Tag Archives: hobby

Super-busy

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

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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

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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.

The Big Build Progresses

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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

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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

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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:

Marienburg Test Model

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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

More HDR

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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

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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

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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: