Monthly Archives: March 2011

Clash for the Cure – High Elf

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As successful as the 40K Battle for the Cure has been, the Fantasy guys ’round Chantilly will be running a Fantasy event with similar goals: Clash for the Cure.  
I imagine I’ll participate, since it’s an important cause… though I don’t expect it to be as successful as the BftC. For one, the 40K community in the greater area is significantly larger than the Fantasy one.  And, while Game Vault’s been extremely generous and supportive the past two years, Game Parlor’s not really known for offering much in the way of support for events.  (It’s possible they contributed to past years’ WNPG’s Toys for Tots events; I’d be happy to be proven wrong.)
On further reflection, I think it’d be better if it were “Battle for the Cure – Fantasy” (or something along those lines), and not “Clash for the Cure.”  Seems like better branding to me… though interclub friction (and the avoidance thereof) might have been the motivation for that.
Anyway: riding the high from BftC, I was inspired to take the very epic looking High Elf Mage from the Island of Blood box (who’s been sitting around, looking epic and awaiting inspiration), and paint him pink.  Bill D.’s working on a whole pink High Elf army specifically to use at CftC; this guy, I think, will look great with them.  So, I’m going to give this to Bill (I don’t think he follows this, so it should be a surprise).  I’ll probably stand it as my single pink figure competition, though.

There’s a lot of stuff I’m not happy about with it.  This is the first elf I’ve painted, and pink is an immense pain in the ass to paint… but it’ll do.  I’m pleased that I got three different kinds of pink (the pink of the energy, the pink of the cloth and the pink of the gems) to look different… though the gems could have come out better.
Also, it’s been an eternity since I’ve used static grass… so that came out as kind of a disaster.
I really, really need to write up a post about how just using washes straight from the pot is a rookie movie, and how washes should always be mixed with other washes, matte medium and water.  I did a lot of that here, and successfully.

Hey, it’s been a while!

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It’s been a while (a couple of weeks!) since I’ve posted here.  Probably should fix that.  A bit active on the gaming front, but unusually slow on the hobby front.

What I’m Working On

A lot of half-done things here, mostly due to post painting grind restlessness.  I really powered through finishing off those Flamers of Khorne in time for Madicon.  Whenever I do that, I end up a little burnt out and need a break.  Work’s kept me too active to really feel like I’ve had that break, though.  Anyway, what we have here:

  • Another 10 Skavenslaves.  20 total to go (including these).  Soo much painting.
  • Objective markers for my Khornate Daemons.  Stalled due to lack of inspiration, combined with grimness about the playability of my Daemons in a post-Grey Knights world.
  • A pink High Elf.  I’m still riffing off of the success of Battle for the Cure II and there’s a Fantasy version coming up in a few months.  The mood seized me.

Madicon

Madicon went down two weekends ago.  Overall, I had a great time.  I ran the 40K Tournament and the WHFB “Tournament” (concurrently),  played some Dark Heresy and relaxed.

The 40K tournament had 8 people turn out, which was precisely my success/fail metric.  Things ran smoothly and most everyone seemed to be having a good time.  We did have one guy who was a bit argumentative: at the time, it looked like he’d just been conflating 4th and 5th edition rules.  In retrospect, he was probably cheating (as his list seems to have changed between games).  That bothers me, but at least he didn’t end up winning anything.

The Fantasy “tournament” gets scare quotes because 60% of the an already light signup list flaked out and no-showed… which left Mike A. and Sean playing three games against each other.  They were happy enough to do that, but I’m going to recommend that Madicon not do a Fantasy tournament next year.

While at the con, I also picked up the A Game of Thrones LCG starter; right now I’m hoping to use it as a standalone game, without getting into any deckbuilding.  Not sure I have the mental bandwidth for that, you know?

Battle for the Cure

We held our second annual Battle for the Cure at Game Vault just this past weekend.

Something like half of the signups flaked out and no-showed, which infuriates me (much more than the flaking out at the Madicon tournaments.)  Despite this, but because of an unbelievable amount of generosity from folks on the internet who donated things for the auction, we were able to raise $2,000 for Susan G Komen.  With half the turnout from last year, we were able to raise $600 more.  Next year is going to kick ass.

Mike G. did a great job of pulling everything together.

I went 1/3, but I don’t feel bad about my poor showing.  Despite having a list that naturally lent itself to the composition scoring (no vehicles), I pretty much looked at every scenario and went, “Wow.  I guess I’m not supposed to win this game.”  I’ll generously call them woeful.  That I did as well as I did makes me feel pretty confident.

I won best painted army, though, which I’m extremely proud of.

The auction was also a huge success.  I decided to not offer to paint a unit for the auction, as I did last year, simply because I’m too damn busy and it took me forever to get Mark his Sternguard to him.  At the last minute, I relented and offered to paint a single infantry-sized mini.  The winner’s still got to get the model to me.

While I was there, AGoT LCG on my brain, I snapped up the Warhammer: Invasion LCG (unfortunately, I did this at the top of the day… well before I won a gift-certificate for the best painted army).  Since buying more cards means being able to play Skaven… it’s a safe bet that that might happen in the future.

I Love Hearing About Myself

Yesterday morning, I got a note that I was Blog of the Week on Blunt Force Gamer, so I gave them a listen.  Thanks for the kind words, guys!

(Now I feel bad about let Warpstone Pile lay fallow for the past couple of weeks.)

I’m Selling Stuff!

I played the bejesus out of Warmachine a few years ago (just a bit before Superiority came out)… but have since very much lost interest in it.  I haven’t pulled my minis out in a couple of years, now, and that’s really not likely to change.  So, time to unload stuff.

I’ve got a lot of painted stuff (especially Cygnar).  I think I’m asking a reasonable price for the painted stuff… but I’m very open to negotiation, particularly if you’re looking to free me from a lot of stuff.  The more you take, the more I’ll give!

A list of what I’ve got and what I’m looking for can be found here.  If there’s anything you’re interested in, let me know!  If you know anyone who might be interested, pass the list along!  Thanks!

Chicago Games Day Request

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Could someone going to the Chicago Games Day do me a big favor?

I really want one of the Games Day Skaven Warlord minis, but won’t be able to go to Games Day (for the first time since I got back into this hobby).

Would someone who will be there be willing to pick one up for me?

Flamers of Khorne!

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So I’m kinda sorta done pulling together the Flamers.  I powered through painting them in a hope to get them done in time for Madicon.  (The varnish was dry just in time to pack them in the car.)  I say “sorta,” because I need to give them some gnarly blood splattering before they’re done done, but they’re set for the Battle for the Cure.

I’m super pleased with them.  I ended up taking Chris. K’s advice and snipping down the length of the autocannon a lot; I also stuck those creepy vehicle bits on the end.  The larger, more phallic head is the guy with Bolt of Tzeentch Absolute Khornination.

Anyway, here they are:

Flamers of Khorne – WIP

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Starting to slide into a time crunch: just a bit over two weeks until the Battle for the Cure, so I need to wrap up everything I’m going to bring.

I’ve finished my first octet of Blood Horrors.  Need to post pictures of the final product… but I need to get around to taking them, first.

I’ve started converting up some Flamers: I played a game with them proxied on Tuesday and was very happy with them.

They’re clearly primarily Gors with Gargoyle wings stuck to their backs.  If I’d been thinking, I’d have taken some photos of the hacking / drilling / greenstuffing done to make that work.  (More than I’d expected, but I failed to do the usual amount of damage to my thumb that normally accompanies this much chopping so I can’t complain.)

To make them look more shooty and dangerous than the Blood Horrors, I’m giving them autocannons for right arms: they’ll be getting grenade launchers  for their left hands (just like the Horrors).  Unfortunately, I miscounted my grenade launchers: I’m going to have to wait on a bits order to turn up before I can get that far.

One thing I’m not sure about is how to base them.

25mm bases seem… a little small.  40mm bases are bigger than they’d normally get, and seem too big.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to put them on 25mm bases, but am uncertain enough to entertain dissenting opinions.

Anyway, here are some other pictures of the WIPs: