Yearly Archives: 2011

Rats for the Cure

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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.

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:

Painting Progress – 20110228

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Just a quick update on what I’ve been working on.

A couple of years ago, I picked up some of the Mage Knight Dungeons Artifact sets on the stupid-cheap.  I’ve been using bits from there as objective markers ever since. On a whim, I decided to paint up one of them, to make it fit in with the cavern table.

I tried to give it some source lighting, but I don’t think I was particularly successful.  This’ll get used as a Mystic Monument for WHFB.

Had a super-lazy Sunday yesterday, which meant I got a lot of painting done.  Did a lot of work plugging away at the first octet of Pink Blood Horrors.  It’s been inexplicably slow-going however.  Slow enough that I’m trying to decide if it’d be easier to just convert and paint four Flamers instead of painting a second octet.

They’re coming out okay, though.

Finally, I got my order from Scibor in: I ordered some of their “Big Angels Shields” and, while I was placing the order, threw in some resin bases as well.

I probably should post about comparing resin bases from different manufacturers at some point.  Scibor’s, I’m sorry to say, is the least impressive.

There was also a lot of flash on the shields.  So much so that I screwed up my first shield while trying to remove it.

Anyway, it does mean I was able to finish my third Belial.  Maybe I’ll paint him after I’m done catching up with my Daemons.  Maybe I’ll just go back to painting Skaven.

Unit Filler

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Although I’m still working towards the goal of getting the list I’m currently running 100% painted before I start screwing around with it and doing more units… I’m already kind of looking ahead.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to drop the Plague Furnace: it’s great, but it’s basically 150 points for Unbreakable, which is pricy.  For that much, I could easily get another horde of Slaves… and more.

Except… I still have 20 Skavenslaves to paint.  The last thing I want to do is make that 70 Skavenslaves to paint!  (It’s not like I don’t have the models… I just lack the willpower to paint that many.)

So… unit filler.  If only as a bridge until I come back and paint more Skavenslaves.  I got stuck on a conference call a couple of days ago and, while twiddling my thumbs threw these guys together.:

The one on the left’s a Steam Tank boiler I found on eBay inexpensively, with some Manor bits.  The middle, obviously, is the brazier from the Screaming Bell.  The left is some really awesome Pegasus Chemical Plant with some of the other Steam Tank bits.

I figure I can use three in a horde without too much issue:

On reflection, I probably could have cobbled together some 40×60 bases instead of the 40×40.  Maybe I’ll make a pair of them to run down the middle in each unit or something.

Even if I don’t, three per horde takes the place of 12 slaves, which saves me from having to paint almost as many slaves as I’ve already got painted (30).

Warlord on a War-Litter

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This.. took a little bit, and it’s really not perfect.  But I’m very glad it’s done.  I’ve had this sucker built for well over a year (incidentally, that page is the one that still gets all the hits).

I had to paint it in sub-assemblies: the Stormvermin carrying the litter, the litter itself, and the Warlord.

The Stormvermin, particularly, were a pain to do: I had to glue them all to the base before priming: it was hard enough lining everything up without having to worry about paint jobs.

Fun fact: this will be the only Skaven character I haven’t stacked on top of some cork or slate.  I’d have loved to, but it’s already deliberately Very Tall and pinning all of these suckers through it would have been a nightmare.

I’m pleased with the Warlord.  He’s not as sharp looking as the other one I did, but he’s definitely good enough.  He’s basically the same model: Stormvermin body with the Fangleader head.  He’s got a regular shield (which is a shame, yesterday I found another one of the same shield I used on the other one… though if I’m realistic it probably wouldn’t have fit).  I gave him Warlord Spinetail‘s sword because he’ll always have some sort of magic weapon on him, and the model should reflect that somehow.

Because that didn’t feel like enough, I also gave him a whip.

I’m so-so on the banner.  The dags on the front look fine.  The ones on the back, not quite as much.  The circle looks sharp, and the rune looks good.  Overall, though, I feel like there needs to be more on there, though.  Banners are a weak spot for me… I’ve got several that I’m still putting off doing.

Since building this sucker, I’ve gone back and forth on actually using it.  I like to keep my characters cheapish, and I’ve debated whether or not I think I get my points’ worth for it.  I’ve finally decided that I do.

For the cost of 5 Stormvermin, it:

  • Functions like 4 Stormvermin… that, if it comes up, participate in his challenge.  This also means that everything else comes at the cost of a single Stormvermin.
  • Gives him +1 Sv.  I like him being harder to kill.
  • Makes him take up four spaces.  This is nice, because I like to put him in my block of Stormvermin, which I keep deliberately small for Watchtower scenarios.  It also does very interesting things in terms of character placement in his unit.  If I drop a caster in the Stormvermin unit with him, the caster cannot go in the front rank.  That’s neat.

So, ultimately, I’ve settled on it because (big picture), it doesn’t cost much for what it does while, at the same time, working very well with the unit I like to stick him in.

Painting Progress – 20110209

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It’s been dead silent around here, I know.  We went on vacation last week and the trip, the lead in to it and the catching up from it has been brutal on my free time.

The Snotorious B.I.G. that smacked the tar out of my half of America on 1/26 pushed our flight back a day, though, so I managed to spend the day working a Warp Lightning Cannon.

I hadn’t planned to work on it at all: I’ve got one of the old ones painted up, and I’ve only been fielding the one.  But, I cracked the kit open to see how things fit together.  This was a mistake.  If you’re going to start clipping this model off the sprue: be prepared to assemble it.  Be warned.
Furthermore: you cannot assemble this sucker.  Not without painting it first.  You can put together sub assemblies, but if you ever plan to paint it, that’s as far as it’s going to go.
So, I kinda got stuck painting it.
It’s a great looking model, though.  I’d originally not been a big fan of how high up the cannon is, but I’ve really come around on that.  The model really feels like something that might get fielded in a battery.  It’s less of a cannon and more of an artillery piece, if that makes any sense.
Anyway, I’m really happy with it.  I just wish I hadn’t been trapped into painting it…

In the few moments I’ve found since finishing this, I’ve started on two more small projects.  
I’ve decided to paint the Warlord on the War Litter:
This thing’s going to be a pain to paint.  At least the bearers will be.  I can tell already.
I’ve also started construction on a third Belial model.  I had an order from MaxMini come in: Shoulder Pads.  They’d also thrown in a Steam Knight helmet for the heck of it… which was serendipitous.
The base is half of the Slate Wasteland’s Hero’s set from Dragon Forge.  The pauldrons and head, are from MaxMini, of course.  There’s a brass etched icon on one of the legs, and a resin Dark Angels symbol (with the sword broken) from… something from Forgeworld.  The sword is a Thunder Hammer Arm, two of the sergeant backpack icons from the DA veteran sprue trimmed and fused and worked together for the guard and a cleaned up Hellblade for the blade.
The shield will be an Assault Terminator Sergeant’s Shield: Casey is hooking me up.  I need to decide if I’m going to just use it as-is, or if I’m going to shave the iconography off and try to sculpt something.  I’d like to sculpt, but I imagine the outcome won’t be very good.
On the upside, however: I’m done making Belial models.  This guy will be Number 3.  So, I finally went ahead and magnetized the arms.
Although #1 has Lightning Claws and #2 has the Sword of Silence and Storm Bolter… I can always come back and build those for this guy.  Or if I decide I dislike the Thunder Sword or something.