Monthly Archives: March 2010

Painting Progress – 20100329

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Spent the bulk of last week and this weekend trying to beat the house into submission: we’ve got family in town for the next couple of weeks.  Trouble focusing didn’t help me get much out of the hobby time I did have, either.

Sternguard Veterans x10

Not much progress here.  I picked out some gap gunk on a couple of models, but at this point I’m really just waiting on the jewelry cleaner to see if that works out.  The replacement arm did show up, however: I’ve got to pop by GW Fair Oaks to pick it up.  (That was a really fast turnaround: ordered Thursday, in-store Saturday!)

Daemon Princes x3

Nothing here. Not sure why.  Just need to bang out some highlights on the wings and then I’m done.  It’s tedious, but requires very little actual thinking… which should make it perfect for lack-of-focus work.

Display Board

Do have progress here.  The tray I’m going to mount this on showed up, as did my Forgeworld order (with some models I’m going to use as objective markers, as well as the brass Khorne icons).  I’ve cut out the foam for the raised sections, done some plasticard cutting (more than I think I’ve ever really done).  I’ll be stopping by Home Depot on the way home from work to pick up some MDF and quarter-round (for a lip).

At that point, it’ll just be a matter of cutting the quarter-round, gluing and nailing the wood parts together, sticking on the raised foam parts, and gluing down the plasticard.  I think painting will be tedious, but will go by quickly.

I’ll have a post with some WIP pics, I think, as soon as I’ve got the wood.

Dark Heresy

Wrapped up the bases for these two minis, but haven’t really made much progress painting them.  They’re low priority at the moment, though, so that’s okay.

Malifaux

There’s probably a post about Malifaux rattling around my head: I’ve read the book, but haven’t played the game.  I like some of the minis a lot… but loathe just as many if not more.  The inconsistency of each of the factions is a huge turn-off for me.  Will have to see if the mechanics make up for it.

But, I did prep and base the Sonia Criid starter I picked up a Madicon.

Ecumenical Khorne – Slaanesh

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Themes: fast, pinchy, rending.  A successful result should like speedy and deadly, while remaining distinct from the actual Khorne units.
My plan for Daemonettes is either incredibly lazy or incredibly clever. I’m not sure. Basically, I want to just continue to roll with the Bloodletter body and replace the hands with Daemonette claws.
It still looks fast and deadly. It looks a lot like a Bloodletter (clearly) which is good, because 1) the Bloodletters are easily the sharpest looking models in my army and 2) I probably won’t take any when I start pulling in Plaguebearers and Daemonettes… but still different enough from a Bloodletter to avoid any confusion.

Fiends, I have got two ideas for.  The easy route (which means the one I’m likely to take) would be to use Dark Elf Cold ones.  I’d have to remove the saddles, which would require some sculpting, and might add bigger horns… but otherwise, that’s it.
In fact, I’d been planning on doing just that for my Bloodcrushers (someone else did this, with amazing results, but I cannot find the link) until I started stumbling across some really amazing deals on actual Bloodcrusher models from different people.
Anyway, this is almost certainly the option I’m going to take.  It’ll also better facilitate converting up Seekers than anything else I can think of.
The other option, which isn’t really one (and I’ll come to why in a second) is to use the Mouth of the Abyss model from Hell Dorado.
When I first saw this sucker, I thought, “Man, that would make a badass Juggernaut.”  Unfortunately, when time came to start up the Khorne army, I’d forgotten all about him.  I could always come back and use it as a Fiend, instead of a Bloodcrusher (it certainly looks faster than a Juggernaut, at least).
It’s a non-starter, though: it’s tough to justify $25 a model (vs. $25 for five Cold One models), especially when I’d be looking at a handful as Fiends and a double-handful as Seeker mounts.  Making this even more complicated is the fact that it looks like it’s backordered everywhere… so I’m not likely to find a second one (I’ve had one since it was released), much less eleven more.
Maybe I could have him pull a chariot?  Probably not.
Seekers of Slaanesh will be utterly straightforward: Daemonette conversion sitting on a Fiend conversion.

Ecumenical Khorne – Tzeentch

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Themes: flying, shooty, armor-penetrating.  A successful result will look like it does what it’s supposed to do in-game.
This is the hard one.  Tzeentch units will, I think, involve the most actual conversion… and the most discipline. Everything I’ve brainstormed eventually transforms into something very Skaveny: dangerous looking, but madcap and zany.  That’s sort of thing is great for Skaven, but not so much Daemons.   Or, at the very least, not the sort of Daemons I done so far.  So, that’s the trap to avoid.
Horrors will likely see some table-time at some point.  That I run an army with next to no shooting is kind of crazy.  What I’m likely to do here is up in the air.  
Flamers, I have a clear vision for.  Bloodletter base, with the horns that sprout from the head shaved down (so it looks less dangerous than the Daemonettes and Bloodletters and brainier).  The Hellblade forearm is replaced with some rigid plastic tubing and capped with one of the heads from the Chaos vehicle sprue (because it shoots things).  Wings from the Gargoyle sprue (because it’s a jump troop).

Oh Bother

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As I mentioned earlier in the week, my services painting a single squad of models went for a substantial amount in the Battle for the Cure auction.  So, I’m on deck to paint a squad of Salamander Sternguard Veterans (plus an Apothecary because, why not?).

Monday, I sat down to take a look at what I was working with: metal models, primed black.  Not a problem.  Except there was kind of a lot of flash and some mold lines.  I might have let the mold lines slide (they can be easy to miss pre-paint, so I certainly have some on some of my models), but the flash was really bad.  Plus, given how much this job went for, I really need to kick ass with the final product.

So I had to get it.

That left me with the  models ~75% primed.  Priming over the primer’s ghetto, so that’s not an option.  I maybe could have touched it up with some gesso, but that seemed lazy (and I always end up wiping gesso off), so I decided to just strip them all and re-prime them.

I always manage to forget that I hate stripping minis.  The mess, the sore back from hunching over the sink, the numb fingertips from pinching pointy models and brushing away.

More significantly, I lost an arm down the sink drain.  So, this feels a bit like a complete disaster.  (Fortunately, GW sells the model individually, so I’ve ordered it.  But, still.)

These guys have also been harder to strip that models I’ve done in the past.  The primer comes up super-easy, sure (it’s the Chaos Black spray paint), but these guys have a lot more nooks and crannies that don’t want to give up their primer without having a toothpick scratch it out than giant rats or clanrat slaves do.

I did have the possibly brilliant idea to order an ultrasonic cleaner to deal with this.  I’ve seen that Les Bursley uses one to clean his airbrushes and they get used to clean jewelry, which also has lots of nooks and crannies to trap gunk… so it could work.  I found a cheap one on Amazon that I’ve got on order.  I’ll give it a spin the moment it shows up.  I’ll let you know how it works.

Ecumenical Khorne – Nurgle

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Themes: slow, resilient, hard to kill, poisonous.  So, a successful result should look like a Khornate daemon that’s hard to kill.  “Poisonous” might be hard to do while feeling Khorne-y.
Plaguebearers are a must.  They specifically address a significant weakness in the mono-Khorne list: survivability.  I’m almost certainly going to build these out of Gors/Ungors/Bestigors.  Exactly what kit, I’m still trying to settle on: I like the Ungor heads for this, but like the burlier Gor and armored Bestigor bodies.  (So it’ll likely be Ungor heads on [Besti]Gor bodies.)
Also, in the interests of science: sticking a different head on a Bloodletter body.  I’m planning to use the Bloodletter body with Slaaneshi units, so there’s consistency involved… but I don’t believe I care for the results at all.  It won’t be distinct enough from the Bloodletters, and won’t actually accomplish what I want accomplished.
Finally, there’s always putting a Bloodletter head on a Gor’s body.
In fact, the more I look at it, the more I like the Gor body.  I think the Bestigor body is just… too busy.  Given that they’re ~$4 a pop, I think I’m okay with that.  Also, putting a Gor head on an Ungor doesn’t look too shabby, either.  I can give them all shields, and maybe carve up some Hellblade-lites for them: swords that are thematically similar to Hellblades… but don’t look like they ignore armor saves.  Maybe not.
I also kinda like the ‘Letter head (ha!) on the Gor Body (lower left).  I don’t think I care for it as much as the Ungor head (which I really like), but it would just fit a lot better with the rest of my units.  This will require a lot of thought.
The point is, they should look resilient.  Bloodletters look deadly, but Plaguebearers need to look like they’re hard to kill.
Beasts of Nurgle, I don’t see myself ever being called to run.  If I did, I’d probably just use the GW model: it’s not particularly Khorne-y, but I think it’d look pretty cool with my paint scheme.
Nurglings just ain’t gonna happen.

