Painting Progress – 20110112

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Over the weekend, I wrapped up the Gremlins.  So, they’ve been done for a little while.

Dropped the little bastards on the way to the spray station, which really cheesed me off: Som’er and the Slop Hauler’s hats chipped and the Hauler’s spoon broke off.  Salty language was uttered.

Touch ups were done.  Anyway, here they are:

Also, I blew through painting up the Dreadstone Blight.  I’ve got a bunch of pictures of it, as well as some thoughts about the kit… enough that I’m giving it its own post tomorrow.

Now, I’m ramping back up on Skaven.  It’s gonna happen, damnit!  I’m starting off with ten Clanrats and a Doomrocket Warlock Engineer.

2010 Year in Review

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I know this is a bit late, but you all forgive me, right?

Year in Review

  • January began with me really finding steam to paint the Khorne-only Chaos Daemons I’d been thinking about since the previous year’s Super Bowl (don’t ask).  Matt H and I ran our second annual Rapid Fire tournament at Game Vault.  Considerably smaller in scale than the first one but, I think, still a success.
  • February saw hardly any gaming: I focused on painting Daemons.  I turned on Google Analytics on this blog, which has really proven interesting.
  • March saw Madicon, as it always does (which reminds me that I really need to get cracking on pulling together this year’s tournament).  After that was the first Battle for the Cure which was an enormous success.  I’m clearly looking forward to 2011’s.
  • In April, I actually played in the IFL RTT; failed to perform well but won Player’s Choice, which vindicated the effort I’d sunk in to the army.
  • I can’t say I did much in May.  Some painting, some gaming, but nothing particularly notable.  I did finish the models for the Battle for the Cure auction, though.
  • June was more of the same.
  • July saw a return to Warhammer Fantasy and, with it, Skaven.
  • August had a lot of Skaven painting.  Helped set up for the NoVA Open, but couldn’t make the actual event.  Ran Rapid Fire at Games Day, which was successful, and entered a number of models into Golden Daemon: with respectable results.
  • September was quiet.  Got to test-drive some missions for next year’s NoVA, did a little painting.
  • In October, I returned to the Daemons.
  • November I stepped away from the mono-God approach with my Daemons and started playing in another Escalation league.
  • December wrapped up my Battle for the Cure minis and started some Malifaux models I’ll likely never use.

I’m going to drop some charts: I won’t dwell on them too much, since I covered a lot of this back in October.

Hobby Activity

The year started out on a great note: it saw a ton of hobby activity at the top the year as a churned through Daemons and then really peaked again in late summer as I found steam with my Skaven.

I remain quite proud of the fact that I knocked out a 2,000 point army in three months.  That’s a big achievement.

This was clearly the year of Khorne.

Gaming Activity

Similarly, most of my games were with the Daemons, with Skaven a somewhat distant second.

Also, I lose a lot.  This isn’t news to me. :)

Site Activity

Things have dropped off here quite a bit: from an average of 14 posts a month at the top of the year and dropping to an average of 7 at the bottom.  Since I did less (thanks, real life!), I posted less.  That’s understandable.

While I won’t post for the sake of posting, I think I’m going to try to bump my posts up above the five or so that they’ve been at.

Visits to the site have slowly and steadily increased.  I’m pleased by that.  I’m not in any blogrings save FTW, so I don’t expect it to rocket up, which is fine.  I actually broke 100 visits a day (often pushing close to 200 when I did) a couple of times: once in March (pictures of the new Tau Stealthsuits), May (Tau thoughts?), July (my Warlord, who went on to do so well in the Golden Daemon), August (a Skaven list and NoVA Open comments?) and October (Khornate Chariots).

High traffic isn’t a goal, here, but it does make me feel good about myself. :)

2010 Goals

This time, last year, I set some broad goals for myself:

  • Finish – Success!.  Fully painted a 2,000 point army in three months.  Painted models for charity.  Built a new table.
  • Paint – Success!  See: above.  I painted nearly 200 models.
  • Compete – Success! Achieved, but not as thoroughly as the above.  I played in a couple of tournaments, but not much.

2011 Goals

Last years’s goals were pretty solid; I don’t think I need to change them a whole lot.  I’m adding a couple, though:

  • Finish
  • Paint
  • Compete
  • Have a Fully Painted Skaven Army – As to that last one: I’ve been working towards this over nearly two decades. I’m more than halfway there right now; time to push on and wrap it up.
  • Avoid Forums – I haven’t discussed it much here, but there’s an unbelievable amount of drama rattling around, locally, and it’s very much soured me.  The primary driver of that is forum drama.  This year, I’m going to use forums for game planning & tournament prep, etc, but I’m going to try extremely hard to avoid actual discussion on them.  Unfortunately, this will be a hard one to review in terms of success/failure..

Hobby Status Spreadsheet!

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A couple of months ago, I shared some details about how I track my progress through this hobby and how satisfying it is to be able to look back on all I’ve accomplished over the past year.  I ended with a promise to make a blank copy of it available to anyone interested in doing the same.

Well, I’m done!  It took me a bit longer than I thought it would (I initially thought I’d be done with this back in October) but the extra time went into refining the sort of data it tracks (it now accounts for assembly and conversion, in addition to simple painting) and making the formulae as flexible as possible (because I wanted this to be accessible to folks who don’t have a lot of Excel experience.)

I’m going to walk through how to access it and then how to use it.

Q: How Do I Access This Thing?

The spreadsheet is a Google Spreadsheet.  To maintain your own copy, you need a Google account: if you have a Blogger blog, you already have one.  It will be added to and interfaced from your Google Documents page.

To get to the blank copy I’ve created for you (yes, you!) to access:

  • Follow this link.

    You should now be in edit-mode for the spreadsheet.  Inconveniently, though, all of the sheets are locked down.  That’s so the sheet is always pristine for the next guy.  When the spreadsheet’s in your account, that won’t affect you.

  • So, copy the sheet to your Google Docs account.

    Click “File” -> “Make a Copy”

    Call it whatever you want.  It’s yours, now.  Leave the checkbox unchecked.

That’s all there is to it!

Q: How Do I Use This Thing?

There are six sheets in this sucker.

General rule: if the cell is greyed out: you probably should leave it alone.  It’s calculated.

Also, I’ve include a little bit of data to provide you with an example of how this stuff should look.  Alternatively, you can always check out my copy.

1. Introduction



I blab a bit about what the sheet does and why I did it.  Sort of like I’m doing here, but with less verbosity.  You can delete this if you want, hang onto it, whatever.

2. Hobby

As far as I’m concerned, this is the meat of the sheet.  Here’s where you log what you finish as you finish it.  Note the year, the month, the model.  How many, what system and army.  What the type is.

Key fields here are:

  • Quantity – How many
  • Assembly Value – How much work went into putting the model together.  Things scale up from simple kit assembly to scratch building.  How you rate things is up to you.  There’s a guide to the right.  
  • Painting Value – The scale of the undertaking.  This is an arbitrary value; I’m including the Lone Pilgrim chart to the right, but how you rate something is up to you.  I gave my display board, for example, a value of “20.”
Conveniently, I’ve made all of these cells yellow.  You’re welcome!

If you’ve painted something without building it, leave Assembly Value blank.  If you build something without painting it, leave Painting Value blank.  (If I build something one month and paint it the next, I’m giving it two lines, but that’s up to you.)

I’ve also included some weights on the right.  You can change those, if you want.  If you’re less concerned about painting than you are building, giving assembly a higher number will increase its impact on the rollup.
That rollup, btw, is: Subtotal = (Painting Value * Quantity) + (Assembly Value * Quantity)
3. Gaming
Here’s where you track games.  Not much complicated here.  
4. Charts
The other meat of the document: taking the information you’ve dumped in and spitting it back out at you in chart form.
This is also one of the biggest disappointments: because of the way Google Spreadsheets works, the charts either look funny or don’t include all of the data.  So, as you add data series (like a new army, or another month’s worth of data), you have to alter the formula that drives the chart.  I’m really sorry about that.  
I’ve included notes about what you have to do to make that work, though, and I think it’s pretty clear.  If there are ever any questions about what to do: don’t hesitate to ask me.
I’ve included charts I find useful and meaningful.  That’s not to say that if you wanted to create another one, you couldn’t do that. 
5. Calculations & 6. AxM Crosswalk

If you’re uncomfortable with spreadsheets, don’t touch these.  These guys take the data that you input on Hobby & Gaming, and process it for consumption by the charts.  
If you’re okay with spreadsheets: don’t let me stop you from playing with them.
Q: What Do I Do With This Thing?
As you plug along with your hobby, just update the sheet.

It’s really intended to not be a lot of work.

At first, it’ll look sparse and empty, but before you know it it’ll have a lot of information and you’ll be able to look back on exactly what you’ve managed to accomplish.

Q: Anything Else?
If you use this, and I’d be thrilled if you did, I’d love it if you let me know.  Fundamentally, this is all about being able to appreciate accomplishments.  If I know I’ve done something that’s helping out your hobby, I’ll get to feel good about myself. :)
Also, if you have any questions or need any help with the sheet: drop me a line!  I’ve tried to make this sucker as automated and simple as possible… but it’s not perfect.  I’m happy to back folks up on this.
Get the Warpstone Pile Hobby Status spreadsheet

Tomorrow, as part of my year-in-review, I’m going to dredge up and share some data from my copy.  That should provide some real examples of this thing in action.
Hope this is helpful!

Painting Progress – 20110102

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I’ve gotten surprisingly little done.  Given that I’ve had two whole days in which I’ve worn nothing but pajamas, uninterrupted, you’d think I’d have annihilated anything and everything that crossed my painting table.

Instead, I’ve been reading (wrapped up Prospero Burns*, started Empire in Black and Gold), napping and time wasting.

I’m mostly done with the second batch of Gremlins.  At this point, just a few things left to do.  Should be an afternoon’s focus to wrap up.

I’m less motivated to knock them out, though, because I had the realization that my company’s holiday party is the night of the Malifaux thing at Huzzah Hobbies… that’s probably too much for me to try to fit into one day.

At this point, though, I might as well finish them.  Be a shame not to.

Wanted to throw up another WIP of Som’er Teeth Jones.

God, what an ugly model.  In some ways, that’s good; he ain’t suppos’d t’ be purdy.  In other ways, it’s annoying: he doesn’t look anything like any of the other Gremlin models.  It also looks like he’s not wearing anything underneath that coat, and that’s just gross.

Also, I finally took a stab at converting up some Pink Horrors (Blood Horrors?)

Nothing fancy: I don’t think it needs to be fancy.  I’ve certainly learned that, for me, the more involved a conversion gets the less likely I am to finish it, much less paint it.

They’re basically Ungors with bow-hands removed and replaced with grenade launchers.   Some green-stuff goes into gap-filling and making the two pieces “fit” together better.

I’m doing basically the same thing with a Gor for the Changeling.

I did do some extra sculpting around the heads: Ungors have a big gap between the torso and the head that I filled in.  Also I smoothed things out between the shoulders and the back of the head to make things look more hunched over and less… weird.

Easy to put together.  I’ve got another box of Ungors, but have to wait on some bits to show up before I can finish a second octet.

* Micro-review: Actually a solid enough book but utterly a failure as a book titled, “Prospero Burns,” billed as a book about the annihilation of Prospero.  Also, I thought the end was cheap and disappointing.

Painting Progress – 20101228

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Last one of these for 2010!

As I mentioned last time, Bill put a bug in my ear about a Malifaux event in January.  (Seeing, now, that it’s 1/8, I’m less confident about actually making it, but that’s beside the point).

I haven’t touched or thought about Malifaux in a looong time.  It’s not a fundamentally bad game or anything (though their tournament format is idiotic); I like some of their minis (but not others).  Honestly, I’ve had Rising Powers since shortly after it came out… and haven’t been able to muster the energy to read it.

Ultimately, it just seems like so damn much work.

But, hey, I’ve got a bunch of minis for it (the Criid starter and a lot of the Gremlin stuff), so why not?

Bill suggested I take:

  • Som’er Teeth Jones
  • Ophelia
  • Rami
  • Slop Hauler
  • Bayou Gremlins x2
  • Bayou Gremlins x5 (to bring in via Git Yer Bro)

Sounds good enough to me; I can count the number of games of Malifaux I’ve played on one hand.  So, I’m painting that up.

I just finished knocking out the Bayou Gremlins, all seven of them.

I’ve got a good start on the characters.  Hopefully, they’ll truck along at a good pace.

Thought I’d take a closeup of Som’er’s face.  Man, he’s got an ugly mug.  Mugly.

Finally, it appears that they don’t have a model for the Slop Hauler.  Normally, this sort of thing doesn’t bug me too much: no model means an opportunity to make a model, right?  Except exactly how much effort do I want to put into building a model for a game I don’t really play?  Not much.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to.  A leftover Bayou Gremlin, an Ogre Kingdoms barrel with a bit of greenstuff and a paperclip with a bit more greenstuff was all I needed.

Anyway, hopefully I can paint these last few guys in the next week or so.  Then I can worry about whether or not I have time on my schedule to use them (instead of whether or not I’ll have time on my schedule to paint them before using them).

NEW SKAVEN MODELS

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Via Thalaric:

 http://forofreakfactory.mforos.com/1035375/10066910-foto-de-las-nuevas-minis-skaven-somos-los-primeros-del-mundo-en-tenerlas/

Models for Hellpit Abomination, Warp-Lightning Cannon, Plague Catapult, Doom Flayer

Rort, the Tomeripper

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In the D&D microgame I’m running, we had a goblin NPC survive a couple of encounters through overwhelming cowardice.  Between his recurring role and his indirect ability to help me handwave some encounters to keep things moving, it was decided that he needed a mini.

