breakdown of what the year looked like:

Some Daemons through the year, a ton of focus on Skaven from March through September, and a huge Empire rampup at the end of the year. But, hey, we knew that.

Again, zero surprises here.

Or here.

And, because I've been doing this for two years, now, I can compare 2011 to 2010:

Gaming Activity

I find this really surprising: I played that many more games with my Daemons this year than with my Skaven? Crazy.

This doesn't surprise me much, honestly.

Site Activity

I posted considerably less this year (nearly 40 fewer posts). I'm not sure I can objectively evaluate how the quality compares between the two years: am I posting less frequently, but with higher quality? Or am I just posting less frequently?

I clearly ad a few traffic spikes, with a good number of peaks in between.

And then, because I can, I'll compare this year's site activity to last year's. Traffic's definitely up, overall.

My top two most viewed posts in 2011... were from 2009 and 2010. Huh. What's interesting is that, back in May, I joined the BoLS Network (I've been in the FTW Network pretty much since I started the blog) and, although it consistently shows up as a significant referrer... it doesn't look like it's had that much of an overall impact. I'm guessing that's because it's simply offsetting a reduction in traffic due to fewer posts.

The five most viewed posts actually written in 2011 were:

Necron Test Model - This... is one of the more pointless posts of the year. "Hey, I tried a thing, and it looks terrible." Someone took offense at an aside I made in the post, though, and reposted it to YTTH. That's the big spike over there in late October. So, one of the most useless posts of the year was one of the most viewed. Blech.
Uniforms & Heraldry of the Skaven - Followup - I posted this hot on the heels of the book coming out. I'm pretty sure that's where this traffic came from. Also, Clan Skurvy has a rat-parrot.
Dreadstone Blight - This is the sort of post I like seeing getting traffic. Pure hobby, and something I'm quite pleased with.
Uniforms & Heraldry of the Skaven - See my comments above: new release = high traffic.
Warlord on a War-Litter - Again: hobby posts are what I'd like to see do well. And, man, I love how this model came out.

2011 Goals

Last year, I continued with some broad goals while setting some very specific ones as well. (Here's a reminder of why.)

Finish - Success! I got a lot of stuff done. A Gremlin crew. (Broadly) A Skaven army. (Specifically) three separate Skaven painting goals for three different tournaments. Boo-ya.
Paint - Success! Man, I painted a lot. Just shy of 200 models.
Compete - Success! I played in a lot of tournaments. Two RTT-level 40K events, one RTT-level Fantasy event, and two GT-level events. Even better, I performed fairly well in most of them.
Have a Fully Painted Skaven Army - Success! I started painting loathsome ratmen back in '92-'93. It took me 18 years to have a fully painted Skaven army. You can't imagine how proud I am of this army.
Avoid Forums - Success! Though I might not want to claim it as such. I actually made an active effort to get spun up on Dakka... but couldn't. Traffic is... overwhelming over there. Locally, avoiding the IFL Forum and its tendency to generate drama was made very easy by the club splitting. (Never mind that the club splitting probably greatly reduced the forum's ability to generate drama.) I didn't work for success here, but I feel like I achieved it.

2012 Goals

Finish
Paint
Compete

Those first three goals are never going to be inappropriate: get stuff done, focus on the part of the hobby I get the most pleasure from, and put its out there for people to see.

Make Significant Progress on an Empire Army - I think I know better than to commit to having one done. I know how long it takes me to paint and, at my current rate, it'll be 2028 before I'm done with it. Significant progress will be sufficient.
Avoid Drama - Avoiding forums to avoid drama went a long way but, as noted above I wasn't able to escape it entirely. I need to focus on the aspects of the hobby that bring me happiness and vigorously avoid those that don't.
Step It Up - I own WarpstonePile.com: it's time to switch the blog over to that (dropping the .blogspot portion). An ad or two isn't going to kill the site, might maybe offset the cost of my hobby a bit and, when I'm unable to avoid drama, will ensure that at least something positive comes out of it. I have clever ideas of using things like my army display sign on business cards.
Dump Stuff - This year, I started selling my unwanted, unloved stuff on eBay, with a great deal of success. I've still got a lot of things I need to get out of the house (especially because one of my wider-scope, life resolutions is to declutter), so I'd better keep this up. If I don't need it, don't want it, and aren't going to use it: it's gotta go.

The Doldrums of Magic

2011-12-22T06:50:00.001-05:00

As a follow-on to yesterday's post about Storm of Magic:

We've got one local player, Arromanche (who maintains the Army Builder 2.2 WHFB files), who doesn't normally play in tournaments any more, but he always stops by to help out and play ringer if one's needed. He really hates magic in 8th edition... and Storm of Magic is a bridge too far.

Early in the planning, he offered "I'll help out but I am NOT playing. The very word MAGIC means no way."

Totally reasonable, and the help's always appreciated (he knows the rules and books better than I do, better than you do, and better than both of us combined)... but I thought this was funny, so:

The Very Word MAGIC Mans 'No Way'

Practitioners of the Arcane Arts are well familiar with a phenomenon known as the "Arromanchic Doldrums," when furious Winds of Magic inexplicably and unexpectedly (inexplectably!) ebb-- even during the most tempestuous of magical storms.

During any Magic Phase Arromanche observes the beginning of, instead of using the Wild Magic rules, use the following rules:
Roll 3D6 to determine Winds of Magic
The dispelling player receives the sum of the two highest rolls as dispel dice, treating the second highest roll as a d3 rather than a d6. If the two highest rolls are doubles, treat both as d6s.
The limit of power and dispel die pools is 18.

I'm proposing using this rule at the tournament. So far one participant and one non-particpant have said they think it should be used... nobody's said it shouldn't. I'm still debating whether I should use it or not.

Storm of Magic Test Game

2011-12-21T10:18:00.003-05:00

I might have mentioned that I'm running a Storm of Magic tournament in January: more to motivate folks to give the dang format a try. The book came out, folks (myself included) bought the book, the cards, Arcane Fulcrum kits... and then never did anything with them.

So, between that, my actually painting some Fulcra, and Eric McK making the call to let folks spend 25% of their points on random Forgeworld & Storm of Magic choices at the (very successful, non-Storm of Magic) Toys for Tots tournament earlier this month: I decided to go ahead and get something on the schedule.

Key is trying to make accessible to folks who felt like paying who weren't chumps who'd bought the book or felt like playing with the Scrolls of Binding and such. I'm a fan of inclusive. So, the format's 2,500 points: percentages are based off of that (so, 625 minimum Core, 625 maximum rare, etc), and lists can spend up to 500 points on SoM choices (because in SoM you get an extra 25% to spend on those things, we can pretend you're running a 2,000 point army). Those SoM choices are totally optional: if someone wanted to show up with their usual 2,500 point army... they'd be fine.

I finally got the chance to get a game in last night: when SoM first came out, I pushed miniatures around the table with Sean for a few hours while we had the book open nearby, but I don't think that counts. So, my game with Casey was my first serious attempt at a SoM game.

I ran my usual Skaven list (the Empire's still being assembled), with two Grey Seers instead of the Seer and the Warlord, and with two Warp-Lightning Cannons as my Rare choices (no Doomwheel, no Hellpit) and just one unit of Gutter Runners. I spent my M&M budget on a Lvl 3 Fimir Banelord and a Chimera.

Casey ran a normal 2,500 point list: two units of Mournfangs, a horde of Bulls, a Slaughtermaster and a Firebelly.

I won't do a turn-by-turn battle report, but I will do a braindump of impressions from the game... and that's actually why I'm writing this post:

We didn't finish. We didn't really come close to finishing. In just over three hours, we got in three full turns. Now, a lot of that is because we chatted: with each other, with other folks... but decision paralysis from having a bajillion magic dice and an extra 8 (him) to 18 (me, if you count Lore of Shadow) spells to spend them on.
The Scrolls of Binding didn't seem to break anything. They offered me a lot more choices (a flying monster, a Shadow caster), but I don't think they turned the tide of anything, really.
Did I mention the decision paralysis? With so many dice and so many spells, it was kind of a lot of work to get through a Magic phase. That shouldn't be a surprise, but it is something to keep in mind when approaching the tournament. Know your spells, try to have a plan.
We did not have a single dang miscast. Not one. Several double-sixes for dispelling, but never for casting. Huge bummer.
We didn't do anything with Cantrips. My heart tells me that that means we were doing it wrong.
On paper, it looks like the only thing that matters are the casters on the fulcra, and that everything else is just getting pushed around for the heck of it. That wasn't my experience at all: the units on the ground are how you supplement your caster's attempts to push guys off of Fulcra.
Feast of the Fallen makes me sad. Wow.

I'd definitely like to see us (locally, at the very least) adopt Eric's 25% "random stuff" budget. Cataclysm spells and Fulcrums aside, it'll breathe some new life into armies that are starting to feel stale to their owners, open the door to clever and interesting conversions... and not be too bad, really.

The Big Build Progresses

2011-12-19T06:30:00.004-05:00

Things have been quiet 'round here, but I've been extremely busy over the past two weeks.

That's right! That's:

Halberdiers x49
Cannon x2
Mortar
Weapon Crew x9 (not pictured)
Steam Tank

So, yeah. Lots more to do before I can start fielding the army without proxies, but this is a solid start.

What's interesting is how different assembling these guys is from the Skaven. There aren't many pieces (which is great), but I've got to put a lot more effort into assembly and gap-filling.

The halberd/spear design's quite clever... but as often as not there's a clear seam (or worse, a gap) between the halberd head and the haft. So, I've been doing two passes of liquid green stuff (apply, dry, clean, repeat) and then some superglue over it. The results are just fine, but it feels like a lot of work.

Also, I need a lot more practice getting the arms to fit against the torso.

Sometimes, it's a non-issue. Other times, there's mad gap-filling to do.

Anyway, mostly, I'm just getting used to assembling new miniatures, trying to get it out of the way, and trying to do it without it feeling like a chore. I really do like these models: they're characterful, floofy, and in desperate need of good orthodonture.

Nordland Test Model

2011-12-12T06:30:00.000-05:00

It's done. I'm very happy with it. Color notes can be found here and here. I'm definitely going to roll this.

Now, I just need to commence The Big Build.

FwoshfwoshfwoshweeeeeeeBOOMBOOMBOOM

2011-12-09T06:30:00.001-05:00

I knocked out a Helstorm Rocket Battery back on Monday.

I hadn't planned (and, still don't exactly) on fielding on of the Rare artillery choices, but I ended up with one and I figured that, because I hadn't planned on fielding one, it'd be a good place to start. (Less severe consequences if I screwed up, see.)

It came together pretty quickly. I've yet to knock out the crew: I figure I'll do all the war machine crews together at once... also, they'll wait for me to figure out how I'm going to base them and work them into a scene.

Not much painting difference here: I highlighted the yellow different and I used a slightly different metal wash.

Instead of Golden Yellow, I tried a Iyanden Darksun / Menoth White Base mix on the Marienburger (the results of which I, like a doofus, forgot to photograph)... then I snagged a bottle of VMC Sand Yellow and tried that here. It's lighter, maybe too light, but I'm lazy enough / obsessed with easily replicable results enough that "bottle color not perfect" > "mixed color." We'll see how it works on an infantryman: I'm doing up a Nordlander halberdier test model now..

The metal wash was sort of what I used on my Skaven (3:2:2 - Water : Asurmen Blue : Badab Black): instead I stuck with the glaze ratio I've had a lot of luck with, plus some of the amazing P3 Armor Wash: 6:3:3:4:1 Water : Asurmen Blue : Badab Black : Matte Medium : Armor Wash. It's a great tone, but the flow was waaaay too thin for my tastes. I'd like to thicken it up a bit.

Anyway, here are the pictures:

Empire Test Game

2011-12-07T06:32:00.000-05:00

I got in a game with the Empire last night, running pretty much what I listed here (save that I dropped the Obsidian Amulet and an Archer and upgraded one Mortar to a Helstorm Rocket Battery), and went up a not-particularly hard Chaos Warriors list that looked something like:

Lvl 4 Sorcerer of Slaanesh
Lvl 2 Sorcerer, Fire
Lvl 2 Sorcerer, Death

Warriors x50 - Full Command, Mark of Khorne, Extra Hand Weapon,
Marauders x50 - Full Command, Mark of Khorne
Knights x6 - Full Command, Mark of Khorne

Warhounds x6
Warhounds x6

Giant of Slaanesh

A horde of 50 Chaos Warriors can be a tough nut to crack, but I didn't have to worry about Gateway or anything, so I wasn't complaining.

I was proxying damn near everything, so I got a lot of comments about how my troops looked like rats.

Overall it was a good, close game that I completely lost. Some assorted, unordered thoughts to follow.

What cost me the game was forgetting about the Prayers of Sigmar every round. The ability to make a unit Unbreakable was, quite literally, what cost me the game.
I misfired once, and the Engineer was around to catch that. I don't expect that to happen most games.
But the Cannons were great. Having a flat Strengh 10 feels so much better than the random-Strength shot the Warp-Lightning Cannon gave me. I miss the template at the end... but I'm happy to be able to shoot things in the face and know they're in trouble.
The Helstorm actually did okay. I need to work out the ideal distance to drop it from my target, but it hit some dudes more often than not...
... which is more than I can say about the Mortar, which was generally disappointing. That's a little strange.
Halberdiers didn't feel like they were delivering... but they went toe-to-toe with a Horde of Chaos Warriors for three rounds of combat, so I probably shouldn't complain.
Swordsmen were okay: they performed about as well as I could have asked.
The Lvl 1 Beasts caster accomplished precious little. I should consider bumping him to a Lvl 2 (or giving him a new Lore) so he can get more done.
Knights were a disappointment, but I don't know if I'm expecting too much from them. I lost only 2 of them to 24 attacks from the Warriors, and then the remaining 7 of them killed 5 Warriors. That's not bad, but... they just didn't hit as hard as I thought they should have. I also completely forgot to do the mounts' attacks (not used to having cavalry), but I doubt they would have made much of a differece.
I miscast twice. Each time I rolled a 9, which meant that all of my Priests and Wizards took hits. Blech. In the last turn, I managed to kill off my little Priest and Battle Wizard with it. In fact, I think my opponent did 1 wound, total, to any of my characters, while I was able to five.
The Shadow Wizard Lord didn't pull much off, but that's because he understandably kept getting dispelled. I really liked having his options, though: he's not likely to go anywhere.
I need to read, learn, and internalize the FAQ. I lost my Steam Tank to Purple Sun.
Archers were the dang MVP of the game: they did better than I could have expected shooting things (mostly because my opponent's dice were bullshit and kept failing his 1+ saves), but really because they were champs at redirecting chargers and getting in the way.

I'm going to fiddle with dropping the knights (though I should give them another chance) and seeing what else I can do with the points.

I've painted up the Helstorm (the weapon, at least, not the team): I'll try to have some pics up soon.

Marienburg Test Model

2011-12-01T06:30:00.002-05:00

I knocked out a test model in no time last night. There are some things I'm extremely pleased with, and some things that make me glad this is a test model.

First off: here's the finished model:

So, clearly: this guy's painted up in Marienburg and not Nordland colors. I thought I'd give it a shot.

He looks pretty good and came together in no time at all.

Ultimately, though, I think I'm going go with Nordland instead of Marienburg.

I don't think this scheme works very well. The red and blue are bright enough to make the yellow look pretty dingy. I don't want dingy: as a rule, my style runs towards bright and away from grungy... and particularly with The Empire, I'm looking to embrace the pajama-pants, floppy hat dandy brightness.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

I think the yellow will look okay against the blue (I'm going to try it on another model when I can get my hands on one); it's the red and the blue that brings it down.
My yellow paint is dead. My Iyanden Darksun and especially my Golden Yellow. Better quality paint will help a lot.
I don't think I can do brighter yellow. It just tends to look weird. So hopefully removing the red will make this less dire.

I'm super-stoked about how his face came out. Given that I haven't painted a person face in a long time, I think this looks great.

The base is so-so. Forgettable. That's okay, though: there's still time for me to see if I can come up with something more inspired.

The model didn't go together as well as I'd have liked: it was from a bitz-order and I'm not sure the head I got was meant to go on the body: there's some dodgy glue and greenstuff at work in the neck (which is why the head got painted separately).

Overall, it looks pretty good and came together very, very quickly. Faster, even, than my clanrats (almost certainly because of my regrettable decision to use GW Bronzed Flesh / VMC Dark Flesh as my primary skin tone as well as picking out the rings on every little tail).

I can totally do this!

What do the rest of you think?

Painting notes behind the cut...

Yellow
GW Iyanden Darksun
GW Gryphonne Sepia
GW Iyanden Darksun
GW Golden Yellow

Blue
GW Regal Blue
GW Enchanted Blue
Reaper True Blue
3:3:2 - GW Asurmen Blue : Water : Matte Medium wash

Red
GW Red Gore
P3 Skorne Red
P3 Khador Red Base
3:2:2:1 - Water : GW Baal Red : Matte Medium : Gryphonne Sepia wash

Skin
GW Tallarn Flesh
GW Elf Flesh
3:3:2 - GW Ogryn Flesh : Water : Matte Medium wash
GW Elf Flesh

Brown Hair
GW Calthan Brown
P3 Hammerfall Khaki
3:2:2:1 - Water : GW Devlan Mud : Matte Medium : Gryphonne Sepia wash

Skull
P3 Hammerfall Khaki
P3 Menoth White Base
P3 Morrow White
GW Devlan Mud wash

Leather
GW Scorched Brown
GW Bestial Brown
GW Snakebite Leather
GW Devlan Mud wash

Wood
GW Khemri Brown
P3 Hammerfall Khaki
GW Devlan Mud wash

Feather
GW Astonomican Grey
P3 Menoth White Highlight drybrush
P3 Morrow White drybrush

Metal
GW Boltgun Metal
GW Mithril Silve
6:3:3:4 - Water : GW Asurmen Blue : GW Badab Black : Matte Medium

Brass
GW Bestial Brown
GW Shining Gold
GW Burnished Gold
GW Devlan Mud Wash

Ground
GW Calthan Brown
P3 Hammerfall Khaki
P3 Menoth White Highlight
6:3:3 - Water : GW Devlan Mud : GW Gryphonne Sepia

What's Next

2011-11-27T20:33:00.001-05:00

So, I've decided Necrons are a no-go. The games I've played with them haven't felt right, and what little inspiration I've found for painting them is wholly uninspired. Holding out for the rumored Tau update (I'm super-pumped to revisit Tau, my first army, but I can't bring myself to do it this side of an update) feels like the smarter move.

But, I've got to work on something and, more pressingly, my birthday and Christmas are coming up, so I've got to have something hobby-related to put on a list.

So, I've decided to move on the Empire thing that's been rattling around since late August. Pajama pants and feathered hats, here I come!

I took advantage of TheWarStore's Black Friday sale to load up on some battalions, and I've assembled another test model to fiddle with.

The key to what I want to do is nautical-themed, "Fist of Manann" type army. Nautical iconography and such. The only decision point I'm hung up on is whether I should do them as a Marienburg force or a Nordland force.

Initially, I'd decided on Nordland. I'm starting to rethink that, though. Googling around for ideas turns up a disconcerting number of swastikas (seriously, WTF Norway?), and reading deeper into the fluff turns up that Nordlanders tend to assert Sigmar- and Ulric-worship aggressively to try to make up for their mixed-Norscan heritage... which undermines the Manann thing I'm going for.

Marienburg hits all of the points that Nordland was supposed to hit (which makes sense, given that Theoderic Gausser claims rule over it), but without the bumpkinhood that comes with Nordland. They've don't lose any of the nautical conversion potential, and their independent, mercenary nature offers room for some more creative conversion.

On the other hand, Nordland lets me paint up a Bill the Goat.

Anyway, I need to noodle on this a bit.

In the meantime, the a first cut of what I look to be running is:

Lords
Arch Lector of Manann - General, Heavy Armor, Sword of Might, Shield of the Gorgon, Van Horstman's Speculum
Wizard Lord - Lvl 4, Shadow, Seal of Destruction, Crimson Amulet

Heroes
Battle Wizard - Lvl 1, Beasts, Dispel Scroll
Captain of the Empire - BSB, Shield, Armor of Meteoric Iron
Master Engineer
Warrior Priest - Heavy Armor, Shield, Warhorse, Barding, Biting Blade, Obsidian Amulet

Core
Halberdiers x39 - Musician, Standard Bearer
- Archers x15
- Free Company x15
Knights of the Albatross x9 - Musican, Standard Bearer, Banner of Eternal Flame
Swordsmen x30 - Full Command
- Archers 15

Special
Great Cannon
Great Cannon
Mortar
Mortar

Rare
Steam Tank

I've no illusions that there's room to improve this. What I'm starting out with looks a lot like my Skaven army... but with better troops, better, more reliable shooting, more magic options and stronger magic defense. There's no Plague Furnace equivalent in there, but... this is a start.

Arcane Fulcra!

2011-11-24T06:30:00.001-05:00

I'm still rattling around, unsatisfied, with a Necron paint scheme that's fast but isn't terrible. At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm just not going to bother.

As a change of pace, I decided to knock out the Arcane Fulcra I put together back in July, when they came out.

Painting notes follow the picture dump.

Magewrath Throne!

Balewind Vortex!

I tried a lot of weathering here. For the most part, I think it worked out. There were definitely some problems with the Throne, though: the verdigris wasn't thin enough and it definitely obscured some detail.

For what it's worth, I tried zenithal highlighting on these guys. I don't think it shows, though.

Brass
- GW Bestial Brown
- GW Shining Gold
- GW Burnished Gold
- Verdigris wash

Verdigris
I mixed GW Goblin Green, VMC Light Turquoise, VMC White, water, rubbing alchol. No good ratios... just go thin! I brushed it on heavily and then immediately dabbed the heck out of it with tissues. I think this bridges a good gap between verdigris-as-stuff-that-pools and verdigris-as-exposure-to-rain, which is sort of what I took away from this.

Iron
- GW Tin Bitz
- GW Boltgun Metal
- GW Mithril Silver
- Rust wash

Rust Wash
This is a mix of GW Dark Flesh, GW Blazing Orange, P3 Armor Wash and water. Again, it's all eyeballed here.

Natural Rock
- Ceramcoat Charcoal
- Apple Barrel Pewter Grey
- Ceramcoat Quaker Grey
- Wash: 3:2:2:1 - Water : Badab Black : Matte Medium : Devlan Mud

Carved Rock
- P3 Cryx Bane Base
- P3 Cryx Bane Highlight
- P3 Hammerfall Khaki
- Wash: 3:2:2:1 - Water : Devlan Mud : Matte Medium : Thraka Green

In case you haven't noticed: the 3:2:2:1 wash mix is my special sauce. It turns the wash into more of a glaze, which makes the colors its washing over richer and more interesting, and cutting the wash 2:1 one color to another produces really neat results.

Also, this is a flip-flop from how I've been doing terrain. With the rest of my stuff, the Cryx-based colors are the natural colors and the more pure grey is for carved rock.

Finally: hot-damn, I'm still totally in love with the Cryx Bane Base / Cryx Bane Highlight / Khaki progression. It's such an interesting, natural color.

I did miss a spot while keeping wash even, though: :(

Vortex
- P3 Meridius Blue
- VMC Light Turquoise
- P3 Arcane Blue
- VMC Light Blue
- Turquoise wash

Turquoise Wash
I really need to figure out how to replicate this, because I plan on using it extensively when I revisit my Tau army. It's P3 Turquoise Ink, a lot of water, a lot of matte medium and a little GW Asurmen Blue.

Bone
- GW Dark Flesh
- P3 Menoth White Base
- P3 Morrow White
- GW Devlan Mud

Anyway, what do people think?

More HDR

2011-11-18T06:30:00.001-05:00

Nothing fancy here: when I took the Gremlin / Necron photos on Monday, I thought I'd try some Fantasy-themed HDR / backdrop photos.

Necron Test Model

2011-11-16T06:30:00.004-05:00

So, I knocked out a Necron test model over the weekend.

I don't like it. I don't think it works at all.

The highlights don't work well. The model's boring. It looks odd. The proportions look off thanks to the black / bone contrast.

The face looks creepy, but just doesn't work.

I've been thinking about how I need an "I don't give a fuck" army, where I get to see how the other half (folks who just want to play and don't care about the hobby aspect of the game) lives. It just takes me so damn long to paint an army, it gets frustrating, you know?

I thought Necrons could be that army: I think they're neat, but I'm not emotionally invested in them or anything. That's why I thought maybe I could get away with something so explicitly unoriginal.

Also, holy poop, I'm terrible at wet-blending.

Back to the drawing board!

Gremlins, Batch 2

2011-11-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I finished up the Gremlins I've been working on. (I'd have finished them last weekend, but I ran out of Bestial Brown and it took me forever to remember to buy more.)

Here they are:

And more fiddling with backdrop/terrain/HDR:

Necron Test-Run

2011-11-10T10:03:00.000-05:00

I got in a test game with the new Necrons on Tuesday.

Here's the list I threw together. I'm sure that it only bears passing resemblance to any Necron list I'd be playing six months from now, but I've got to start somewhere, right?

Necron Test List - 1,850

HQ
Nemesor Zandrekh

Elites
Triarch Stalker
Triarch Stalker

Troops
Warriors x20
- Cryptek - Eldritch Lance, Solar Pulse
Warriors x9
- Cryptek - Eldritch Lance, Gaze of Flame
- Ghost Ark
Warriors x10
- Ghost Ark

Fast Attack
Canoptek Scarabs x6
Canoptek Scarabs x5

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Canoptek Spyder x3 - Fabricator Array, Gloom Prism

I proxied everything with AT-43 Therians, which wasn't terribly inappropriate (though they were all on bases that were too big).

I ended up playing against Ashley's Slaaneshi Daemons. It was pretty brutal: I wrecked them pretty badly. That shouldn't be too much of a surprise: these Necrons are really hot when it comes to zapping infantry... and she had a lot of infantry. I've got to get in a few games against Imperial Guard to see how it copes (if at all) with a parking lot full of transports.

Some observations:

Nemesor wasn't a whole lot of use here. The special rules didn't make a huge difference, and she didn't have enough units with special rules to take a way. I opted to not Deep Strike anything, so that didn't make a difference, either. I'm curious to see how he fares against armies that leverage special rules more, though: he seems like a really good choice.
The Triarch Stalkers were amazing. A double-tapped multimelta's not bad, but making everything else twin-linked became a little obscene. We can pray that Tau Markerlights are this effective. What's better than 50 gauss flayers shooting at a unit? 50 twin-linked gauss flayers. Zap.
Ghost Arks were pretty sweet. She had a hard time cracking through Quantum Shielding, which meant they were pretty safe, and they belched out an obscene amount of fire.
Scarabs did okay, despite the fact that there was no armor for them to munch on.
Annihilation Barges were okay, but I'm not sure how useful they'll be against armor. The Tesla rule was pretty dang crazy: at no point did I not get at least one Tesla hit. So, with 5-8 (yeah, that happened) S7 shots, I should be able to handle transports with them at least.
Spyders didn't get the chance to do much: I need to work to keep them in range of the scarabs.

What have other folks' experiences been with the Newcrons so far?

Gremlins WIP

2011-11-04T06:30:00.000-04:00

Man, I really need to bang out a write-up about Dragon Wars (short version: had a great time!), but I haven't had the time.

I have been working on some Gremlins: the guy who bought the Gremlin crew I put up for auction a few weeks ago asked if I'd knock out a few more models to fill out the list. So, that's what I'm working on. They're coming along much faster than I thought they would; I really need to just block out a day to wrap them up.

Anyway, here are the WIPs:

The Worst Thing You Can Do at the Table

2011-11-02T06:30:00.003-04:00

It's okay to hope your dice roll well. It's okay to hope your opponent's dice don't. (You have my permission.) What's never okay is to shout out that sentiment while your opponent is making a roll.

Shouting "FAIL!" "ONES!" "DIE!" "MISFIRE!" (all things I've actually had shouted at me) or anything along those lines isn't actually going to make that result any more likely. The only thing it's going to accomplish is make you look like a complete asshole.

This is a jerk shibboleth to me. If someone does it once, I give them the stinkeye. People get caught up sometimes, though; I judge... but not a lot. If my opponent does this once, I'm having a bad game.

Twice, though? Twice is repeated behavior. Twice is a pattern of douchebaggery. I generally call opponents on it if they do it a second time. "Really? Really?!?! Did you actually just cheer for me to fail that roll?" If my opponent does this more than once, I'm having a terrible game and have absolutely lost my cool.

To their credit: I've never called someone on this and not have them apologize for being a jerk.

While I wouldn't begin to suggest that I see this happen regularly; it's happened to me a handful of times, and I often hear about it happening to other people.

(I try to cheer for my opponents to roll well... I'd rather win a game because I won it, not because my opponent blew some crucial roll. And, if they do blow it, I'm quietly thankful, not celebratory. Of course, I also tend to feel pretty bad about total bullshit rolls on my part. Stupid shame-based religious upbringing.)

More with HDR

2011-10-30T06:30:00.000-04:00

I actually wrote the HDR post about a week before I posted it: I'm trying to be better about pacing my posts. I've been antsy about it going up 'cause I think it's interesting.

That antsy-ness, plus avoidance of the Daemon mess, motivated me to fiddle with stuff some more.

I changed up the lightbox arrangement a bit. First, I swapped out the Pegasus terrain with the prepainted Ruined Chapel piece since it's got a bit more varied color in it (and the neat stained glass effect). Then, I worked my way through my images folder to find suitable backdrops and printed out a couple of them on 11x17 paper. Mounted them to foamboard and hit them with some Dullcote to cut down on reflection. Finally, I replaced the white drop cloth with a black one.

Then, I took some more HDR pictures, matching up a few different HDR apps. Here are the results:

Librarian:

Deathwing Techmarine:

(Next time, I'm just going to do row & column headers. I think that, by this point, we know the second row is post-I'm Feeling Lucky, right?)

Anyway, what do y'all think?

My observations:

I'm Feeling Lucky doesn't actually seem to do the Pro HDR images any favors. Interesting.
Looking at these, I feel like Pro HDR produces images that are too bright. (Mind you, I'm just talking about the macro photography that I'm doing here.)
I'm waffling between preferring the results from HDR Fusion and the camera in HDR mode. I think I like the regular camera in HDR mode run through I'm Feeling Lucky the most.
The other thing is that this setup works for 40K and other sci-fi minis... it's not terribly appropriate for Fantasy minis. If I stick with this, I'll probably have to pull something together for that.
That could be a fun project: building a photo setup for each army. Hrm.

Adventures with HDR

2011-10-28T06:30:00.045-04:00

I feel I need to preface this with a disclaimer: I'm not much of a photographer. Photography's not my hobby: taking better pictures is, for the most part, something motivated solely by my desire to better present toy soldiers that I've painted.

Also, HDR is a thing that's been around for 160 years, with software-based approaches being invented while I was still in high school. So, this is nothing new... but it's new to me, and that means it merits a post. :)

I'd never heard about it until I saw a post that HDR Fusion was free for a day. Free's my kind of price, so I grabbed it and immediately learned that it's terrible for taking pictures of cats. (Because they barely sit still long enough for one exposure, nevermind two.)

The short version is that, rather than taking a single picture, you take multiple pictures at varying levels of exposure, then run them through a process that pulls them together into a single image: the dark parts are darker and the light parts are lighter, resulting in a more vibrant, interesting result.

I really love this example from the Wikipedia article linked above:

There are some more gorgeous examples here.

Inspiration seized me to try it out on minis. Unfortunately, I was at work, so I only had MOTUC figures, and not minis, handy. Here are the results: the same figures photographed using the normal camera and the HDR function, with both images run through Picasa's I'm Feeling Lucky.

As I've mentioned before: Picasa's I'm Feeling Lucky makes everything look so much better; given how negligible an effort's involved, everyone should be using it. Really.

Still, this... was not very impressive. I actually think the Normal + Picasa looks the best out of the four, but Gygor's undeniably a much more vibrant neon prehistoric Eternian ape warlord in the HDR + Picasa shot.

I figured that this is because they're just in front of the bland, off-white my office walls are painted. For HDR to produce interesting results, it probably needs contrasts: more brights to brighten against more darks to darken.

So, after I got the dining room table cleared off (amazing how messy the house can get when everyone but the cats is sick for a month) and the lightbox out to photograph the Ratwyrm, I figured I should grab some terrain and fiddle with HDR some more. Here are the results. (Make sure to click through to see them at the full resolution.)

Warlock Engineer:

Librarian:

(I'm glad I only did the two: pulling together the comparisons in GIMP isn't difficult, but it sure ain't fast.)

I stuck them on some Pegasus terrain; it definitely made a difference. For better effect, I probably should layer some terrain to obscure the white backdrop (and consider replacing the white with black, but I don't know if that won't just change one boring background for another).

As expected, I'm Feeling Lucky made everything better, and I think the HDR results (modified by Picasa or not) look better than the normal photographs.

In both cases, the HDR produced warmer results. It's even more pronounced with the Engineer, because I took his "Normal" shots with my the camera I normally photograph minis with (which means it got the setup I normally use for mini photography); all of the Librarian photos were taking with the same cameraphone using the HDR app.

I think that, in both cases, the Normal (unmodified) produced truer colors, but I don't think any of the other shots distorted them significantly. Rather than some of the crazy effects that I linked to above, I've gotten fairly accurate pictures of my minis, just more striking.

Another thing to consider is that these HDR images were done with HDR Fusion: the phone's camera natively supports HDR (apparently), and I've read that Pro HDR is the go-to HDR app. Never mind the fact that this is all being done with a freaking cameraphone. A real camera would be sure to produce even more interesting results.

What do y'all think? Useful? Interesting? Helpful? I'm curious! Maybe if there's enough interest, I'll put some different HDR apps up against each other.

What's wrong with the Ratwyrm?

2011-10-27T06:30:00.001-04:00

So, like I said the other day, I'm pretty unhappy with it. There's just a lot of missteps.

In a way, I'm okay with that. I did 95% of the conversion work on it two years ago. I've gotten a lot better since then (though I'd definitely got a long way to go).

I'm also relatively pleased with the painting. Painting large things is definitely a weakness for me; painting large fleshy things even more so. The wings came out pretty well, all things considered.

Anyway, let the parade of failures begin!

Using the old bell was a terrible idea. It weighs nearly as much as the rest of the model; It requires a freaking paperclip to support it. I give myself a pass on this, as I did the conversion quite some time before the new kit had come out... but I still should have considered removing the metal bell and replacing it with the more impressive and easily workable plastic bell.

More importantly: what the hell was I thinking when I rotated the bell that way? I absolutely should have had the symbol facing forward. Having it face the sides was a boneheaded move.

The tail is a more recent addition: I slapped it on there a few weeks ago, just before painting. It's rough. I clearly need to work on my greenstuff skills a lot more. I started at the base of the tail and worked my way towards the end in batches... as I went, it got progressively better, which is heartening, but the overall result is one I'm dissatisfied with.

I ended up using Rat Ogre hands 'cause I'd misplaced the Dragon's claws. I like the result a lot, but getting it to work was pretty difficult and, in the process, resulted in a pretty severely mutilated right front paw. I covered for it by painting the incredibly bad greenstuff as boils. I think it worked out okay, but it's going to keep bothering me.

I dug the notion of having rats hanging on the wings... but I don't think the result worked out very well. I dunno.

I mean, I can always find stuff wrong with minis I've done, but there are just so many goofs with this thing.

2011-10-26T14:30:00.000-04:00

Just tripped carrying his Daemons coming up the stairs. About half of them are broken. Stuff's broken off at contact points. Stuff's just up and snapped.

I don't even know how to process this just yet.

Ratwyrm! Finished! Tremble, man-things!

2011-10-25T06:30:00.006-04:00

I've been working on this guy forever. Like, for over two years. (No exaggeration!)

I started in on the conversion several moths before the new Skaven book came out. Originally, it was supposed to be a Screaming Bell. Then, it sat around six months, waiting for me to crack open a Plague Furnace so I could stick the Grey Seer on it. And, after that, it sat around another year and a half before I did anything else with it.

From Day One, I'd meant to take the Bell Ringer from the last Screaming Bell and have him, hanging by a chain, swinging from the side of the Dragon. Then, at the last minute, I decided it'd be too dang much trouble.

(From Stuff of Legends, used w/o permission.)

As I said, he started out as a Screaming Bell. With the new book, I considered rebasing it onto a wider, Bell / Abomination base (since I can always run him as an Abomination), but it was sure too be too much trouble; that bell's metal and needs the pin for support (and that thing was an enormous pain. Besides: I've never really run the Bell: I ran him as a dragon in last years' Dragon Wars; this years' tournament was the motivator for painting him up. He's spent most of his life as a dragon, so on a dragon base he'll stay.

On with the photodump! (It's kind of a hassle that it's as large as it is: it's tough to photograph the whole thing.)

What's awesome is that, as I'm writing this up, I've spotted a few things I missed and need to clean up (painting the pin black, washing the wires on the bell).

Anyway, here's the finished product. As it turns out, I'm very unhappy about a number of things about it. I'm going to throw this up here, fishing for praise, and then on Thursday point out what's lousy about it and any of that praise is misplaced. :)

Ratwyrm WIP

2011-10-21T10:18:00.000-04:00

I keep taking pictures of this thing but being too busy to post them. Grr.

Anyway, Dragon Wars is next weekend, so I've got a week to wrap him up... which is totally doable. At this point, it's a few details, metallics and the base.

Painting Progress - 20111009

2011-10-09T16:48:00.000-04:00

It looks like I'm finally near the end of whatever the hell it was I caught at Blob's. Not only is that objectively fantastic, it means I can actually get back into the swing of things.

I've spent the past couple of days prepping Dreadfleet; I'm looking forward to painting that stuff up!

Unfortunately, I've still got one (not so) little thing to paint up for Dragon Wars at the end of the month before I can start on it.

The wings are taking forever, but I keep telling myself that that's okay: it's 2/3rds wing.

Lopsided Rear Ranks

2011-10-03T13:52:00.002-04:00

In pulling together a "things that drive me nuts" post, one of the items in the list was "Lopsided Rear Ranks." The above unit's an example of this: the models in its rear rank aren't centered across the unit.

When I'd see this, I'd say something like, "Come on, man; you've got to center your rear rank. It matters for supporting attacks, templates, charges. You're just supposed to be centered."

Well, as it turns out I was totally wrong.

Removing Casualties (pg 5)
Some of the models in a unit (probably quite a lot of them) will die as the battle progresses. When casualties occur, models are removed from the back rank of the unit. If the unit is reduced to a single rank, casualties must be removed evenly from either end of the line.

You only have to start keeping things centered when you're down to a single rank; until then you can pull from wherever the heck you'd like. So, the above formation is just fine.

I imagine that means that if you want to shift guys to the left or right (without being charged in the flank), you probably need to make a Combat Reform test, but still...

Anyway, I just learned something new and I'd been doing something wrong: of course I had to share it.

Buy My Stuff!

2011-09-30T06:00:00.001-04:00

Or not, as pleases you. I'm listing the last of my Warmachine / Hordes stuff. If you're into that, go nuts.

The only notable thing is that I'm also unloading what little painted Malifaux stuff I have: three Witchling Stalkers and a painted Gremlins list. I'm curious to see how well the Gremlins do, because I'm selling them as a lot and starting it at what feels a bit high ($90), but it is $75 worth of stuff and they're seriously painted really, really well.

If you're into this stuff, please take a look at my listings! Thanks!

Commencing picture dump... now!

Battle of Blob's Park Blow-by-Blow

2011-09-29T13:22:00.004-04:00

My List

As I'd mentioned, the 2,800 point size was problematic enough for me to not bother trying to bring a Good 2,800 point list; just as good of a "2,500 point list that I have, plus 300 points" as I could manage.

Ratputin Rampages - Blob's Park
2,800 points

Lords
Warlord - General, War-Litter, Sword of Might, Enchanted Shield
Grey Seer - Lvl 4 (Plague 2, Ruin 2), Talisman of Protection

Heroes
Chieftain - BSB, Shield, Armor of Destiny
Plague Priest - Lvl 1 (Plague), Plague Furnace, Flail, Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon
Warlock Engineer - Doomrocket
Warlock Engineer - Ruby Ring of Ruin

Core
Clanrats x30 - Full Command, Shields
- Poisoned Wind Mortar
Skavenslaves x50 - Champion, Musician, Shields
Stormvermin x30 - Full Command, Storm Banner
- Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special
Gutter Runners x6 - Poison, Slings
Gutter Runners x6 - Poison, Slings
Plague Monks x31 - Full Command, Plague Banner

Rare
Doomwheel
Hellpit Abomination - Warpstone Spikes
Plagueclaw Catapult
Warp-Lightning Cannon
Warp-Lightning Cannon

Changes between this and my NoVA list boil down to:

Sword of s/Anti-Heroes/Might/
+ Ironcurse Icon
+ 10 Stormvermin
+ Warlock w/ Ruby Ring of Ruin
+ Warp-Lightning Cannon
+ Plagueclaw Catapult

Dropping the Sword of Anti-Heroes was something I'd meant to do for NoVA. No problem there. Ironcurse Icon... did nothing, but cost next to nothing, and could have been useful. The Warlock was useless. Clever idea, a waste of points. The Catapult, similarly, was useless. It never delivered anything, but cost 10 points more than the Cannon... which was actually a good pick. If I could have taken three more of them, I would have.

Really, I don't think it's possible to overstate my disappointment with the Plagueclaw Catapult. Blech.

Game 1 vs. Warriors of Chaos
Josh A.

This was probably my best game of the day. We were both in great moods and there was a lot of back-and-forth through the game.

Really, I think I was only able to pull out any sort of win due to two seriously bullshit rolls:

- I popped his Manticore on the first turn with the WLC. It was a weak (S 2) bounce that just barely clipped him due to the blast template. That S 2 hit wounded the Manticore on a 6 and then did 4 wounds. Yowza.

- We had a big old scrum between my Monks, a horde of his Marauders and a unit of his Chaos Warriors. He chomped through the Furnace and killed a bajillion Monks. They were sure to break... but instead rolled double ones: holding everyone in place for a flank charges from the Doomwheel and the Clanrats.

It was a really good game that I feel I easily could have (and probably should have) lost.

Game 2 vs. Daemons of Chaos
Quentin B.

This game was rough. He seemed convinced that I was going to steamroll over him and take his lunch money... things very much didn't work out that way.

I probably deployed badly: I probably should have just kept all of my warmachines in the middle of my deployment zone, protected by everything I had, rather than leaving them on the corners where their protectors could be Siren Song'd into oblivion.

He killed the crap out of me, but it wasn't a bad game. Things got a little frustrating because of noise (we had trouble hearing each other over the din) and, near the end, his margaritas started catching up with him.. but otherwise, it really was a fun game. Definitely makes me consider trying to conflate a visit to Manly with an appearance at the Quake City Rumble.

Game 3 vs. Chaos Dwarves
Eric. McK.

Between losing a game and playing a fellow club member, I was able to relax and just focus on enjoying the game. This was a brutal, ugly fight. We probably killed something like 50%-75% of each other's models... but neither of us were really able to seal the deal on that many units. In the end, we had something like 500VP (him) and 300VP (me); a lot of noise but not much payoff for either of us.

Anyway, yeah, it was a good game that took forever. I don't think we made it to Turn 4.

Game 4 vs. Empire
Thomas J.

This was probably the worst game I've played in a very, very long time. It was kind of a dick list (~30x Knights, ~30x Outriders, 3x Cannons, 2x Steam Tanks), but that really wasn't the problem. His attitude at the table was terrible. I could enumerate all of the shitty little things but: he apologized after the game for being a jerk (probably because I lost my temper over something). So, I won't. (I'll probably revisit some of them outside of the context of my opponent in a Miss Manners-style post at some point, though.)

It was a rough game that I think I played about as well as I could have, given what I was going up against. I ended up losing by 50VP.

One great game, two good games, and one lousy game isn't that bad for a tournament.

Warlock Engineer - Ruby Ring of Ruin

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

The last mini I had to get ready for this past weekend was a Warlock Engineer with the Ruby Ring of Ruin.

He's a bit more armored than I'd have liked him, but he's not too armored. With Clanrats being so less modular (not complaining), the only base I had to use for a conversion was a Stormvermin. Fortunately, that kit had the perfect arm: a pointing finger with a big ring.

The head's a spare from the Doomwheel. The backpack, obviously, is from the Island of Blood Warlock Engineer. The arm's an Ork power klaw; the finished product looks better than I thought it would. For the heck of it, I stuck a plague censer bearer on there, just to add a bit to the model.

I figure that, if I feel like it, I can run him as a Warlord with a Warlock-Augmented Weapon or something.

Here are the WIPs:

And the final product:

Battle at Blob's Park - Overview

2011-09-26T09:09:00.002-04:00

Overall, the day was okay. Of four games, I had two good ones, one okay one, and one really terrible one. That's... not bad for a GT, really.

I'm not in love with the venue. I know it's something other people like, but the fact that they sold beer didn't compensate for the temperature, the humidity, or the concrete. I brought the chef's mat to stand on (and I'm glad I did; I wouldn't have been able to finish the day without it) and a folding chair (but it was rarely practical to sit in it.), but they weren't enough to keep me from hurting at the end of it.

It was a long, long, long day... but that's because they allowed for very long rounds. That's great.

The acoustics of the pavilion were terrible. It was loud. So loud, I'm still hoarse, days later, from shouting so the person across the table could hear me.

I think the venue's going to keep me from coming back next year, but I get that it's something a lot of other folks enjoy.

The only thing that I found unacceptable was the paint judging. It pissed me off and, as I said, was unacceptable. Mike Clarke has a checklist that he uses; it's more subjective that it might originally look, but it's still fairly objective. He didn't recognize me, so he gave me a breakdown & disclaimer about how he scores things. That's good: context never hurts. My score wasn't bad (16/20), and the places where he dinged me were, for the most part, reasonable*.

What's got me pissed is that he did the paint judged me while I was playing a game. I asked him if he could wait and do it when I'd put things on my board and he said, no, this was how he was doing everybody's. He was processing game results and that meant that he couldn't do that and paint judge at the same time. (Wait for it.)

Now, I'm skeptical that everybody's army was evaluated mid-game, and that he didn't look at any armies when they were on their boards... but I'll take him at his word, because that's not the critical problem here.

If he can't process results and paint judge at the same time: he shouldn't be doing both. Micromanage less, or pick the support activity you prefer more, whatever. I don't care. I didn't lug that enormous, awkward thing to and fro just to have it ignored. (Yes, he asked "Do you have a display board" and then looked at it, but it's very much different.) People who put a lot of effort into their army appearance deserve to have it evaluated as a whole, the way they want to present it... not over the shoulder, while they're shoved together into casualty piles or hiding behind terrain.

Really: if I learn he's involved in a tournament I'm planning to attend, I'm going to find out if they plan on judging this way again**. If they are: I will pass on it. If they aren't, and they end up doing it anyway, I'm going to pitch a fit.

I'll try to touch on my games in the next couple of days.

* I'll pop out here and say that his checklist is biased towards small armies. When items speak to heavily customized bases throughout an army, or every miniature in an army being customized: an army with fewer minis is always going to do better than an army with more minis. An Ogre army will always score better than a Skaven army on his checklist.

Furthermore, it makes the poor assumption that a good conversion is an obvious one. I very much disagree. An obvious conversion is a less skillful one: little of Ron's work leaps out as having been converted, though it quite thoroughly has.

** If this sounds like hatin' on Clarke; it's not. He's a nice enough guy: I just find his in media res approach to paint judging unacceptable.

EDIT: It looks like I'm being unfair to Mike here. I'm sorry about that. The mid-game judging isn't standard procedure for his tournaments; it was just something that was driven by a lack of staff.

I'm leaving the original post as-is 'cause I dislike making phantom edits, but although I remain frustrated by the judging, I understand it's not something Mike could control. I apologize for singling him out for it.

Flinging Poo

2011-09-22T06:00:00.000-04:00

Managed to wrap up a Plagueclaw Catapult last night.

This kit is simultaneously GW's most ingenious kit and most frustrating. That you can make both a cannon or a catapult out of it (or, if you're Squeek Vermintide, both at the same time) is really impressive. That you can make either in so many different combinations is brilliant.

But, holy crap, do I hate putting together this kit. Last time, I really learned that you do not mess around with the sprues: don't start clipping until you're ready to start assembling and don't start assembling it until it's painted! (The need to paint then assemble is something that really frustrates me.) Also, painting all of those little metal bits can get pretty tedious.

Anyway, it's together, painted, done. Took me the bulk of the weekend to do, but I really needed to stay focused to have it ready in time for Blob's.

I can't stand seeing this kit with a giant piece of warpstone as the counterbalance. It just doesn't make any sense! So, instead the rock's painted like... rock.

I'm pretty pleased with how the ammunition came out: like a ball of really unhealthy poo, people parts and dead rats.

Also, in other news: USPS wildly overestimated how long it would take for those bitz to make it out... they showed up today! The conversion's done, so I'll have all afternoon tomorrow and Friday to paint it up!

Blob's Park!

2011-09-21T10:22:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be playing Fantasy at Blob's Park this weekend!

I'm mostly ready for the tournament: I need another Warlock Engineer, and have an exciting conversion for him mostly done... but it looks like the last few bitz I need to finish him aren't going to show up until Friday afternoon, which isn't going to give me enough time to paint the thing. Instead, I'll just use this guy and call him a Warlock Engineer. I don't think anyone will complain. The larger undertaking, a Plagueclaw Catapult, is done: I'll be varnishing and photographing it this afternoon.

This'll be my first year there: I'm a little apprehensive about the site. I know it's outside and at a biergarten and, while that sounds cool on paper, all I can do is worry about logistics: will I be able to sit, will there be enough water, etc. So, just to be safe, I'll be loading up a folding chair and several liters of water. It's probably a safe bet that I won't need (or be able to) bring a cooler of beer.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it!

Blood Horrors!

2011-09-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

I never did get around to posting pics of the second Octet of Blood Horrors I wrapped up for the tournament the other weekend. Well, I had the lightbox out for the Wizarding Warlord, so I figured I might as well knock these guys out, too.

Wizarding Hat!

2011-09-16T06:00:00.005-04:00

Blob's Park is giving me a bit of heartburn. I've got a 2,500 point list that I'm happy with, that I'm comfortable with, that I've done pretty well with. Most importantly, it's painted.

Blob's Park, woefully, is 2,800 points. I'm not entirely sure why the bump, except that there must be some nonsense you can drop with 700 points of Lords or Rare or something that they want to see. For me, though, it's another 300 points that I've got to get painted.

This is unfortunate, because just throwing more points at something always ends badly. C'est la vie.

Anyway, my goal was to get up to 2,800 with adding as few models as possible. I had a plan that involved 6 Globadiers and a Doom Flayer, but then inspiration hit and I decided to bridge the gap by throwing down a Warlord with a Wizarding Hat.

One model? Room for a clever conversion? Ability to use one of those sweet, sweet book lores? Yes, please!

After some noodling and doodling and digging around for parts, I considered and then had to dismiss, modeling it as a brain jar. That'd have killed... but it wasn't to be.

So, I went with my initial plan: a big ol' hat made out of paper hardened by superglue.

I had Warlord Spinetail sitting in the bits box: I used his sword and arm in my War-Litter, so I might as well do something fun and goofy with the remainder.

I used a Stormvermin arm and an Ungor hand. I was shooting for a cool, "Behold, I am a master of the arcane arts!" pose... instead, I ended up with a pose that's a bit more of a rude gesture. I guess I'm okay with that.

Also: I kind of hate the Spinetail model. The sword is awesome, but what in heck is up with his right eye? I don't even know what's up with that. I just. don't. know. Ugh.

Here it is, finished.

I gave it the Lore of Shadow symbol, since I was considering using that on the Warlord. It's way more purple than is appropriate for Shadow (I guess that makes it Death), but at least it stands out in a way a grey hat couldn't. That's probably more important.

Uuuunfortunately, while pinging the CGL for advice on what Lore I should give this sucker (Shadow? Beasts? Metal?), I found out the item'd been FAQ'd... and FAQ'd hard and in an uncomfortable place.

Reference Section – Enchanted Items, Wizarding Hat
Change “[...]randomly chosen spell[...]” to “[...]randomly chosen Battle Magic[...]

Sooo... I don't get to choose the Lore. I've got a 13% chance of getting the Lore I want. Maybe a 50% chance of getting a Lore I can really use? Blech. That's not nearly as useful. In fact, it's pretty dang terrible. At that point, it could be a fun item, but it sure as all get-out isn't worth 100 points. Booo.

Possibly the worst common magic item?

Well, it's done. The mini's built and painted.

I'll get around to how I'm padding out the list later. (Probably after the tournament, since it looks like it's closed-list.) Do you guys think I could call him a Warlock Engineer? I'm not as crazy about this guy any more.

Hell Dorado - Painted Minis

2011-09-14T06:00:00.003-04:00

As promised, here are the photos of my painted Hell Dorado minis: these are almost the entire (French) Démon starter (minus the Succubus), plus the Golem. I painted them three years ago, so it hurts a little for me to look at them: I know I could do a much better job on some of them now (I'm looking at you Infernal Ambassador), though I remain satisfied with the Golem and the Lemure.

(I've definitely figured out that the trick to actually following through on my occasional "Tomorrow, I'll..." posts is to actually write the dang post immediately afterwards. Otherwise, I get distracted and it never happens.)

Hell Dorado

2011-09-13T06:00:00.005-04:00

It was with some disappointment that I picked up the Hell Dorado rulebook a few weeks ago.

See, back in mid-'08, I was all about Hell Dorado. The minis are gorgeous. Between Google Translate and a guy we knew on RPG.net's OGO forum (a Finn who'd gotten the French rulebook and helped us out with some rules), we were able to fumble through a fistful of games and it was fun. We threw together cheat sheets and even set up a freaking Google Group. I've got a nearly complete set of ~~Démons~~ Demons and ~~Égarés~~ Lost and a good fistful of ~~Mercenaires~~ Mercenaries.

All we needed was for the game to, you know, be printed in English. It'd have been nice to know whether or not we were playing the game correctly (not that translations of French games tend to be particularly intelligible; I'm looking at you, Rackham), and there were a handful of folks local who were very interested in the game... but unwilling to commit without some sort of English language support. Until there was an English rulebook, the game wasn't exactly real.

Then Asmodee said they weren't publishing it in the US. Then they dropped it altogether. I moved on, but was pleased to learn that the game was licensed about a year after things cooled off for us.

At the time of licensing, there was a full line of minis and an unpublished English translation of the rules (the translator's active on OGO). You'd think it'd be just a matter of logistics to get production up and running in the US and the game out the door. I don't do this sort of thing for a living, so I couldn't say what a reasonable period would be: three months? six months? I don't know.

I do know that a hair short of two years is too damn long. Not only was it long enough to let any interest in the game cool off, it completely left the door open for Malifaux, which very much fills the same sort of niche in terms of play, style, and size, to scoot in and take any sort of place Hell Dorado could have had.

When Malifaux came out and I saw folks' response to it... I pretty much knew Hell Dorado would be DOA. Then, like, a whole extra year came and went. Sheesh.

Anyway, I picked up the book when it came out. I haven't really read it yet. Tomorrow, since I've never posted pictures of them here before (and because I took new pictures of them with the light box), I'll post pictures of my painted Hell Dorado figures.

40K Tournament

2011-09-12T07:57:00.000-04:00

It's been a crazy couple of weeks between wrestling with an intractable problem at work, a vacation (yay!), and something of a house crisis... but things are back on track, now.

In the two weeks post-NoVA, I had to finish a half-painted unit of Blood Horrors for a CGL 40K tournament.

These actually aren't the ones I painted: these are the ones I've had painted (note the big guy who's The Changeling) but have, apparently, never posted here. I haven't taken photos of the squad I just painted; that's probably how this stuff happens.

They're just Ungor archers with Cadian grenade launchers stuck on their arms and a bit of greenstuff for gap-filling.

Mike ran the tournament. Turnout wasn't bad (9 folks) and army distribution was weird. Three Daemon players (myself included), two Imperial Guard, two Chaos Space Marines (including Mike's ringer army), one Ork, one Blood Angel and one Tyranid army. It was a great day, stuck to its schedule, and was a lot of fun.

I had three really good games: my first was against Ashley's Slaaneshi Daemons (which was pretty close), my second against Casey's Tyranids (I got tabled) and my third was against Jeff's Orks (which looked like it was going to end in my getting tabled, but ended very close to me tabling him).

I'm not going to get into too much detail about the games, though, because I fucked up pretty big time. I tried a new list (one that had two squads of Blood Horrors) and to make things work, I only could take three Blood Crushers. I knew that this would be a tough thing to remember (I always take four), so I'd highlighted the 3 on my army list when I printed it off a couple of weeks ago. Game time, though, without even thinking, I ran four. I didn't catch it until we were counting VP after my game with Jeff. "That is weird that my Flamers cost more than my Blood Crushers... oh, shit." So, yeah: I played three games 42 points over.

I immediately told Mike I mark my two wins as losses and apologized to folks. Everyone seemed okay with it (I could have had 20 Bloodcrushers in my third game and it wouldn't have changed things, the extra 'Crusher didn't keep me from getting tabled in my second... and I don't think it would have made a difference in my first, but can't be entirely sure), and all three were good, fun games regardless. But it really bothers me, and cast a pall over the entire day for me.

What's Next?

2011-08-31T19:41:00.000-04:00

Now that I've knocked out my 2,500 points worth of Skaven... I've had to sit down and figure out what to work on next.

Fortunately, I've got two tournaments in September, which makes some decisions for me.

In about a week and a half, we're having a small 40K tournament at GPC. I'll be rocking the Daemons, of course, but realized I've only finished painting one octet of Blood Horrors... so I need to wrap up the other octet before next Saturday. Fortunately, they're half painted: I just need to highlight the flesh and go from there.

At the end of the month, I'm going to Blob's Park. The damn thing is 2,800 points, which means I need to paint another 300 points of Skaven by the end of the month. That's poop. The path of least resistance is, I think, to run a second Warp Lightning Cannon (since I have it painted), beef out my Stormvermin (since I need to get up to 700 points of Core... and they're painted), and paint up 6 Globadiers and another Warmachine (I'm thinking Doomflayers, just for the heck of it).

That should get me through to October. After that, it's tough to say. Necrons should be on the horizon, and I'm hungry for them. I'm eagerly awaiting an a-tier army to buy into and play. I'm also still worked up about a Nordland Empire army, but that's a large enough effort to keep me from hitting the Necrons when they come out. Also, it'd be sooo easy to knock out an Ogres army just for something different.

