Tag Archives: hobby

Games Day 2010 – Golden Daemon

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On the drive home Thursday, I had the unpleasant realization that Games Day was two days off, one of which was going to be spent… prepping for Games Day.  Basically, that I had Thursday night to finish whatever I was going to enter into the Golden Daemon.

That meant the Bonebreaker I’d had hopes for, but had tabled (thanks to uselessness in 8th), wasn’t going to happen.

I was also quite certain that this was going to be the last Games Day in Baltimore (and therefore the Golden Daemon I’d be able to enter), so there was no reason not to enter into as many categories as possible.

In the end, I painted up the banner on the Doomwheel and that was it.  Everything else was entered as-is.

My entries (just re-posting pics, here, not taking new ones; hence the lack of Doomwheel banner for now):

Warhammer 40K Single Miniature: Dark Angels Librarian

Mostly wanted to see how well he’d do, as I’d painted him in about half a day before the first Rapid Fire.

Warhammer 40K Squad:  Bloodless Bloodletters

Why not, right?  I knew these guys weren’t going anywhere, because they’re modeled… imperfectly.  The seam between face and cranium is one of those things you don’t know to watch for until it’s way too late.  Still, they’re the most unique squad I have.

Folks had commented on them: people I didn’t know would know about my Daemons mentioned that they knew I’d done my whole army this way.  That was kinda neat.

Warhammer 40K Vehicle: Dark Angels Venerable Dreadnought

Mostly because I was trying to hit as many categories as possible.  If I’d realized he’d be a vehicle and not a monster, I’d have submitted one of my Daemon Princes, as well.  No worries, though.

Warhammer Single Figure: Skaven Warlord

Yeah, this guy.  I’d been seriously considering doing my Warlock Engineer, but he came out the other side of rebasing for the worse, and my wife convinced me that this guy was much cooler.

She was right: he made First Cut and, I was told, was extremely close to actually winning an award.  Hot-damn.

Warhammer Monster: Doomwheel

This guy was a no-brainer, but he needed a banner.  That’s what ate my Thursday.  I’ll post pics later.

This was, to understate, a Doomwheel-heavy competition.  Mine was one of three.

It was also one of two to make First Cut.  Boo-yeah.

Lord of the Rings Single Miniature: Haradrim Troll

I’d planned on entering this fellow last year… but made the mistake of looking at Dave Taylor’s blog the morning of the event.  That’s a great way to make yourself feel like an incompetent modeler.  This year, I just went with it.

Misunderstood how things worked in the late afternoon: all of my stuff was still in the cases, and I thought that meant all of it had made the cut (hence the ecstatic FB posts & Tweets).  This was not the case.  Rather, only two models (the Warlord and Doomwheel) made first cut.  Although this means four entries didn’t; I’m okay with that… it means First Cut means a lot more.  Being one of ~5 models means a lot more than being one of ~25.

Overall, I’m quite happy with my performance and satisfied with myself.  I can continue being insufferable as a first-place loser in the Golden Daemon for another year!

Painting Progress – 20100811

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Although we went out of town for the top half of my week’s vacation, I got to spend the bottom half of the week at home, in the man cave, doing hobby stuff.

For starters, I got the ball rolling on some new terrain; I’m working towards building an underground themed board to match the new basing scheme I’m using with my Skaven (see this post for an example).  No real pictures for this, yet, since I’ve just got one piece of terrain (a cave pool) done up, and I think I might have used too much Water Effects on it. : /

I spent the bulk of my time churning through a box of Clanrats.  Before ducking out, I’d decided (as so many other folks have) to do my Clanrats with the armored bodies and my Skavenslaves with the unarmored bodies.  Across three days, I’d painted up the whole box (well, 19 of them, since I’d painted up one as a test model when the kit first came out).  I’m extremely happy with how they came out… less so with the pictures.  Apologies in advance if I decide I’m disgusted enough with these to re-take and re-post them.

First, the Slaves:

Then, the Clanrats:

Obviously, I still need to paint the banner.  Not sure when I’m going to do that: I’ve been so stopped up on those things, I decided to push on and do more models instead of fuss around with the banner.

I also did a little re-basing.  I’m going to have to do a lot of that before I’m done.  One of my Plague Mortars got dropped a few weeks ago, so he was a good candidate.  Also, I decided to go ahead and do my Warlock Engineer.

Painting Progress – 20100729

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I’ve knocked out a couple of Skaven Rare choices over the past few days.  Both of them, strangely, repaints… something I’ve sworn I wouldn’t do very often.  (Why repaint something you’ve already painted?)

I was pretty stoked about the wood effect I managed on the Warlord, and I’d had a 20% painted Doomwheel sitting in bits on my desk.  Last Sunday, I got the bug to put the wood and steel effect into use on it.  Shockingly, I was able to finish almost the whole thing in a day, wrapping it up the following afternoon.

It’s not all the way done, I suppose.  I’ve still got the banner to do.. but I’m having a great deal of frustration with those at the moment.  So, I’m leaving those where they are.  I’ll deal with them later.

This weekend, I got the notion that repainting the Warp Lightning Cannon I’d previously painted wouldn’t be too hard.  I banged out most of it in the day.  The only thing that really kept it from being “done” until today was the crew.

I think it came out looking really good.

I did something a little different with the Warpstone.  I think it ultimately looks better, but it’s not quite as striking at arm-length, which is unfortunate.

I did the usual Snot Green -> Goblin Green -> Golden Yellow.  Then I went a bit farther and threw in some Sunburst Yellow. before washing it with Thraka Green.  Then I washed it with a thin coat of Leviathan Purple on an impulse.  I think it made the green richer… but less vibrant.

I’d been half-considering what I was going to do for a Plagueclaw Catapult.  I’d run one last week (with an old Screaming Bell as a stand-in).  I haven’t been particularly het up to convert one up because 1) I need to focus on painting and 2) I’m not sure I like the unit (it was particularly disappointing in this week’s game), but the question of “how” had certainly been rattling around in my head.

Then, it occurred to me: Zvezda.  I’d ordered a Zvezda Siege Machines kit a long while back to use the ballista in my Harad army; it’d come with a catapult that I’d never bothered taking off the sprue.  So, I took it off the sprue.  Then I tarted it up a little bit with some Skaven bits.

Not going to win any awards or anything, but it’ll do.  It’s better than a proxy, at least.

Also, it was extremely cheap: ~$15 for a ballista and a catapult (plus some barricades).  That’s a deal and a half, even if it’s not perfect.

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m very excited about painting Skaven, now.  I love the new basing scheme (rocky vs. swampy grass), and the colors of everything this side of the flesh are perfect (and I’m perversely stuck on the Bronzed Flesh).  Time to start plugging everything into a spreadsheet and planning on knocking this stuff out.  Also: grinding Clanrats.

Battlefoam! W00t!

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Came home to a pretty large box: my Battlefoam came in the mail!

Originally, I’d been looking at shoving all of my Daemons into foam… but Casey was able to convince me that that was wasteful.  I’ve got a great transport solution for everything except for the Soul Grinders and Bloodthirsters… why spend several hundred dollars to fix what ain’t broke when I could focus on what is?

So, I e-mailed Battle foam the shapes and asked them if they thought fitting everything into a single tray would be feasible.  After a bit (Origins happened shortly after my e-mail), they responded that three of the four shapes would definitely work… but that they wouldn’t know if they could do all four without actually trying to do it.

I took the hint and decided it was my best chance, anyway.  After a bit of fiddling, they got back to me: success!  All four fit!

I might snag a PACK Plus to shove this thing in when they’re released.  We’ll see.

Skaven Warlord

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I finished a Warlord (not the Rat Ogre one) last night and I’m extremely pleased with him.  If I could get all of my models looking this good: I’d probably be insufferable. :)

Because I love the way some of these colors look, I thought I’d break down how I painted them… starting with the colors I think are really, really great:

Iron Armor / Weapons
GW Boltgun Metal
GW Mithril Silver highlights
3:3:2 GW Badab Black, GW Asurmen Blue, water wash

Wood
GW Khemri Brown
P3 Hammerfall Khaki drybrush
GW Devlan Mud wash

Warpstone Blade
GW Snot Green
GW Golden Yellow heavy drybrush
GW Thraka Green wash

Stone
P3 Cryx Bane Base
P3 Cryx Bane Highlight heavy drybrush
P3 Hammerfall Khaki drybrush

(it gets boring from this part down)

Black Fur
P3 Thamar Black
P3 Coal Black heavy drybrush
GW Shadow Grey drybrush
GW Badab Black wash

Gold 
GW Bestial Brown
GW Shining Gold (over the Bestial Brown)
GW Burnished Gold highlights
GW Devlan Mud wash

Red Cloth
GW Scab Red
GW Red Gore layered
P3 Skorne Red highlights
GW Baal Red wash

Grey Cloth
GW Adeptus Battlegrey
GW Codex Grey layered
GW Fortress Grey highlights
GW Badab Black wash

Leather Straps
GW Bestial Brown
GW Snakebite Leather highlights
GW Devlan Mud wash

Skin
GW Darkened Flesh
GW Bronzed Flesh layered
GW Elf Flesh highlights
5:3:2:2 GW Devlan Mud, GW OgrynFlesh, water, matte medium wash
(just as easily GW Devlan Mud wash)

Eyes
GW Goblin Green
GW Scorpion Green dot
GW Thraka Green wash

Teeth, Claws, Bone
P3 Menoth White Base
P3 Morrow White highlight
GW Devlan Mud wash

So, you can pretty much tell that most everything is a base, maybe a mid-tone layered in, a highlight, and a wash.  Those GW washes are really nothing short of magnificent.

Painting Progress – 20100714

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It’s been dead quiet ’round here, mostly on account of work being a bastard.  I expect that will pass when July does.

That said, I have gotten a few things done:

I’ve been plugging away at finishing the Bloodcrushers that have taken me, what, two months to paint?  God, I’ve really grown to hate these things.  Fortunately, I’m done with them.  (Just in time for plastic Bloodcrushers to be confirmed.  Bah.)

Nothing new here, really.  Painted up about the same as the other batch of Bloodcrushers, except they’ve been squad-marked with blood on their hands.  I suppose a strong argument could be made that, in general, they don’t look as good as the other batch: that wouldn’t surprise me.  I’ve hated these guys for a couple of weeks now.

Next on the docket for the Daemons is a few Bloodletters.  I need to assemble and paint the models to give each octet the full range of non-musician icons (so, four regular bloodletters to replace Fury and Icon ‘Letters and an Icon ‘Letter), bumping the octets to ten models each.  (Shut up.)  After that, I need to build my second Chariot of Khorne.

Before I do any of that, though, I’m going to paint some Skaven.

I’ve started plugging away at a few characters, looking for some easy wins (after the interminable Bloodcrushers) and to build up a little momentum.    That means the Warlord on Bonebreaker Rat Ogre, the BSB and a random other Warlord/Chieftain built primarily out of Stormvermin bits.

Some WIPs:

I am wholly displeased with how the flesh turned out.  It took me so freaking long to get coverage out of the Bronzed Flesh, I don’t know that I’m up to stripping it down and starting it over.  Mike‘s been pushing me to put the mini in the Golden Daemon, as it’s a neat conversion… but not like this.

The BSB is coming along much better, however.  I’m quite pleased that I was able to replicate the armor on my Stormvermin.  The banner itself is going to be a separate undertaking.

Not much on the Warlord yet.

I’ve have spent some time over the past few weeks stripping some Skaven minis I’d gotten in some lots a couple of years ago.  The Power Dissolver is king.  That said, I do have to revise previous statements re: Power Dissolver and gloves.  For a few minis, gloves aren’t really necessary.  When stripping a pile, however, it really will dry out your fingertips… so I’ve started to use gloves.  Thought I’d mention that.

Finally, my buddy Mike’s started up his own hobby blog: The Black Ark Apathy.  He’s out near Cupertino now, and is looking for folks to square base it up with.

Dawn Power Dissolver

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A couple of weeks back, Scott posted a link to an article about stripping minis that mentioned Dawn Power Dissolver.  Ron posted something about using it a while back, too, but the article is what really motivated me to try it out.

I had a lot of trouble finding it locally.  Not sure why that is, because it seems like it’s the sort of thing easily available, but… no luck.  So, I bought the crap online.

I LOVE IT.

I’ve been using Simple Green, which certainly works, but I’ve never been super thrilled with it.

My test run was these three minis: a metal mini, a plastic mini and a metal mini with crud (which is what Simple Green always gives me).

I let it sit for just a couple of hours.  What was shocking was just the act of spraying the minis did some stripping.  That white spot on the pauldron was khaki.

After soaking for a couple of hours, I ran them under the sink and brushed them somewhat vigorously with a toothbrush.  Here’s the result.

Unbelievable.  The metal minis look new.  There’s a bit of crud on the plastic mini, but more soaking might fix that.

I’m totally sold on this stuff for stripping.

Painting Progress – 20100626

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Lost most of my free time this week/weekend to Batman: Arkham Asylum (missed the game the first time around). 

Besides that, I touched a few spots on the Bloodcrushers with paint, and fiddled a bit with my Skaven.
I snipped the rods on the War Litter I build a while back.  I liked it, but the platform was so high up, it was a bit silly.  So, I brought it down.  Also, finally put a banner on the pole.
Also, post some stripping with Dawn Power Dissolver (post to follow), I caught the bug to build a new Battle Standard Bearer.  I’ve been using this guy for a long time:
It’s a little standard, though.  I’ve had a spare extra of this model who’d see some half-hearted conversion that I’d gotten in a lot a while back.  So, I started with that.
The shield is from the Warg Riders kit, I think, and the weapon is from the Stormvermin kit.  This is my first time using cork on a base.  We’ll see how it works out.  For the banner, I used the banner from the Minotaur kit.
It’s so enormous, there’s no mistaking it.  I’M THE STANDARD BEARER.  THE BATTLE STANDARD BEARER.  (Do they make a bigger banner?  Probably not.)  I love it.
In other news, my interview with Pat should be in tomorrow’s episode of the 11th Company.  Hope I sound like less of an idiot than I actually am.

