... in which I am defeated by the holiday weekend, and I prepare for a tournament this upcoming weekend.

I was right to throw in the towel. Power for us came back on shortly after it went out, but some of the other outlaying areas of Lansing are still without power, and not due to be restored until Thursday.

I found myself getting sloppy toward the end anyway. My normal attention to detail got really distorted when painting 20+ miniatures in a sitting.

The biggest lesson I can take away from this is enjoy what you are doing. It doesn't pay to rush, and it also doesn't do you any good to sit on tons of minis either.

So here's some photos of what I've done:

Forgive the quality, I had to take the pictures with my phone, as my camera was left in the car. I will take better close ups this upcoming week, now that I can put this behind me and get back to what this blog is about: Gaming.

So, this upcoming weekend is OST's tourney out at Fowlerville. Click HERE for details.

I have settled on running my Necrons for the 1850. I'm going to keep it simple, and focus on refining my tactics, seeing as Necrons are not exactly a competitive army.

Here's my list:

10 Necron Warriors

10 Necron Warriors

5 Immortals
Necron Lord
-Veil of Darkness
-Resurrection Orb

2 Heavy Destroyers

5 Pariahs

2 Monoliths

The Nightbringer

Here's the skinny on my strategy:

Keep everyone behind the monoliths.
Keep the Warriors in reserve, and hopefully keep them off the board as long as possible. I know I'm losing some firepower, but I refuse to be phased out. 
The Lord and his bodyguard of Immortals use the Veil of Darkness to warp around the board, hitting weak units in the rear or flank.
The Nightbringer is pretty self explanatory... Keep him behind the monolith to get him close and then let the carnage begin.
The 2 Heavy Destroyers lay down supporting fire, focusing on tanks and snipers. Run the Pariahs behind the Monoliths until they are close enough to use those Warscythes of theirs like can openers.

Hopefully by the time the monoliths collide into the opposing army is when the warriors would flood out of the portals. And, if anyone gets dinged a little too hard, pull them thru the monolith to keep the numbers up.

I'm planning on trying out the list at out FLGS tomorrow night, hopefully against OST, Vogrin, or anyone else in the DFG crew. I'll post results and pics after.

... in which I think I am forced to admit defeat.

Well, as it stands right now, I have 142 completed.

Unfortunately, Toranados are rolling thru the area and have knocked the power for a loop, so no more progress can be made until the power is restored. :(

I could continue, but let's face it, painting by the light of an iPhone and candles just isn't going to cut it.

I am throwing in the towel for tonight. I'm not sure how much I can accomplish tomorrow, as I have a BBQ to attend, and that will eat up a bunch of my day.

Still, I feel 142 is a very respectable number, and I will be sure to post pictures as soon as I am able to light them and use the desktop. We will see what nature has in store between now and 5pm tomorrow.

... in which I update again!

Whew!

I finished off painting another 23 miniatures today, and after the ink dries, I can flock them, and call them completed.

It really will be a race to the finish line, as I assembled and primed an additional 74 miniatures today.

If my math is correct, that would put me at 194 if I finish all of what I have primed over the next week. That puts me 12 shy.... sounds like I need to find a quick squad to paint!

PS: Forgive me for not taking pics. I prefer to spend my time painting, rather than uploading pictures. The pics will follow after the completion of the challenge.

... in which I give a quick update.

Well, here it is, heading into the weekend.

I just finished flocking the 97th mini, and I look at the timer and realize I only have a little over 9 days to go. I haven't even cracked 100 yet. Things are going to go into another slow patch. I need to assemble and prime another batch.

So, I think I am going to be totally busted here. Realistically, I can't do 109 minis in 9 days.

... I won't give up though. I say we let the timer go, I'll post how many I have done at the end of 30 days, and then I'll stop it when I complete my 206th.

Now it is late, and my eyes are a bit blurry from speed painting an entire Dwarf army.

... in which the numbers lie... my desk has been invaded by goblins!

Fear not, loyal reader, for I have not abandoned you.

I numerically look pretty far behind in my painting challenge. However, this challenge is not just painting. This is assembling, priming, painting... The whole shebang from start to finish.

Over the past week I have been working on my goblins from the Battle for Skull Pass. 43 are ready to drop, with another 21 primed and ready to go. The entire dwarf portion of the box is also primed and assembled. Meaning, I'll be over the 100 mark probably by the end of the week.... No promises tho, I still need to pace myself. Lately I've been gluing and assembling rather than painting, but now that my desk looks like an invading army, I'm ready to get to some serious work.

More updates to follow!

... in which I reveal my army board, and give my first painting update. (WARNING*** LOTS**** of pictures)

 First, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 Tombworld deployment. Above is my 1850 army I would like to run on June 4th.

Here's how I did it, start to finish:

I started with a piece of regular foam board. Now, I wanted to magnetize the board so the minis would be secure, but not glue a ton of magnets to the board. I wanted to be able to use the board for multiple versions of my Necron army, not just this incarnation. So, after a quick trip to the local hardware store, I picked up a piece of steel duct panel. Be careful, this stuff is sharp on the edges. Trust me, you only make the mistake of handling this stuff without gloves ONCE. It was only $4 for a 20"x30" sheet.

I tested the paint and the flock, to make sure the magnet would hold thru the multiple layers.

Pretty successful, don't you think? Worked like a charm.

After using rubber cement to glue the metal to the foam board, I masked off the edges of the panel so that the metal would not be exposed.
Afterwards, a quick coat of black primer.

Next, I began working on the mountain. While the mountain was drying, I would switch off to flocking the board. This step took forever... Not much work for a lot of results, but a lot of time waiting for glue to dry.

I started with some spare foam I had laying around. It is actually the foam that gets pulled out from army trays. I just used Elmer's glue, Popsicle sticks and some brass rods to hold the foam in place while it dried.

Next, I used some plaster cloth to cover the foam form. You can pick up plaster cloth at your local craft store. After about a half an hour, I was able to mix up some more plaster to fill in the gaps and flesh out the base. Here's where I had to switch gears because it had to dry over night.

Next, a layer of black primer.

I took my Dremmel and cut the Necron symbol into the rock face. Drybrush a layer of rust colored red, and then a heavy coat of black ink. Here's the result.

Back to the board. I cut up some of the leftover gauss rod sprues, and chopped up the pieces that didn't look like crystals. I glued the chopped up pieces on like patches of rocks, and made little outcroppings of the squarish rods like crystal formations. I also used some clear casting resin and some rock molds to cast the large green clear rocks.

Here's the first coat of flock. I used rust colored ballast to simulate the rocky "martian" like landscape. I glue things on in patches like this for a good reason. I use a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 elmer's glue to hold the flock. When I let a section dry, and then go back over the edge of it at a later time, it gives a second layer and a "windswept" appearance.







Now you can see the landscape coming together.

My son, Finn

As for all the mess of the flock, I employ slave labor to clean up my mess behind me.

Some glue under the mountain, some flock around the base, and some clear green rocks and some Necron rods on the mountain.

I decided to make a frame for the board. All I did was pick up moulding from the hardware store, cut it at 45 degree angles, glue, clamp and nail it together. If someone requests it, I'll go into more detail about the frame another time.

After painting the frame black, but before I gloss coated it, I decided to put some Necron glyph decals on around the boarder of the frame.

 

One complete army board.

Now for the painting update....

3 down! Yes, I am aware that is not quite the 21 I should have done by now, but finals are this week... priorities and all. I do however, have 14 with paint on them very close to completion, and 12 more built and primed today. I would have done more, but I ran out of primer.... again. So, 3 down, 203 to go, and a chuck of about 20 that will be done shortly.

Now I bid you all goodnight, it is after midnight, so please excuse my posting if it is erratic... I'll edit and clean it up later.. sleep now...

... in which I inventory my workload.