Fortunately, I've got until the end of the month to figure out what I'm going to do.

NoVA Blow-by-Blow

2011-08-30T06:00:00.009-04:00

The Fantasy tournament was three rounds on Saturday, two rounds on Sunday.

I showed up on Friday to check in with two different lists printed out: one without Power Scroll (as it had been previously banned) and one with it (as it has been re-allowed shortly after it was FAQ'd). I decided, as I checked in, to use the one without Power Scroll. I think that was probably the right move (and my performance backs that up).

Ratputin Rampages!

Lords
Grey Seer - Ruin x2, Plague x2 Talisman of Preservation
Warlord - General, War-Litter, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Enchanted Shield

Heroes
Chieftain - BSB, Shield, Armor of Destiny
Plague Priest - Lvl 1, Plague Furnace, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Protection
Warlock Engineer - Doomrocket

Core
Clanrats x29 - Full Command, Shields
- Poisoned Wind Mortar
Skavenslaves x51 - Musician, Shields
Stormvermin x20 - Full Command, Storm Banner
- Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special
Plague Monks x31 - Full Command, Plague Banner
Gutter Runners x6 - Poison, Slings
Gutter Runners x6 - Poison, Slings

Rare
Doomwheel
Hell Pit Abomination
Warp-Lightning Cannon

Of course, it wasn't until Game 1 that I realized I'd left the Sword of Anti-Heroes on the Warlord. I've been dissatisfied with it (because he's never in base with an enemy hero!), and had thought I'd replaced it with a simple, always-on Sword of Might... but not so. Fortunately, I think it ended up actually making a difference in my 4th game, so I can't complain.

Spell-wise, I didn't rely on 13th nearly as much as I normally do: thanks to Power Scroll's absence. I think this actually made my game better. It did really help out a lot in one case (hello, Grimgor), but otherwise, the few times I got it off, it didn't do a whole lot. That also meant that I miscast all of once all weekend. The only spell that stood out was, when I rolled it, Wither. That thing made a huge difference.

The Seer continued going the Slave unit: I need to break that habit so I can become more aggressive with them. The Warlock Engineer continued going in the Clanrat unit (though, in the last game, I put him in the Plague Monk unit.. he hopped out mid-game and won me the game). The Warlord obviously ran with the Stormvermin and, in most games, so did the BSB. I'm not really comfortable with so much of my Leadership relying on a single (relatively small, at 20) unit... but it's the only arrangement that really seemed to make sense in most games and it really worked out when I did it.

The Storm Banner wasn't useful in every game (two games had zero shooting), but it really made a difference when it was.

It's interesting to note that, out of five games, four were open lists. I am ideologically opposed to closed lists. They are stupid. Real games of strategy, like go and chess don't depend on tricking your opponent: they depend on you having a stronger game. Until Fantasy ditches this idea of using "gotchas" as a strategy, it will never be as good a game as 40k.

Anyway, the only game with the closed list was the one I lost. This has nothing to do with my ability to process my opponents' lists: I started the weekend wholly unfamiliar with the Lizardman book and really only familiarity with the boring bullshit the one High Elf player I've played uses as a crutch (Phoenix Guard deathstar). My knee-jerk reaction is to find the correlation in deception: we've got a local player who uses a closed list to cheat, shifting banners and characters around to best effect because his opponents aren't able to know any better, and the game that I lost (which I'll get to) felt off enough that I wouldn't have surprised me... but on reviewing his list (handed over post-game), I don't think that's the case at all. I think it's just coincidence.

Game 1 vs. High Elves
Christian G.

Lords
Archmage - Lvl 4, Shadow, Book of Hoeth
Prince - General, Great Weapon, Armor of Caledor, Vambraces of Defense

Heroes
Mage - Lvl 2, High Magic, Trickster's Pendant
Mage - Lvl 2, High Magic, Dispel Scroll, Skeinsilver
Noble - BSB, Dragon Armor, Shield, Banner of the World Dragon

Core
Spearmen x24 - Full Command, War Banner
Spearmen x20 - Full Command
Spearmen x19 - Full Command

Special
Dragon Princes x5 - Standard, Banner of Sorcery
White Lions x29 - Full Command, Amulet of Light, Banner of Eternal Flame

This was probably the best game I had all weekend. Christian was a fun guy to have across the table. Clearly, he outclassed my magic, but it never hurt too bad. I dodged most of the nasty stuff except a Flames of the Phoenix on my Skavenslaves (17 dead slaves? whatevs!) and then on my Plague Monks.

At the end of the game, I'd managed to get everything he had off the table save for two Spearmen and his Prince... netting a Major Victory.

Game 2 vs Orcs and Goblins
Frank W.

Lords
Grimgor Ironhide - General
Savage Orc Great Shaman - Lvl 4, Lucky Shrunken Head, Sword of Striking

Heroes
Black Orc Big Boss - BSB, Armor of Destiny
Night Goblin Shaman - Lvl 2

Core
Night Goblins x49 - Full Command, Spears, Netters
Night Goblins x20 - Musician, Bows
- Fanatics x2
Night Goblins x20 - Musician, Bows
- Fanatics x2
Savage Orc Big Uns x38 - Standard, Musician, Extra Hand Weapon

Special
Black Orcs x36 - Full Command, Banner of Discipline

Rare
Doom Diver
Rock Lobber
Mangler Squig

Frank's a good kid who's relatively local: he and his father both played in the tournament I ran last month. I've never played against Orcs & Goblins before.

As you can see, he dropped a lot of hordes on the table, and I was a little worried. All of those Fanatics and the Squig were clearly supposed to worry me, but they didn't. From the get-go, he Hand of Gork'd the Mangler right in front of my Stormvermin, so I marched their Mortar over it. My slaves sucked up his Fanatics.

From Turn 1, I whittled away at his Black Orcs with everything I had: 13th, the Cannon, and the remaining Mortar. The turning point of the game went down with his Savage Orcs fleeing from Plague Banner-charged Monks who were then charged in the flank by severely whittled-down Black Orcs. They didn't break (obviously), though I don't recall why I forgot to reform them, but they did kill enough Black Orcs to get the unit down to Grimgor and two other Orcs. Before the next round of combat could go down, I was able to 13th the unit into oblivion.

Ended up with Major Victory.

Game 3 vs. Lizardmen
Erik B.

Lords
Slaan - General, BSB, Light, Cupped Hands, Obsidian Amulet, Focus of Mystery, Becalming Cogitation, Focused Rumination

Heroes
Skink Priest - Lvl 2, Ancient Stegadon, Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon

Core
Saurus x25 - Standard, Musician
Saurus x25 - Standard, Musician
Skink Skirmishers x10
Skink Skirmishers x10

Special
Cold Ones x10 - Full Command, Huanichi's Blessed Totem
Temple Guard x16 - Full Command

Rare
Salamander - Skinks x4
Salamander - Skinks x4

This was easily the worst game I had all weekend. (Not hard, given that all of the other games were pretty good, but still.) It started off on the wrong foot when he said he wanted to play closed lists (see above). His wife (who was actually very nice) sat and watched the game the whole, but that meant he pretty much ignored me, quietly muttering to her when he wasn't doing something in the game. And every time I killed one of his models he did a whole "this is bullshit, I'm losing the game to this guy with this bullshit list" thing. I get being disappointed/frustrated when things don't go your way (see below: my Stupid Abomination), but I'm not exaggerating about this being an every time thing.

And then there was the cheating. "Cheating" might be a strong word; I don't know. Maybe it was a lot of innocent mistakes, but I can't help but feel like it wasn't. His Skinks were about 5mm apart when the correct formation (.5" would have put him in serious danger of the Abomination. He totally pulled the "I cast Speed of Light on these Saurus. 17", so everyone in 12" gets the benefit." He rolled, and took Harmonic Convergence and Curse of the Midnight Wind. I know this, because I opened my box, rifled through the stack of cards, and pull those two out. You can imagine my surprise when he said he'd taken Iceshard Blizzard. Since I couldn't prove that he hadn't muttered such at some point before the game started, I let him get away with that last one, but called him on the rest.

Now, I'm self-aware enough to know that some of my peevishness about this mess is probably driven by sour grapes: I'd won two games, was doing well, and then I lost to this guy. But he really was pulling stuff that wasn't kosher, and if I caught him on the stuff above, what didn't I catch him doing? At the very least, even if it wasn't deliberate cheating, it was full of stuff unacceptable and uncool in any game, much less a GT.

Anyway, the game was a slugfest. The Iceshard Blizzard thing certainly made some sort of difference. I forget if it was a Minor or Major Loss for me.

Game 4 vs. Vampire Counts
Douglas C.

Lords
Vampire Lord - General, Lvl 4, Lore of Vampires, Sword of Battle, Gambler's Armor, Black Periapt, Talisman of Preservation, Dark Acolyte, Walking Death, Summon Ghouls, Beguile

Heroes
Vampire - Lvl 2, BSB, Lore of Vampires, Dark Acolyte, Avatar of Death, Drakenhof Banner
Vampire - Death, Forbidden Lore, Enchanted Shield, Dispel Scroll
Vampire - Light, Forbidden Lore, Cadaverous Cuirass

Core
Corpse Cart - Balefire
Crypt Ghouls x39 - Champion
Skeletons x29 - Full Command, War Banner
Zombies x40 - Standard, Musician

Special
Grave Guard x40 - Full Command, Royal Standard of Strigos

Douglas, as it turns out, is another relatively local kid who's folks work not too far from where I live: it's a very small world. It was a good game that the scenario tried really, really hard to ruin for me.

Looking at the list, I'm sure you can imagine how things worked out. I just dumped everything I had into his hordes and tried to wipe them out. I was pretty lucky in being able to stymie his regeneration and do enough wounds to really keep ahead of what I couldn't stop.

My Monks charged his Zombies and, not being willing to risk being stuck, popped the Plague Banner and tore through them: killing all but one (who decided to collapse). I rolled into his Grave Guard where I tied them up for the rest of the game. I challenged with my Priest, he accepted with his Lord: who killed the Priest pretty quickly, but wasn't able to do more than a wound or so a round against the Furnace.

The scenario was this: give three units "Liquid Courage": Stupidity and Frenzy. Units with Liquid Courage get a secondary objective every time they kill a unit. I gave it to my Abomination, who couldn't really benefit in any way by Frenzy, but I figured he'd get some kills in, right? Wrong. He failed every. single. Stupidity. test. Even with BSB rerolls. I had to count to ten and apologize; Douglas understood and let me be furious at the Abomination.

Fortunately, it didn't actually make a difference: I killed everything he had... save his Grave Guard deathstar. With the General and BSB in there, I only eeked out a Minor Victory, despite giving up something like 540 VP.

Game 5 vs. Lizardmen
vs. Luke W.

Lords
Slaan - General, BSB, Shadow, Cupped Hands, Dragonbane Gem, Crown of Command, Banner of Eternal Flame, Becalming Cogitation, Focus of Mystery, Focused Rumination, Higher State of Consciousness

Heroes
Scar-Veteran - Light Armor, Shield, Biting Blade, Dragonhelm, Dawnstone
Scar-Veteran - Light Armor, Shield, Cold One, Warrior Bane, Talisman of Preservation
Skink Priest - Heavens, Dispel Scroll

Core
Saurus x42 - Full Command, Spears
Skink Skirmishers x10
Skink Skirmishers x10

Special
Cold Ones x5 - Standard
Chameleon Skinks x6
Chameleon Skinks x6
Terradon Riders x3

Rare
Salamander - Skinks x3
Salamander x2 - Skinks x6

Luke's army was gorgeous. Easily the best army I went up against. The colors were subtle, popped out and were extremely clean. I loved it.

I was less in love with that big ass block of Saurus. The Slaan, the Skink, and the one Scar-Vet all hopped into it: I knew I needed to kill that unit if I stood a chance... and I probably wasn't going to be able to. Becalming Cogitation locked down 13th pretty completely.

However, my artillery rolls were some serious bullshit. Like, so perfect, I felt bad for them.

I went first (which had to happen at least once out of five games, right?) and dropped a S 10 Warp Lightning blast down the flank into the middle of the unit, netting 19 hits. I threw the Abom at them immediately (despite the flaming banner) to do what he could while I maneuvered up my Plague Monks. The Abom held in way longer than it had any right to, but that kept the Monks from getting in. It racked up a respectable body count, including the Scar-Vet, before getting cut down.

The Abom and all of my shooting whittled the Saurus down to the point where the Slaan hopped out and ducked for cover and he moved the Saurus away to try to get them away from the Slaves and Stormvermin who were closing in.

It looked like it was going to come down to whether or not I'd be able to catch the Saurus... and then my Warlock, who'd hopped out of the Monks two turns before they caught the Stegadon in the flank moved off and popped off the Doomrocket I'd never had a good target for. 19". Just. on. top. of. the. unit. Killed every single one of the Saurus, leaving the Skink Priest... who failed his Panic check and ran off the table.

This was my hardest fought, closest game. It was completely down to the wire: if a few more rolls had gone his way or a few fewer had gone my way, it'd have definitely gone the other way. As it is, I pulled out the most Minor of Victories. Great stuff!

In the end, I went 4-1. Four out of five really great games is nothing I would ever dream of complaining about. It's probably the best I'll ever do at a GT, I'm quite sure.

NoVA Overview

2011-08-29T08:07:00.000-04:00

Before I get into how I had a great time and all that stuff, I'll cut right to the chase and say I did extremely well this weekend, beyond any of my expectations.

I won Best Army ("Sum of All Parts"); tying the winners of both Best Conversion and Best Painted Mini. I'd hoped to do well with Appearance; I went specifically with the goal of trying to do well with Appearance... but I certainly didn't expect to walk off with the top prize. So, you can imagine how pleased and flattered I am.

Furthermore, I came in second place for Renaissance Man, third overall. Despite planning to show up, try to do well with Appearance, and spend the weekend drinking: I ended up going 4-1. This was absolutely out of left-field for me. I planned to show up, roll some dice, and drink a lot of beer; winning games wasn't in the plan.

I got to see a lot of folks I don't really get to see much of (especially Jay, Doug, Austin and Kevin), and I got to meet a lot of new folks. Thank you to everyone who introduced themselves (RGH, RGH Jr., Iggy Koopa being the ones who associated themselves with blogs); it was great to put faces on such (talented) names. Gav Thorpe is an incredibly nice dude. Someone (RGH?) had him sign their Chaos Space Marines codex, "Yeah, I wrote it. So what?"

Doubly huge thanks to Austin for letting me stash my army & board in his room overnight. That saved me an immense amount of hassle.

I'm really glad I played Fantasy instead of 40K. Five rounds of WHFB across two days were exhausting. My tournament kit includes a chef's mat to stand on, and my knees and feet still ache. Eight rounds of 40K would have me curled on the floor, crying and clutching my knees.

Anyway, the ICGC did a great job running things: games started pretty much on time and kept moving. I had a great time (which didn't really have anything to do with my success).

I'll go over my games tomorrow (or the day after).

What Worked

Paint scoring had a very particular, structured format that kept things pretty objective while allowing for just a bit of subjectivity. I remember being dissatisfied with the old GW GT appearance check list because it put a lot of emphasis on basic stuff without allowing for much nuance at the higher levels. I feel that this was a huge step beyond that.
The format's solid. We've done smaller tournaments using the bracketing structure and it's worked out OK. At the local tournament format, it's a liability, since it either caps players at 8 or requires more rounds than are practical (especially when your FLGS opens at 11AM). When spread across two days, and you can play the games you need, it works out really well.
Raffles. Your name went into a raffle every time you lost a game. I have no idea how many things they raffled off each round, but I saw a lot of folks win prizes. Three or four folks from my (extended) gaming group won prizes.
Consistent, balanced terrain layouts are solid. It'd get old for pickup games and such, but for a tournament it's inarguably great.
The hotel was nice, and there was a lot of space. There were concerns about putting 400+ people in a relatively low-ceilinged space stinking the place up (let's call it what it is), but that wasn't a concern at all. At points (particularly first thing in the morning) where I felt a bit warm, but I was never hot. (Though they did cut off the AC on the Fantasy/Warmachine side of thing a bit early.)

What Could Use Improvement

The intercom system. Not sure there's a fix for this, though.

The problem was that the 1) 40K tournament had a tight schedule, requiring everyone to be coordinated, 2) the person doing the bulk of the intercomming sounded like everyone was an idiot and 3) announcements got longer and longer and repeated more often as the weekend went on. That made it pretty dang hard to play: we couldn't hear each other at all over the announcements, hardly any of which had anything to do with us... which made them extremely disruptive.

Like I said, I'm not sure there's a fix for this. Everyone's going to be on the same intercom system and, at 200+ people in a tournament, there are going to be coordination issues that make the intercom scolding required. Maybe the best one could hope for would be a recognition that there are other events as well, and that everything grinds to a halt when someone's talking on the intercom... so say what you're saying and be done. Though I really don't think that would actually change much, because I don't think there was that much fat to trim from the announcements, and the repetition's justifiable and necessary. So, I dunno.

The converse was also true: Scooter's not a quiet dude, but I had trouble hearing some things the Fantasy organizers announced. They probably should have hopped on a/the intercom as well.
A Schedule. I guess there were schedules printed, but I never really saw them. A schedule of the games should have been posted in the tournament area (next to table assignments?), so we wouldn't have to keep interrupting judges to ask how much time we had left or when the next round started.

One hour or, at least, 30 minute warnings would have been nice. We got a couple of "Don't start another turn!" announcements, but that was it.
There was no internet or cell signal. I had to go outside and stand at the concierge stand to get the slightest of bars. It felt like coming up for air: walking halfway across the hotel, taking the escalator up, and walking out to sync up with the mothership. This could be a positive thing: removing a huge distraction of players, helping them focus on their games. It'd have been nice to stay connected through the day, however: I know it completely prevented me from posting and tweeting about my games throughout the day.

A wireless access point or something made available to NoVA guests might be worth considering. I'm sure the 11th Company had some wired connection (since streaming video is a mite bandwidth intensive). I'm sure wireless router or something could be stacked on top of a similar connection with a password posted in the NoVA space.
A poster listing walkable food options and/or delivery options would have been really helpful. I have no doubt there were a lot of options but on the tight schedule, I didn't have time to try to figure out what they were.

Anyway, since I don't want to wrap on a negative note (and really, I'm shooting for constructive, not negative), I really did have a great time. Mike did an amazing job, and should be extremely pleased with himself. I'm looking forward to next year!

* What I'm (unsuccessfully) trying to say here was that it sounded like he was talking down to everyone. I'm assuming that he's in the military and probably puts dangerous things in the hands of teenagers professionally, and I have no doubt that it was necessary and appropriate at the tournament. So, I totally get it... but it made the disruption more unpleasant.

RATPUTIN RAMPAGES

2011-08-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

The board's done! The banners are done! The sign is done. BEHOLD!

Here's everything arranged! (I might have a few more slaves and monks on there than I actually intend to field today, and I need to repair the furnace, but whatevs).

Signal is terrible at the tournament, so I won't be able to do much posting throughout the day.

What to enter?

2011-08-26T06:22:00.001-04:00

Now, I've got to figure out something I should have thought about a week ago: what models to enter for the painting and conversion judging.

Assuming the following:

What should I enter?

Right now, for painting, I'm considering the two models that did well at the GD last year: the Doomwheel and the Warlord.

I'm leery of doing the Doomwheel, though, because of

I could also do my War-Litter Warlord or even my Warlock Engineer (both below).

For conversion, I'm considering my Facebook pseudo-internet-famous Hellpit, my War Litter, my Warlock Engineer or maybe a Mortar.

Leaning strongly away from those last two: the mortar's just too rough, and while the Engineer is fantastic, it's barely converted. So, really: Hellpit or War Litter?

NoVA vs The Storm

2011-08-25T13:41:00.003-04:00

Man, I really hope Irene doesn't mess with the tournament. (Mostly because it means a lot of dangerous weather for everyone, not just an interferance with my ability to play toy soldiers.)

Right now, they're talking 100 mph winds in the region on Sunday morning, and hurricane force winds specifically in the area the tournament is being held in.

Weather Channel - Irene

NoVA Prep Status

2011-08-25T07:06:00.002-04:00

Display Board Update

2011-08-22T20:36:00.000-04:00

Done painting and varnishing. All that should be left are water effects (though I'm considering putting some blood effects down or something to break things up a bit; we'll see once I've put everything down on the board).

This is it. I'm... not entirely happy with it. What's there looks good, but it feels kinda bland to me. I wish I'd had more inspiration for terrain to put on it. Water and units might help that out, though. We'll see.

The stalagmites are done as well. I'm ambivalent about them. They look alright. Better than the styrofoam ones, for sure... but in painting them, I was reminded that I wanted to use those colors (Cryx Bane Base, Cryx Bane Highlight) to paint the Space Hulk Genestealers. Between that and the Alien-esque way they kinda look, I can't help but feel that they'd be better suited as Tyranid terrain.

After the board's done, I've got to wrap up these freaking banners.

Display Board WIP

2011-08-21T16:53:00.000-04:00

I'm waiting on the glue to dry on the board; I'll go back over everything thoroughly with some watered-down wood glue to fix everything in place. I've found that this does miracles for adding durability to ballast (and pretty much everything else).

I've finished "sculpting" the stalamites. Each is a 6" nail run through a 50mm base with successive layers of joint compound slathered on. Not really sure when I decided to use joint compound, but the results look (to me, at least) considerably more natural and believable than the styrofoam stalagmites I've made before.

The joint compound's considerably flakier, however, so I'm reinforcing everything with several coats of, again, watered-down wood glue. After enough of these, the outside will be extremely durable.

Once all of that's done (hopefully tonight) and dried (hopefully tomorrow AM), I'll start painting it. That should go pretty quickly: airbrush on the basecoat then a couple of layers of drybrush. Varnish that, then water effects and done.

I've stretched my non-existent photoshop skills to the limit to pull together a clever, attention-getting sign to place by my display board. I'm going to keep that close to my chest until the tournament, though: more because I keep dicking around with it than from any coyness.

Finally, I've loaded up most of the display case: my Daemons on one shelf and my Dark Angels spilling off of another. The top shelf's being saved for my Skaven (who are, understandably, a bit too busy psyching themselves up for the NoVA to spend time in the display case) and assorted one-off models that I've done.

Yes!

Internet Pseudo-Famous

2011-08-20T09:38:00.001-04:00

Did anyone else see my Khornate Daemons on GW's What's New Today yesterday?

In the Final Stretch!

2011-08-19T06:00:00.001-04:00

I'm in the final stretch!

I just slapped some varnish on the rat swarms and the last model that needed rebasing.

This is the same Poisoned Wind Mortar I built back at the end of '09; it just needed rebasing to tie it in to the rest of the army.

The Rat Swarms weren't exactly necessary. They're there in case the Hellpit dies (likely) and explodes into d3 Rat Swarms (unlikely). Might as well cover all of my bases, right?

That means all I have left to do is:

Paint three banners.
Do the display board.

The end, that's it! The board I'm going to work on this weekend. I'm going to procrastinate the banners until next week.

Display Case

2011-08-18T07:01:00.002-04:00

You might have heard about Borders closing down and being liquidated. As it's where the lovely and tolerant Mrs. Rushputin likes to buy her ~~smut~~ shōjo manga, she's been cruising through our local store regularly as it goes through its liquidation. While scanning around to fill gaps in her run of Mixed Vegetables, she noticed that they had begun liquidating furniture and fixtures.

They've got a number of very, very large tables that would make excellent gaming tables: if we had a basement, it's the sort of thing that would definitely go there.

More significantly: they've got several glass-fronted display cases. IIRC, these were where the overpriced CD/DVD collections lived. Getting a display case for my minis is something that's been on our to-do list for a long, long time: with as much time and money I've invested in my hobby, we'd like to pull its fruits out of plastic drawers in the closet and put them on display. So, when she noticed these, she gave me a call.

We did some measuring and thinking and, after sleeping on it, headed out to buy one.

We had to do a tiny bit of demo to get it: all four of their cases were fixed to each other: an end piece on one side, another display case on the other, and a strip along the top holding it to the case behind it. It took all of five minutes to sort that out, though.

It stands 4'8" tall, 13" deep and 3' wide. It's pretty big, but not too big. The shelves are space apart enough that their future contents should be well-lit enough, but it shouldn't be difficult to install lighting if it becomes necessary.

If you're in a similar spot, and have been looking for a display case: consider one of these (or, maybe, waiting for the liquidators to get more desperate and then consider one of these). This one's in pretty good shape: some of the others are a bit rougher.

Forge World Skaven

2011-08-17T09:53:00.000-04:00

I'm really surprised to not see much discussion of the amazing new Forgeworld Skaven kits.

The Exalted Vermin Lord is unbelievable: I'll probably have this sucker assembled and painted before I get around to doing my classic Vermin Lord.

The rules for the Brood Horror look like a lot of fun, and the model is pretty cool. Not as cool as the EVL, but still lovely (and heart-warmingly reminiscent of my Hell Pit Abomination).

I'm really excited about both of these models. Now I just need to wait for the crunch to wrap up before I can order them. :)

Painting Progress - 20110809

2011-08-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

Had an extremely productive weekend, which was refreshing after what's felt like an extended period of being too busy to do anything.

For starters, I managed to knock out the rebasing of all of my Stormvermin. That's several more models than I actually need by the end of the month, but it was easy enough to just power through all of them.

Let the record show that I don't particularly care for rebasing minis. It's a little too tedious. Just as well that, at this point, I really only need to rebase a single model (one Poisoned Wind Mortar) before I'm done with all of that.

I also decided to change things up a bit and knock out all of the movement trays. I did a total of six: two 100mm x 120mm trays (from Litko), two 200mm x 100mm horde trays and two 5 model skirmish trays (from GF9). They came together pretty quickly.

I also blew through another six Plague Monks. (Not pictured because we know what they look like and the varnish was drying on them while I took these pictures.)

Finally, a while back I finally got the chance to play Chaos in the Old World (which is seriously a lot of fun), just about the time the Horned Rat expansion came out. The components were solid, and I found it cheap on the internet, so I ordered a second copy of it (the expansion, not the whole game) to use for my army. I'll probably get around to using the clanrat / cultist tokens as wound counters and the rat ogre / lesser daemon tokens as unit filler at some point. I had a little free time, though, so I ended up throwing this piece of terrain together using the vermin lord / greater daemon token:

It's just the token, a round wooden chit to give it a base, and some left over Arcane Ruins. It'll probably go on the center of my display board, I think.

At this point, I'm getting near the end of prepping my army... that's good, 'cause I'm getting a little tired of painting rats. By my count, all that's left is:

5x Plague Monks
3x Rat Swarms (optional, for popping out of an Abomination)
3x Banners (everything else is painted, I just need to do something with the banner)
1x Mortar Rebasing
Display Board

This is, I think, pretty doable.

"Let's Have a Tournament" Tournament

2011-07-21T08:21:00.000-04:00

I ran a WHFB tournament over the weekend at GPC.

I think it's safe to say it was successful: "full" at GPC is 12 players, max capacity (where people have to start playing on 5.5' tables) is 16... we had 14 players. Everybody seemed to have a good time and, with the solid turnout, prizes were good.

With the NoVA Open on the horizon, I decided to just use their composition rules (making an allowance for Chaos Dwarves 'cause we've got a player who's running them), their first three scenarios (which were kinda lackluster and a bit schizophrenic) and their bracketing (which meant we had two undefeated players at the end of the day).

We had a ton of Orc & Goblin Players, which was kinda neat. No Skaven, though. :/ Warriors of Chaos performed the best, with both WoC players going undefeated through the day. Best appearance went, by popular vote, to Joey J.'s Daemons of Chaos.

It was a long day, but we managed to pretty much stay on track throughout it... a huge accomplishment.

Results:

One of the local players took a bunch of pictures that can be found here. (All of the pictures in this post are his.)

Something I really wanted to touch on was that I decided to take a risk that morning and run the tournament without a laptop. Instead, I used just my iPad... and brought a pad of graph paper in case that didn't work out.

It worked, extremely smoothly. I had no trouble inputting results; because I was able to just walk over to a table where folks were working through their results, I'd say it was actually considerably easier than it would have been with a stationary laptop.

Tomorrow, I'll touch on what apps I used. I could probably stick them in here, but I imagine it'd be more useful on its own.

Most Ostentatious Turn Counter Ever

2011-07-19T06:30:00.000-04:00

It's done! I've talked a bit about it before, so I'm just going to photodump!

Painting!

2011-07-14T19:11:00.000-04:00

Finally finished that large batch of Plague Monks I've been stuck on for a few weeks, now. Lesson learned (well, confirmed): smaller batches = faster accomplishment = more motivation = more done.

Eleven to go. They'll wait a bit for me to knock out some other things. I need to knock out some smaller, lower-hanging fruit before I get tangled up in these again.

Here's where I am on my plan:

I've started on my turn counter, and am making tracks. If I have the chance to paint tomorrow (and I should), it's quite possible that I'll finish it. In the mean time, since I'm posting, here are some WIP pictures.

