Blob’s Park is giving me a bit of heartburn.  I’ve got a 2,500 point list that I’m happy with, that I’m comfortable with, that I’ve done pretty well with.  Most importantly, it’s painted.

Blob’s Park, woefully, is 2,800 points.  I’m not entirely sure why the bump, except that there must be some nonsense you can drop with 700 points of Lords or Rare or something that they want to see.  For me, though, it’s another 300 points that I’ve got to get painted.

This is unfortunate, because just throwing more points at something always ends badly.  C’est la vie.

Anyway, my goal was to get up to 2,800 with adding as few models as possible.  I had a plan that involved 6 Globadiers and a Doom Flayer, but then inspiration hit and I decided to bridge the gap by throwing down a Warlord with a Wizarding Hat.

One model?  Room for a clever conversion?  Ability to use one of those sweet, sweet book lores?  Yes, please!

After some noodling and doodling and digging around for parts, I considered and then had to dismiss, modeling it as a brain jar.  That’d have killed… but it wasn’t to be.

So, I went with my initial plan: a big ol’ hat made out of paper hardened by superglue.

I had Warlord Spinetail sitting in the bits box: I used his sword and arm in my War-Litter, so I might as well do something fun and goofy with the remainder.

I used a Stormvermin arm and an Ungor hand.  I was shooting for a cool, “Behold, I am a master of the arcane arts!” pose… instead, I ended up with a pose that’s a bit more of a rude gesture.  I guess I’m okay with that.

Also: I kind of hate the Spinetail model.  The sword is awesome, but what in heck is up with his right eye?  I don’t even know what’s up with that.  I just. don’t. know.  Ugh.

Here it is, finished.

I gave it the Lore of Shadow symbol, since I was considering using that on the Warlord.  It’s way more purple than is appropriate for Shadow (I guess that makes it Death), but at least it stands out in a way a grey hat couldn’t.  That’s probably more important.

Uuuunfortunately, while pinging the CGL for advice on what Lore I should give this sucker (Shadow?  Beasts?  Metal?), I found out the item’d been FAQ’d… and FAQ’d hard and in an uncomfortable place.

Reference Section – Enchanted Items, Wizarding Hat
Change “[…]randomly chosen spell[…]” to “[…]randomly chosen Battle Magic[…]

Sooo… I don’t get to choose the Lore.  I’ve got a 13% chance of getting the Lore I want.  Maybe a 50% chance of getting a Lore I can really use?  Blech. That’s not nearly as useful.  In fact, it’s pretty dang terrible.  At that point, it could be a fun item, but it sure as all get-out isn’t worth 100 points.  Booo.

Possibly the worst common magic item?

Well, it’s done.  The mini’s built and painted.  

I’ll get around to how I’m padding out the list later.  (Probably after the tournament, since it looks like it’s closed-list.)  Do you guys think I could call him a Warlock Engineer? I’m not as crazy about this guy any more.

I’m waiting on the glue to dry on the board; I’ll go back over everything thoroughly with some watered-down wood glue to fix everything in place.  I’ve found that this does miracles for adding durability to ballast (and pretty much everything else).

I’ve finished “sculpting” the stalamites.  Each is a 6″ nail run through a 50mm base with successive layers of joint compound slathered on.  Not really sure when I decided to use joint compound, but the results look (to me, at least) considerably more natural and believable than the styrofoam stalagmites I’ve made before.

The joint compound’s considerably flakier, however, so I’m reinforcing everything with several coats of, again, watered-down wood glue.  After enough of these, the outside will be extremely durable.

Once all of that’s done (hopefully tonight) and dried (hopefully tomorrow AM), I’ll start painting it.  That should go pretty quickly: airbrush on the basecoat then a couple of layers of drybrush.  Varnish that, then water effects and done.

I’ve stretched my non-existent photoshop skills to the limit to pull together a clever, attention-getting sign to place by my display board.  I’m going to keep that close to my chest until the tournament, though: more because I keep dicking around with it than from any coyness.

Finally, I’ve loaded up most of the display case: my Daemons on one shelf and my Dark Angels spilling off of another.  The top shelf’s being saved for my Skaven (who are, understandably, a bit too busy psyching themselves up for the NoVA to spend time in the display case) and assorted one-off models that I’ve done.

I’m really surprised to not see much discussion of the amazing new Forgeworld Skaven kits.

It’s just the token, a round wooden chit to give it a base, and some left over Arcane Ruins.  It’ll probably go on the center of my display board, I think.