Warhammer Gobbos are pretty different from D&D goblins, but whatevs.  I had this guy left over from some Games Day.

He did get a handswap: his left hand came with a great big goofy Night Goblin, bat-winged staff that was too over-the-top.  Besides, Rort (the goblin’s name) has this whole ripping magic books up thing, so I gave him a Plague Monk’s arm instead.

His powers come via the destruction of magic tomes… that’s what the burning text is supposed to convey.

To say that I’m happy with how he came out is an extreme understatement.  I can totally pick out a few things that could have come together better… but still.  Man, I think he looks sharp.  Especially the flesh.

Bill‘s timing is impeccable: I caught his e-mail about a Malifaux event in January while I was working on this.  I’ve had all the Gremlins assembled and based for a long while… so pinging me with motivation to paint them just as I’m feeling ultra-confident about being able to paint them.

So, those are what’s next in the queue.

Did want to call out the base: he’s based the same way I’ve done the Gremlins.  It’s a Trench Board base from Dragonforge; they were the closest I could find to something swampy.  Painted the dirt green & brown and hit it with some water effects and ended up with this:

Paintification Progress – 20101214

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Managed to block out all of Sunday to do catch up on some much-needed hobby work.  Things, as I’ve said, have been unbelievably hectic lately so it was a really great feeling to slap some paint around.  Particularly on these, since I hope they’ll go over well at the Battle for the Cure.

I took some pictures while doing the ribbons; I hope to throw together a quick walk-through on how to do them and post it tomorrow.

Before I do just a dump of pictures, I wanted to call out a specific one that kind of breaks my heart:

This was accidental.  I used all of the bald heads ’cause I’m not crazy about the wacky Daemonette hairstyles.    All of the Daemonettes, being Slaaneshi are supposed to be androgynous; given this is GW… that’s expressed by making them extremely feminine but only giving them one breast.

In the context of a model painted for a breast cancer awareness event, however, I see: the determined, resolute face of a survivor.  The bald head of a chemotherapy recipient.  The results of a mastectomy.  The rest of the model is pretty ridiculous, sure, but it hits a lot of buttons.

Also, the larger batch of Daemonettes came out a bit lighter than my test model:

I’m okay with that.  I think the tone one the larger batch looks much better.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the models.

Other than that: I’m working on a mini for my D&D game (for what qualifies as a “recurring villain”, I suppose) and I’ve finally assembled Skulltaker’s Chariot so I’ll probably start painting him soon.

I had big plans for hitting the Dogfish Head Alehouse a mile from my FLGS that I just learned about (their 60 Minute IPA’s been my default beer for something like six years, now) before heading into game (I’ve got a couple of hours between when I boogie out of work and when people start showing up for games)… but forgot my wallet at home.  Maybe next week.

I’ve also made some breakthroughs on automating my Hobby Status spreadsheet, so I hope to have that available for consumption in the next week or so.

Not Dead Yet

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Great Caesar’s Ghost, it’s been quiet around here! 20 days since a post with actual content?

Really, it’s been the opposite of ‘quiet.’  Between the holidays and work crushing my dice bag, I’ve done hardly any hobby work since my last hobby post.

The fleshy details on the Bloodbrides are all done: I just need to paint the brass and do the red cloth and I’m pretty much done.  Maybe I can wrap them up this weekend.  That’d be nice.

I’ve played as much as possible in the Escalation League, which works out to about every other week.  I’ve been getting the Khornage stomped out of me: I’m hoping that changes up a bit as point levels creep up.  This also motivates me to start bringing a more balanced list (that is, one that includes shooting).

I need to wrap up the Hobby Status Google Spreadsheet I promised way back when.  The last time I tried doing anything with it, I ran into some issues with the way Google wants to handle custom functions.

Finally, I’m eyeballing starting up a D&D campaign of some sort in 2011 and have decided to start noodling about that out loud.  If you’re curious about what’s rattling around in there, feel welcome to check out Owlbear Stabbings (which is a much better name than Warpstone Pile).

Skaven Minis

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Man, that sucks.  They finally do a Games Day mini I can dang about… just in time to move the damn thing out of Baltimore and to Chicago.  What the hell?  Not fair!

Looks like I need to make an arrangement to have someone who will be there to pick one up for me.

In the interest of making this post a bit more than a quick gripe: has anyone else see Mantic’s limited edition Dwarf Engineer w/ Drill?

It’s a shame this thing’s 1) limited and 2) only comes with their £150.00 Grafe’s Iron Legion bundle… ’cause that thing would be the perfect base for a Doom Flayer conversion.  Amirite?