Painting Progress – 20100621

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I’ve given up on painting my next quartet of Bloodcrushers.  It’s been a chore to paint them and if I’m honest with myself, I kind of resent the Daemon army at the moment, as if it’s Khorne’s fault I won’t be running them 8/14.

I did decide that I like my approach with the chariot.  I didn’t get much feedback, really: just Matt H. telling me that it looked off, possibly small.   The chariot itself is slightly larger than the Chaos and Tomb King chariots and is about the size of the High Elf chariot.  The perception could come from the FW Herald of Khorne being enormous.

The chariot is a Defiler “knuckle” with a plasticard base and edges and spikes from the Chaos vehicle sprue as rails.  The Khorne symbol is from the same sprue.  The wheels are from a Chaos chariot.  I’d been planning on having plasticard struts connect to the shoulders of the Juggernaut, but Sunday afternoon I decided that would be hard to work.  Instead, I used some hobby chain I picked up years ago for some long-since abandoned project. I think it worked out pretty well.

I will say, though, that painting this thing is going to be a huge pain in the genitals.  At least the Herald isn’t glued to anything yet.

Also, because I’m looking at returning to my Skaven (if I’m not playing 40K at the Open, why wait to return to Fantasy?), I finally stuck the Grey Seer on my Screaming Bell.  I wouldn’t call it done just yet, since I need to decide what I’m doing with the bell-ringer, but… this is a big step.

Basically, I clipped the front of the saddle off, and smoothed it down.  Ground out some of the area between the Seer’s legs to try to get him to sit more flush against the dragon before pinning it onto the saddle.  I used a little green stuff to pull its robes down and look natural (as opposed to just stuck on).

I also had to do a hand-swap, as the Seer’s left hand is supposed to be hanging onto the Bell, and there’s nothing for that hand to connect to.  Instead, I just used a sword/dagger hand from the Stormvermin sprue.  I like the result a lot.

Finally, I had to throw out my spray station.  I’m quite annoyed by this fact, since it was great and big and I’d been using it for several years.  A wasp decided to start building a nest in it, however, so it had to go.

Coming up, I’ve got a lengthy battle-report to type up and post.  I’m also going to be focusing on my rats (over 40K) starting pretty much now.  That means I’ll probably start with finishing my half-painted Doomwheel.

Feedback Wanted: Chariot of Khorne

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So, I’m working on some Chariots of Khorne, and I’m looking for some feedback on where I’m going with it.

First off: I’ll be building two.  The actual herald will be the Forgeworld Herald of Khorne.  They’ll be pulled by Chaos Lord Juggernauts.  The aesthetic of my army is, I think, somewhat clear, and it doesn’t really allow for wood, which makes things hard.

I’ve looked really closely at all of the different chariot kits GW puts out… and found them all wanting.

  • I have a Chaos Chariot, and probably track down a second one without too much heartburn.  But it’s wood.  It’ll look weird painted brass and iron.  I could fill in the woodgrain, maybe, but I don’t know quite how that’ll work out.
  • The High Elf Chariot isn’t bad, but it’s way too delicate.
  • The Tomb King Chariot is much better.  Still a bit delicate, but it’s a lot closer.
  • The Beastman Chariot‘s no good.
  • Matt H. has used the Corpse Cart for his Chariots, but it’s not going to work for me.
  • The Dark Elf Chariot is probably the best of the batch, but it’s OOP and a bit too elvish.

I’ve gone back and forth between filling in the grain on the Chaos Chariot and fiddling around with the Tomb King Chariot… and then I found this conversion.  Not mind-shattering, but much more along the lines of what I’m trying to accomplish.

So, this is what I’ve got so far.

The front of the chariot is a Defiler “knuckle” left over from building Soul Grinders.  The base is just plasticard.  The rails are rounded spiked arcs from the Chaos Vehicle sprue.  The wheels are from the Chaos Chariot; I’ve yet to find wheels I like better, so I’ll be filling in the woodgrain.  I’m sticking a Khorne symbol on the front, and a hook on the side.  I’ll run round plasticard tubes out that will hook into the holes  Juggernaut’s shoulders.

Balance is off since it’s just sort of blu-taced together.

Thoughts?  Is it worth the effort?  Should I just use the Tomb King Chariot?