I've gotten color scheme info from Mike: I'm taking a few liberties with his process to make them fit with my style, but not many. I'm really happy with the face of this poor bastard:

Other'n that:

I'm running a tournament at GPC tomorrow (that I should have advertised here, but it filled up so quickly... there was no need). It's ostensibly a NoVA Open prep for the handful of us that are going to play Fantasy. Hope it'll be fun, but it definitely makes me want to run a looser, goofier tournament some time soon.
Storm of Magic came out: I'm super-stoked to play it. I desperately want this thing to catch on so I can convert up a bunch of silly Skaven crap. Say one thing about me, say that I like to convert up silly Skaven crap.

Painting Progress 20110708

2011-07-08T08:04:00.000-04:00

Haven't had much to post about: haven't actually finished anything in a bit, but I don't like leaving things quiet for but so long. So, I've got some WIP photos.

For starters, the test model I started for the Vampire Counts / Empire army I was noodling about the other week.

Pooling on the bit beneath that left eye aside (something easily fixed with a bit of matte medium), I freaking love this. Pale, unhealthy, striking. This is good stuff! For the curious, the face is:

- GW Dheneb Stone basecoat
- Heavy GW Ogryn Flesh wash
- GW Dheneb Stone drybrush
- Wash of 3:2:2:1 of water, GW Ogryn Flesh, Matte Medium, GW Asurmen Blue

For the curious, that 3:3:2 ratio of water / wash / matte medium is my new magic freaking bullet. Any time I want to wash something that isn't super-powerful, it's my go-to. Mixing washes is also a hugely powerful tool. I really should throw up some comparison photos to prove it, but Ogryn Flesh plus, or Thraka Green plus produces much richer, more interesting colors.

I've made a good bit of progress on the rest of the guy. It's enough for me to know that I hate everything else. The bits swapping hasn't worked out very well, I think. Worse yet, the colors-- the ones I kinda need to use to make this work-- are pretty much exactly the same colors I use on my Skaven. I need to do something different.

So, I don't think I'll be going forward with this. I'm still kinda shining on the Empire, though, so maybe I'll push forward with a more traditional province.

Still plugging away at ten Plague Monks. I'm closing in on finishing them, but I'm not quite there. Poo.

Also, to try to break up things, I've started on the turn counter. It should paint up pretty quickly when I get a solid couple of hours to sit at the desk.

Painting Progress 20110625

2011-06-25T11:33:00.000-04:00

Not much progress over the past week: I've been just too dang busy with work and such.

I did manage to put the finishing touches on a batch of 5 Plague Monks: I needed to knock out a Musician and Standard Bearer and, at that point, I might as well do a few more and get 5 done.

I'm still in the mood to paint Plague Monks, though, and it's been a while since I've tried doing things in a large batch... so I hit 10 with an airbrush.

We'll see how they go.

I also bitz ordered a skeleton and a swordsman to pull together a model to experiment on.

About as soon as it showed up, however, I decided that all of my living dudes would be based on Free Company models, rather than State Troops models. Still, it'll be something to play with colors on. It's mostly a swordsman with Skeleton equipment and Karl Franz iconography shaved off. I sculpted a little skull on his chest... it's not great, though. Need to practice that sort of thing.

Finally: if you want some Cygnar for Warmachine or Circle Orboros for Hordes, you should buy my stuff!

Auctions wrap up Sunday night! (Need to pay for Storm of Magic + Sylvanian Levies somehow, right?)

W: Empire Advice

2011-06-18T06:00:00.003-04:00

I've got the percolation of an idea for a new army, directly inspired by this guy:

I painted him up a couple of years ago because 1) that's one badass model and 2) I was working through how to achieve the bloodless skin tone I use on my Daemons.

I've got some work to do making the fluff make sense, but the short version is Sylvania-as-Empire / Stirland. Basically, an Empire army themed to the tone and style of Sylvania.

The idea would be that I could play around with models I really like the look of (Vampire Counts), without having to play Vampire Counts (I don't want to paint a billion Skeletons). An upshot would be that I could, if the spirit moved use the same models in a VC army if I decided I want to. It'd be fun to play around with conversions with Empire, VC, and Mantic parts.

I'd also like to be able to run a more varied, flexible army: with real shooting, access to cavalry and monsters (as mounts, I guess) and book lores.

The problem is: I know nothing about how the Empire plays. I've played against them once, and that was editions ago when I was learning Fantasy. I'm not sure I even begin to understand how to play Fantasy outside of a very specific loathsome, verminous context.

Scanning the internet for "Tournament Empire Lists" isn't terribly helpful just yet; never mind that they all seem to involve a lot of Priests, which is something I'm not opposed to, but don't want to use as a foundation for the army (since it's all Castlevania'd up). Also, though I'd like to play an effective list, I don't want to play a dickbag list (we're not talking High Elves, here! :D ).

So: rap at me. What do I need to know about what works and doesn't work with The Empire? Where's a good place to get more info about it. Any thoughts? Advice?

This might not go anywhere... but if it does, I'd like it to go in an informed, considered fashion.

Unloading Warmachine / Hordes!

2011-06-16T21:30:00.007-04:00

After a fairly prolific couple of weeks, it's been dead around here. We've had house guests, which has done a solid job of breaking my stride. Hopefully, I'll find it again this weekend.

I'm about halfway through painting another 5 Plague Monks, which is significant, because that includes a standard bearer. At this point, standards are pretty much the only actual new-new painting need to do... and boy, do I hate doing them. Nothing I ever do with them feels inspired or satisfactory.

More significantly: thanks to help from Casey, I've finally begun selling off my Warmachine / Hordes stuff. I haven't played the game in years (since 2008), and it's time to move on. So, I just (last night) put a bunch of stuff (Cygnar and Circle Orboros; most of it pretty well painted, IMHO) up on eBay.

If that's something you might be interested in, I (and my next 40K army) would really appreciate it if you took a look at what I've got up for auction!

(I'm still a huge n00b to the eBays, so I'm pretty nervous and excited about how all of this is going to work out.)

C'mon, really?

2011-06-09T18:15:00.000-04:00

Called the local GW on the way home from work today to see if they had any square 20mm slottabases in stock: I'm rebasing the Skaven and need some more for the Stormvermin.

The guy said, yeah, they had them in stock.

So, I went out of my way* to stop by to pick them up.

"Oh, we don't actually have any in stock. But you can order them right over here..."

I turned around and walked out.

If I wanted to order them (and I'll have to), I'd have done it my damn self. I stopped by because I'd been told my immediate need for slottabases could be filled.

I'm trying to decide if this guy was just a complete idiot who wasn't up to the task of turning around and looking or if this is some equally idiotic plot to get me to put $5 worth of slottabases towards the store's sales.

I'm also considering calling GW and complaining. It's not a big deal, but this guy was either too dumb to answer my question or he flat out lied to me about the answer. On second thought: he was a black shirt. I am going to call.

* Not terribly far, but in Northern Virginia traffic, "not terribly far" is still "far enough."

Finished - Plague Furnace

2011-06-07T07:26:00.000-04:00

After more than two solid weeks of painting, I've finished the dang Plague Furnace. Lesson Learned: do no assemble and play with complicated Skaven models for a year before deciding to paint them. I mean, it still would have taken me weeks to paint, but it would have been much, much easier.

The Plague Priest came out great looking.

As did the crew. One thing I need to point out: the Plague Monk closest to the center of the Furnace has an extremely strangely sculpted face. It's just weird. Parts of it are clearly skull, parts of it are clearly not, and the transition between the two is very unclear. I found the 'Eavy Metal jobs not very helpful in figuring out what to do with it.

Ultimately, I gave him a face-melty thing. One side of his face is skull, and the other side looks like his skin's sloughed off. Very happy with how it came out, considering what a pain it was.

Some of the non-ratty details.

And the model from each direction. I'm extremely happy with it; definitely time well-spent.

While the varnish was drying on that, I set into doing of the more tedious, but necessary tasks for the army. I finally repaired the Doomwheel banner that just barely made it through the Golden Daemons.

Not perfect, but screw it. There's about an inch of paperclip pinning this thing.

I also started rebasing some stuff, from a grassy base to my cavern-style bases. I've got 12 Gutter Runners, the Grey Seer, a Mortar and 25 Stormvermin to do. I'll also either have to rebase about 25 Plague Monks or repaint them. Since this is going to be tedious, best to do it in chunks. So, I did the Seer and the Gutter Runners.

That puts me here, in really great shape!

Skaven Display Board Planning

2011-06-03T06:04:00.001-04:00

I've decided not to do Armies on Parade with my Daemons. It'd be nice to do, and I think they'd do well... but I can't bring myself to build a second display board for them. I mean, blah.

While waiting on some wash on the Furnace to dry, I broke out the graph paper and started sketching out the plan for the Skaven board that I do need to build.

That's the penciled, rough layout. The board's 2'x2' (maybe if this stuff is done time for Armies on Parade, I'll enter my Skaven).

I'll be planning to mount this to the same breakfast tray I use with my Daemon board, which means I need to account for where I'm going to bolt the board to the tray. That's what those nipple-looking things are: where I'll drill through the board and then disguise it somehow.

Planning to have a tiered hill fill the back left quarter or so. I'll try to make it look natural, while making sure I've got 5"-6" on each tier (so I can fit a ranked unit on it). The back right will have a few stalagmites and a river will run down the right side. Characters (who aren't surfing on a Plague Furnace) will be gathered around a block of warpstone or a well (like this) or something. Alternatively, I could scoot everything forward and build a neat looking, rickety bell tower I've been noodling over (using the Warp-Lightning Cannon frame and a left over Screaming Bell bell) in the middle.

Here's the plan, with details inked in. The shape of the tray's in red.

Thoughts?

Painting Progress - 20110531

2011-05-31T06:00:00.001-04:00

This was a solid, busy, productive weekend. Not entirely as productive as I'd have liked, but I've no complaints.

Made a great deal of progress on the Plague Furnace. I'm now profoundly angry at myself for gluing this f'ing thing together. UGH. This thing would be a pain in ass to paint even in subsections.

I'm fairly close to being done with all of the non-metallic stuff: need to finish the ropes, do some cloth and then finish basecoating where I'll be painting gold.

While working on the Furnace, I realized that while I have a Plague Monk Standard Bearer, he doesn't fit with any of my other standard bearers. So, I threw a new one together:

I also got an early start on errands and chores Monday morning, and swung by Home Depot while doing it to pick up what I need for some display boards.

I'll be putting my Daemons into the Armies on Parade next month, and there's an annoying requirement that the display board be 2'x2'. My display board is more than 2' by less than 2'; so I've got to make another. Very annoying.

Also, I've got to build one for my Skaven. Might as well kill two birds with one stone, right?

The first one of these guys came together with a few false starts, but the second one didn't take me any time at all. I think they look really sharp: I'm looking forward to moving forward with them.

Rushputin vs. Finecast

2011-05-30T18:04:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, I popped in to GW Fair Oaks to check out this "Finecast" thing that might have been mentioned on the internet a few times.

As expected, the doom-and-gloom hasn't really born out. It's not death-resin, for which I'm thankful, and the kits seem decent enough. I've read about some serious casting issues, but nestled in the concern-trolling in that thread, there seem to be about as many okay experiences as bad ones.

I know a lot of people read Kirby's early review of "they're just as meh as expected," as "this stuff's terrible." That's not how I read it, or how my experience has been; it's meh, not because it's bad but because it's meh. Neither terrible, nor great. I imagine that could be read as a failure, I guess.

I've got to admit to being extremely annoyed by people bitching about Finecast in terms of their Forgeworld experiences well before actually seeing any of it. I'm all for complaining about legitimate stuff but, when you don't know actually what you're talking about... you don't know what you're talking about. (Never mind that that's what the internet's for.)

Anyway, I picked up Queek.

As you can see, there's a ton of flash. Soo much flash. There were also a few bubbles; some immediately apparent, some revealed themselves as I trimmed away flash.

It felt like there was a considerably more work to be done in prepping this mini than there would be if it were metal... but that all of that work was much, much easier.

All of that flash came up very, very easily. All but one set of bubbles filled in with super glue without any hassle. There's a bit of spine on the trophy rack that really just needed some green stuff, but it's still less green stuff than I normally need to use on a metal mini.

I'd say that, in terms of assembly, it's roughly break-even between Finecast and metal. More to do, less trouble doing it. I hate working with metal, though, and the lack of a need to pin makes me feel like I'm coming out ahead.

Those Canis defects do look pretty horrible, though; it's definitely worth checking out the casting before buying any Finecast. On the bright side, GW's always had great customer service: I'm sure they'll take care of shitty Finecast minis the same way they've taken care of mispacks and warped sprues.

I'm definitely going to have to go back and pick up a Finecast Skulltaker: the immense weight of that bastard has been a big obstacle in my making progress on the Skulltaker Chariot. This stuff's really light; a Finecast Skulltaker won't weigh anything.

They make a cream for that...

2011-05-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

I just wrapped up a few Plague Monks.

If I decide to not paint new ones, this will be all I need to have the unit fully painted (putting aside the inconvenient need to rebase a bunch of them). The Plague Deacon (an older Plague Priest model) started without paint; the other four were halfway done with the old scheme, which means they're not quite as sharp as they could be.

That means that the only model I have left to paint before I'm 100% painted (again, discounting rebasing, repainting older Plague Monks, or things like the display board) is the Plague Furnace:

On the one hand, I'm really glad I'm able to airbrush / drybrush / wash most of it. On the other hand, painting this thing assembled is such a pain... I'm of half a mind to just do a second one, painting it in the subassemblies it really needs to be painted in, and leave this one the way it is. Bleh.

Clash for the Cure - Results

2011-05-23T15:00:00.000-04:00

Clash for the Cure went down this weekend, and it was fairly successful. (Yes, that's a pink ribbon mat.)

As I predicted, I didn't do too well in the actual matchups (0-3) but, as I'd hoped, I did well with the painting.

Game 1 was against Phil's Chaos Dwarves. (Weirdness: no Tomb King players, but we had two Chaos Dwarf players.) He's working through converting them; not using the Mantic models. They're looking sharp.

The game was kind of a disaster. My dice weren't there for me and, frankly, Withering + Blunderbusses is... pretty rough.

Yes, that's four Plague Monks left out of thirty, after one round of shooting. Not sure what my options there are besides, "Hope he doesn't do it,"

Regardless, it was still a pleasant game. Phil's a good guy, which kept it fun.

Game 2 was against Bill's pink High Elves.

This was a rough, back-and-forth game.

I had an insane Doomrocket shot (37"!) that, thanks to unusually considered positioning still managed to connect with a unit and be quite devastating.

Also, the Stormbanner lasted the entire game. From the start of Turn 1 until the bottom of Turn 4 (the last turn). That never happens.

Ultimately, the game came down to Bill's Phoenix Guard throwing down with my Plague Monks. Things looked grim until I ran out of Plague Monks and it was just my Priest + the Furnace's crew vs. the few Phoenix Guard that could swing on them. In the end, Bill pulled out a Minor Victory.