Ecumenical Khorne – HQ, Heavy Support

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I’m grouping these together because either A) I don’t know which god I’ll be doing anything with or B) the models aren’t god-specific.
As soon as I add some more mobile units and/or tank killing units, I can drop one of the Bloodthirsters.  I could probably drop both, but I’d like to keep at least one: what’s Khorne without a Bloodthirster?
That means swapping him (or is it her?) out for one or two Heralds.  I haven’t done much thinking about what type of Herald I’d take, but… I can’t see myself bothering with a Herald of Nurgle, but I can imagine a place for Heralds of Khorne, Slaanesh and/or Tzeench.  
I’m pretty sure that I’d mount them in a chariot, regardless, which means any conversion would be driven by 1) how I convert the Troop-level Daemon (and it him up) and 2) how I convert the Elite-level Daemon pulling the chariot.
Soul Grinders are Soul Grinders.    Done.
Daemon Princes are only a little trickier.  For the time being, I think I can run the ones I’m in the process of painting as whatever type is called for.  Longer-term, if I settle on a build I really like, I can convert up something new: almost certainly based on the Minotaur kit.  I love those models.

Ecumenical Khorne

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Something I’ve been eyeballing for a bit is making my Khornate Daemons list… less Khorne and more competitive.
The monogod thing is fun, but it really is a bit of a paper-rock-scissors list where it generally does pretty well or pretty poorly.  I can’t even play against Tyranids, for example.  While I’m okay with that, I expect it will get old after a bit.  I really like my paint scheme, though, and I like screaming “Khornination!” and such… so as I pull in non-Khorne units, I’m going to try very hard to Khornify them while retaining the themes that will make what the models count-as clear.
Over the next week of so will see something of a stream-of-consciousness, thinking out loud thing.  Mostly documenting where I’m looking to go with this.  I think I have a clear idea of what I want, even if I have trouble articulating it.
Feedback is more than welcome!

Short-term Goals

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Just because I’m not powering through a painting schedule any more doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have some sort of direction to what I’m working on.  So, roughly, I plan to work on the following and have it done in a month or so:

Sternguard Veterans x10

This is my commission from the Battle for the Cure Auction, so it’s kind of my highest priority thing.  I told Mark I’d have them done in a month or so, and I think that’s a reasonable goal.  They came to me primed, but had kind of a lot of flash on them, so I trimmed that off, and am now stripping the primer.  Probably should blow through a spare Black Reach marine with his paint scheme to make sure he’s happy with what I’ll be doing.

Daemon Princes x3

They were “done” in time for the Battle for the Cure, but they still needed some blood spatters and highlighting on the wings (which is why I’ve yet to take pictures of them).  I imagine that’ll be done before the weekend, but there’s no hurry… just a desire to wrap them up.

Display Board

I don’t have one for my Daemons, and I need one.  At the very least, I need it in time for the IFL RTT on 4/17, so there’s lots of time.  Stealing shamelessly, from Matt Hoell, I’ve got a tray on order that I’ll use as a base: when it gets here, I’ll decide if I need a wider surface area and build out from that or if I can leave it as is.  I’ll definitely need to track down more of the textured plasticard used on my bases, and I’ll need to figure out a good way to break up the seams between them (since it looks like the patterns don’t interlock very well).

I’ll also be designing it with the intent of reusing that tray from one display board to another: it’ll just just be a structure to which the army-specific display board is attached.

Dark Heresy

I’m riding the post-Madicon Dark Heresy wave, so I’m painting up a couple of figures for it… they’ll also be able to do double-duty as Inquisitors and Henchmen in my Dark Angels army when I next run them.  Right now, I’m starting off with Solomon Lok and some… dude.  Two bolt pistols, a trench coat, belts and belts of ammo and a buzzcut.

After that, who knows?

Battle for the Cure!

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Saturday was Battle for the Cure… the first of what is bound to be many.

To say that it was successful would be to understate.  Game Vault was, as always, an excellent host.  Turnout was great. (With 24/25? people?)  The scenarios were solid.  We raised an $1,405 for the Race for the Cure.

That’s right.  $1,405.

The silent auction did well; there were a lot of things (backpacks, Flames of War sets) donated by Game Vault and Games Workshop, several painted minis (one of which, an Azrael painted by double-Golden Daemon and Forgeworld Best in Show winner Andrew Wylie, went for ~$110!) as well as several folks offering painting services.  My offer to paint a squad of ~10 models ended up going for $130!  (A sum that is as ridiculous as it is flattering.)  Frank did a magnificent job putting it all together.

All three of my games were extremely close.

My list:

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE
Chaos Daemons – 2,000 points
HQ
Bloodthirster – Death Strike, Unholy Might
Bloodthirster – Death Strike, Unholy Might
Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury of Khorne, Icon of Khorne, Instrument of Khorne
Troops
Bloodletters x16 – Fury of Khorne, Icon of Khorne
Bloodletters x8 – Fury of Khorne, Icon of Khorne
Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Karanak, Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne
Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide
Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide
Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide

Game 1

My first game was against fellow IFLer Mike Gatewood’s Eldar.  Scenario was built around getting to an objective in the middle of the board and hanging onto it.  Secondary victory condition was modified Kill Points, tertiary was table quarters.

The first half of the game was him charging me, me counter-charging him, him counter-charging me, and so on.  It looked like the bulk of the game was going to be spent in a big furball that sucks up every unit on the board until… :pop: all of his models in the throwdown evaporated.  A lot of back-and-forth.

Other highlights included five Bloodletters pwned the Avatar in one round of combat, as well as an unending battle between a Daemon Prince and a Wraithlord.  (Toughness 8 is tough!).

I ended up losing, but it was close. His third Wraithlord’s Move Through Cover roll was responsible for a 17 point swing: had he rolled nothing higher than a 4, I’d have pulled it off.  He rolled a 5, though, and killed the crap out of the scraps of Bloodletters that were holding onto the objective.

A really great, close game.

Game 2

My second game was against another fellow IFLer, Mark Callan, and his Salamanders.  Scenario was built around a “three day battle:” odd numbered turns had Dawn of War.  Five objectives.  Secondary was normal Kill Points, tertiary was table quarters.

This game was hard to judge.  I was unable to get a single wound through a Stormshield.  If you had a Stormshield, you were invincible.  I have to admit that this got a little frustrating.

Again, a lot of back and forth.  I killed the living crap out of anything that didn’t have a Stormshield, though.

What was shocking was that we tied in every way: we tied on objectives, we tied on Kill Points, we tied on table quarters.  I won the game with one point: I had a unit in his deployment zone, which good for a single bonus point.

It was a good game.  The Storm Shield thing drove me up a wall, but it was exciting and close despite that.

Game 3

I have to admit that I forgot the name of my third opponent.  He was running Space Wolves.  Scenario was built around a extra “runner” character and having them camp an objective in the center of the table.  Again, Kill Points, quarters.

This game started out a bit frustrating.  It was hard to tell where one squad started and the other ended (because they were a mishmash of marines, space wolves and chaos marines).  His Thunderwolves were on cavalry bases, of all things.  (“Canis Wolfborn being on a big base doesn’t mean all Thunderwolves are supposed to be on a big base.  Besides, they don’t even sell big bases.”  I expressed 1) why that that’s pure ridiculosity and 2) that they do sell them.  He spaced them out as a result, though, so I really can’t complain.)

It chugged along.  Not a whole lot of back and forth initially: just starting at one end and chewing it up.  Had extremely good luck chasing the Thunderwolves and a full squad of Grey Hunters off the table.

The last three rounds saw everything I had trying to kill his runner and him trying to kill mine.  Ultimately, I was able to wear his runner down and, in the very last round of the game, free my runner from combat.

I’m curious to see the final scores, but I can’t complain about three close games (or two wins).

The event was extremely successful, so we’re definitely going to see a repeat next year.  Hopefully, with more lead-in, we’ll be able to get the extra support we almost got this year (but couldn’t, because we didn’t have enough lead-in).