Game 3 was against Harry's Lizardmen

We ended up running out of time on the game, but it was another tough game.

My Seer managed to make a billion Ward Saves, lasting an unreasonable number of combat rounds against his Saurus BSB. The Slaves stuck around a good long while, too.

In the end, I charged his General with some Stormvermin, the Warlord and the BSB... which didn't work out for me. I caught a flank charge from his Saurus after they cleared out the slaves. Unsurprisingly, the unit broke; costing me something like 640 VP alone.

All three games, despite being losses, were great. I had an awesome time.

Another thing I wanted to point out was Joey's display board:

That's a drawer, there. He can fit all of his non-model stuff in there. Brilliant! (And really good looking, too.)

So far, the even raised over $500; we've still got a few items that didn't see bids that are on their way to eBay. That means that, across the three tournaments we've run, we've raised over $7,000!

(The photo of Bill's High Elves and Joey's Dark Elves come by way of Harry.)

Clash for the Cure!

2011-05-21T06:00:00.004-04:00

Today's another breast cancer charity tournament: this time Warhammer Fantasy instead of 40K. Should be a good time, though likely smaller than the Battle for the Cure tournaments we've done at Game Vault.

I won't be fully painted, and I don't have a unit painted pink to compete in that particular category, but I think the Rats for the Cure mini I knocked out a bit ago will do well in the single-mini category.

Games are at 2,000 instead of 2,500... which is a size I'm not really used to, but makes sense given the schedule we've got. I'm trying something new to make the list I know how to play work with 500 fewer points:

Clash for the Cure

Lords
Warlord (General) - War-Litter, Enchanted Shield, Sword of Swift-Slaying
Grey Seer - Talisman of Protection

Heroes
Chieftain (BSB) - Shield, Armor of Destiny
Plague Priest - Plague Furnace, Flail
Warlock Engineer - Doomrocket

Core
Skavenslaves x42 - Musician, Shield
Stormvermin x14 - Musician, Standard Bearer, Stormbanner
- Poisoned Wind Mortar
Stormvermin x14 - Musician, Standard Bearer
- Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special
Plague Monks x30 - Full Command, Plague Banner
Gutter Runners x6 - Poison, Slings
Gutter Runners x6 - Poison, Slings

Rare
Doomwheel

I tend to keep my Core expenditures as close to minimum as possible: so, no more Clanrats. Instead, I'm running a pair of small (tiny, really) Stormvermin units with Mortars. I expect this will not work at all, but I'm giving it a stab.

Similarly, there's no Hellpit. No Warp-Lightning Cannon. As poorly as the latter's done for me (the last few games I've played, I've misfired something like 90% of the time), I should be more comfortable with that decision. We'll see.

No Power Scroll, but that's 'cause it's explicitly verboten. Suppose I won't necessarily swap out for The Dreaded Thirteenth, then.

I'm beefing the Gutter Runners up from 5 to 6 because I'm incapable of arguing with Harry's logic about how many casualties it takes to force a Leadership test. They don't take them often, though, so I might go back to 5 ninja rats after a few games.

I'm planning to have a time and I hope we raise some money! I'll probably be taking pictures and commenting on the Twitter throughout the day... at least I hope to.

Hellpit Abomination, Part 4

2011-05-17T06:00:00.001-04:00

I'm not entirely happy with it, but I'm done with it!

I finished converting my Hellpit Abomination nearly 20 months ago (and over a year before GW put out the kit). I'd taken some stabs at laying some paint down on it, but nothing serious until last week.

Other posts for this project:

Painting Progress - 20110513

2011-05-13T13:13:00.000-04:00

I don't want to let this thing lie fallow for too long, so here are some quick cameraphone shots of where I'm at:

I wrapped up the five Skavenslaves. That puts me at 35 painted slaves + 18 slaves' worth of unit filler.

Then, I started on my Hellpit Abomination, constructed over a year and a half ago:

I'm getting near the end: I'm in the process of high-lighting the flesh. Then it'll be teeth/claws, a wash, and some assorted little details before I can move on to remaining Plague Monks / the Plague Furnace.

Hobby Status 20110502

2011-05-03T08:40:00.000-04:00

I've been painting more Skavenslaves, which isn't particularly exciting. Since we all know what they look like, I don't think I'm going to bother taking any more pictures of them until the unit's and movement tray are fully done.

I'm 95% done with Belial III, though:

He's done save for painting the sword. For that, I need to block out a little bit of time with the airbrush. A little bit ago, I followed this tutorial from APJ to do a test power sword. This was the result:

For a first try, I'm extremely pleased with it. I'll actually be doing something a little different with The Sword of Silence (since it's obsidian and not a light saber), but not by much.

I also assembled what is possibly the most ostentatious turn counter ever:

I've got Island of Blood Warlords to spare (hence the pink one) and a history of throwing down with The Black Ark Apathy, so this thing pretty much built itself.

I'd originally planned on making the Druchii's pointy helmet be the arrow indicating the current turn, but that didn't work out quite so well. It's too far back, and the crossbow's hanging over the edge. I'd use the crossbow, but it's off to the side; confusing.

Instead, I used a rat skull hanging off the back to indicate the current turn.

This'll be one of the last things I paint in the current push, but I'm looking forward to it.

The Great Skaven Push

2011-04-26T06:00:00.006-04:00

by fedezz

I've pretty much decided on running Skaven at the NoVA Open (tickets for the Fantasy side of things have not gone on sale, yet).

I've been telling myself all year that I'm going to try to get the list that I'd been playing fully painted before doing anything drastic (swapping units, etc) with the army. This should push me to really drive to make that a reality.

The list I'm planning on running (with room for some mild tweaking: item swaps, an extra couple of bodies-- but not more than that):

Ratputin Rampages - NoVA

Lords (475)
Grey Seer - Power Scroll, Talisman of Preservation
Warlord (General) - War-Litter, Sword of Swift Slaying, Enchanted Shield

Heroes (436)
Chieftain (BSB) - Armor of Destiny
Plague Priest - Flail, Plague Furnace, Opal Amulet
Warlock Engineer - Doomrocket

Core (625)
Clanrats x30 - Full Command
- Poisoned Wind Mortar
Skavenslaves x52 - Musician, Shield
Stormvermin x19 - Full Command, Storm Banner
- Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special (481)
Plague Monks x30 - Full Command, Plague Banner
Gutter Runners x6 - Poisoned Attacks, Sling
Gutter Runners x6 - Poisoned Attacks, Sling

Rare (475)
Doomwheel
Hell Pit Abomination
Warp-Lightning Cannon

The army's not, done but it's close. So very, very close. I've plugged everything I need into the same sort of Excel sheet I used last year to track my progress with my Daemons. There are some notable differences: I'm using Google Spreadsheets instead of Excel, for one. Even more significantly, a very large portion of the work ahead will involve rebasing already painted minis: I've got a number of models based on generic static grass bases (seen here), but have done all of my newer models in the more interesting, display board friendly, cavern scheme.

So, while I'm 56% done, I'm actually 83% done if you ignore the need to rebase 50 models. I'd be even farther along, I suppose, but most of the stuff I have left to do are big things: the Abomination, the Furnace, the display board.

Overall, that's basically:

Small Models to Paint: 9
Large Models to Paint: 2
Banners to Paint: 3
Rebase: 50
Displayboard: 1

Totally doable, right?

I'm going to wrap up what I've started with my Deathwing (Belial III, Whirlwind Turrets x2) and I'm going to set back into this. Wish me luck!

Pics from the Lightbox

2011-04-20T06:00:00.023-04:00

I've been kvetching about how I need a lightbox for quite some time, now. Just as I figured out how to take really great pictures with my crappy old digital camera, I decided to treat myself to a new, much nicer point-and-click.

The new camera takes much better pictures... of everything but miniatures. I've attributed this to really terrible lighting conditions when I take those pictures... something a light box should be able to remedy.

I finally got around to ordering one of these off of eBay. It showed up in record time; I'd played around with it a bit but hadn't really had the chance to use it to actually take pictures until this weekend.

The results are decidedly better. I'm quite certain that there's some room for improvement (I think another light & diffuser would help, as would some additional camera configuration), but we're looking at Much Better.

Before I get into the actual pictures, it's important to note: I run all of this stuff through Picasa. My process is to take 3-5 versions of each picture I want and then keep the one that looks the best. Then, I open it up in Picasa, click "I'm Feeling Lucky," and maybe crop things so the composition is a bit better. Commit the changes and call it a day. That's how I did it before the lightbox and it appears that that's how I'm going to have to continue doing it afterwards.

Here's a Vampire Priest to show why I do this. The one of the left is before Picasa, the one of the right is after:

See why I do that?

Anyway, here are some comparisons of photos I took before and after the lightbox. Before's on the left. After's on the right.

In each case, the photographs' much clearer and brighter. It does a better job of showing off the miniature.

Here are some more photos of older stuff I took in the lightbox:

So, I definitely think this has been worth it. What do y'all think?

On a related note, since I'm talking about photography... I've started trying to mix up the sort of pictures I take. While I'm continuing to take the pictures that showcase the overall miniature, I've tried talking pictures that are better composed: more dynamic pictures that objectively work better as pictures as opposed to the neutral presentation ones. The last two above, as well as the first picture in the post, are examples of this. Do y'all think these work?

Unit Fillers!

2011-04-18T06:00:00.029-04:00

As might have been made clear by yesterday's post, I've been feeling a bit of hobby related-ennui.

Friday I decided, "Screw it, I need to paint something." So, I grabbed the Unit Filler I pulled together back in February and started working on it. Saturday morning, I decided I hated it on the 40x40 bases; I made some 60x40 bases then moved the filler over and expanded on it a bit.

Finished it this morning and varnished it. Here it is:

Filling in for 6 Skavenslaves apiece, I've still got to paint 2 more Skavenslaves to field the full unit of 50. I'm okay with this, since 2 is substantially less than 20.

Catching Up

2011-04-17T18:00:00.002-04:00

Apologies for the quiet 'round here: haven't have much going on, so there's not much to say.

Fantasy Campaign

I dropped out of the Warhammer Fantasy campaign we've had going for the past couple of months: it's felt like work for the past month or so.

The short version is: two guys (one of whom I know to be a cheater and refuse to play) took unfun lists and allied with each other. On the first day of the campaign, one of them attacked another player who (literally) said, "Not worth it," and dropped. So, the rest of us allied to try to keep them from steamrolling: we didn't want to give them the satisfaction, you know?

I was well-positioned to tie up the other guy. So, that's what I did. It became clear that I was going to play the same game with the same list against the same opponent's list from now until the campaign wrapped up. It didn't take me long to get burnt out on that.

And, to make things even easier, we caught the guy I'd been tying up doing dishonest things with his list in our last game. Really the worst possible note to end things one.

Question, regarding my hobby status sheet: should I bother logging a game in which the other guy was cheating?

So, I'm a little sick of Fantasy right now, which is a damn shame. I'm not far from having my Skaven there, you know?

Warhammer 40K

If I'm done with Fantasy for a bit, I can play 40K, right?

I'm having a hard time getting excited about playing it, though. My Daemons don't like they're going to fare well in a post Grey-Knights world. I still don't understand my Tau in 5th (and keep hoping they'll get a new book so I won't have to). That leaves my Dark Angels, who got a huge shot in the arm via the updated FAQ... except the list the FAQ really benefited isn't exactly the list I want to run: Deathwing got a lot better, but I still kinda just want to run Battle Company Dark Angels who are so bad, even "Rank the Codices" lists that everyone loves to do almost always forget to mention them entirely.

Anyway, that's enough whining. It might not be quite the list I want to play, but Deathwing's viable and will give my friend who's been learning to play 40K by way of playing nothing but (not my) Daemons something new to go up against.

So, this is the list I ran on Tuesday. It's pretty much exactly the list Casey's suggest I run:

HQ
Belial - TH/SS
Interrogator Chaplain - Terminator Armor, Combi-melta

Troops
Deathwing Command Squad - Apothecary, Standard Bearer, TH/SS x4, Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Terminator Squad - TH/SS x2, CML
Deathwing Terminator Squad - TH/SS x2, CML
Deathwing Terminator Squad - TH/SS x2, CML
Deathwing Terminator Squad - TH/SS x2, CML

Heavy Support
Whirlwind
Whirlwind
Whirlwind

It did well, despite my dice not really cooperating with me. I've got some work to do pulling the models together for this: my command squad's currently heavy on Lightning Claws, and I need to assemble a few more TH/SS terminators.

(I also need to figure out if I want to run the CML on one of the TH/SS brothers or on one of the PF/SB brothers. I'm pretty sure the former's better, but the latter involves less work.)

NoVA Open

So, this thing's on the horizon: about four months out. I'm not really excited about it right now: I've gotten extremely burned out on the idea of Competitive play (capital "C"). Every time I think about the cash prize I facepalm and start dreading shitty, unfun games... because now there's actual cash on the line. Given my recent experiences with the campaign, where nothing has been on the line I think my pessimism is pretty justified.

Furthermore: I'm not sure what I'll want to do with it. My Daemons are my most visually impressive army... and I'll go farther on looks than talent with this thing if you know what I mean. I'm spinning up on my Deathwing, though, and I think it'll produce more satisfying games.

At the same time, my Skaven are coming along badass, and could conceivably be finished by August. I'd have to sell / trade my 40K ticket for a Fantasy ticket... but that's probably more feasible than going from Fantasy to 40K.

Anyway, I'm starting to think about it.

EDIT: It looks like I was conflating two things: the NoVA Open (that I have a ticket to) and the NoVA Invitational (that, let's face it, I'm not getting an invite to). So, no cash prizes. I'm still writhing in the throes of existential hobby disappointment, but the threat of money isn't contributing to it.

Lightbox

After bitching about needing a lightbox for something approaching a year: I finally grabbed one off of eBay.

I've played around with it a bit: I'll have some photos taken in it up in the next couple of days.

Rats for the Cure

2011-04-02T12:17:00.000-04:00

After painting the Clash for the Cure High Elf, I kinda felt like I was on a roll painting pink. It's so striking. It's bright and pops out at you: the vast majority of models out there tend to be dark, drab and (frankly) boring to look at at table-distance. Even my Skaven are starting to run that way, you know?

So, that obviously let me into painting up a counter piece to the elf: the Skaven Warlord from Island of Blood.

There's not nearly as much pink on him as there is on the Elf, but I think it's a little more interesting. Each pink feature's a little different in the way I pulled it together.

I still need to paint something on the banner: I need to figure out what. It'll either be a glyph-like ribbon symbol, some sort of runic "FUCK CANCER" or "RATS FOR THE CURE" (which I think is brilliant). Probably some combination of that. I wanted to get the model varnished first, though: so I could paint whatever without worrying about wiping off work and so I could go ahead and photograph the mini.

He'll probably go in as my BSB at the Clash for the Cure.