I am resolved now to hit that 50%, and to do it quickly. The first step in this challenge is to take inventory of what I have, and come up with a plan.

I'm just waiting for the glue to dry on the frame for the army board, then it will be 100%. I'll post on that probably later tonight or tomorrow.

Here's where I stand, all models included, even those partially done:

1 Witchfate Tor - top floor
1 Bretonnian Damsel on Horse
1 Hook Mountain Ogre
1 LotR Ent
52 Greatcoat Troopers
10 Vampire Counts Skeletons
1 Necron Destroyer
1 Araknarok Spider
3 Leman Russ Tanks
4 Discworld minis (nobby, Death w/guitar, Carrot, and Moist)
4 "Fighter" Knights
1 Pegasus Knight
31 Knights of the Realm
11 Archers
6 Battle Pilgrims
6 Grail Knights
2 Questing Knights
14 Men at Arms
21 Mouselings
1 Chaos Death Knight
4 Bretonnian Lords
1 Battle Standard Bearer
1 Succubus
3 Orcs
1 Warlord Crom
1 Storm Lord
1 Prince Altharin
1 Warlord Spinetail
1 Chupacabra
1 Zomie Hitler
1 Xanthos Mech
5 "Old" Knights of the Realm
1 Wolflord Marraig
3 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (War, Pestilence, and Famine)
2 Phoenix Hawks
1 Construction Mech
8 Scout Cars
2 Tanks
9 DnD Heroes
1 Wyvern
1 Rotpatch
1 Space Captain
1 Action Jackson
4 Trebuchet Crew
1 Mantis Assassin
1 High Elf Prince on Griffin
1 Elf Mage
10 Sea Guard
10 sword masters of Hoeth
5 Reavers
1 Skaven Warlord
1 Warlock Engineer
40 Clanrats
1 Master Moulder
2 Rat Ogres
1 Warfire Thrower
1 Poison Wind Mortar
12 Dwarf Warriors
10 THunderers
8 Miners
1 Thane
1 Dragonslayer
1 Cannon
3 Crew
40 Night Goblins
20 Archers Goblins
10 SPider riders
1 Big Boss
1 Shaman
1 Troll

*AND* 1 Custom Bretonnian Lord Mod

For a sickening total of:













wait for it.........













412!!!!

Sheesh. I see her point. That's a bit more than I expected. Let's see.... 1/2 of that would be 206.... and if I do that over 30 days, that's an average of 6.86666~ a day... Just to get to my mods.

Let the challenge begin! Painting will start at 5 pm, April 30th. I'll post regularly my progress.

... in which I seriously have the best ideas!

I got hit with the creative billyclub hard this week. Now that all the pressure is off from school, I'm finding more time to relax and do hobby stuff.

Unfortunately, I'm also the most forgetful person in the world, I meant to upload some pics of my army board as a WIP, but I left the camera out in the car.  Basically, I finished off the third floor of Witchfate Tor, and put it on hold while I did an army board for my Necrons. It went relatively quick. I am putting the finishing touches on it as we speak. I'll post a big "how I did this" when it is completed. I really put forth a lot of effort and multiple techniques, from carving, sculpting, casting, painting, and even carpentry. (I made the frame for it myself) and I am really proud of the results.

I had 3 ideas floating around in my head today for custom minis and mods. First, since I now have experience with casting clear resin now, I want to do a couple of Gelatinous Cubes for my DnD game, cause I think it would be hilarious. Next, I had a great vision for a custom Necron Lord. Let's just say I am super anxious to get to that one. Finally, I had an idea for a completely over the top pimp daddy mod. I don't want to go into it too much before its finished. I seriously think it is so good that some of the trollers out there may steal the idea and beat me to the punch. I will keep my ideas to myself for now, but I WILL be finishing that up by the end of May... well maybe...

The caveat with all of this is that my unpainted minis are getting out of control. I made a promise to my wife (and to myself) not to buy any more minis until I have 50% of what I have painted. So, I have to paint roughly 150 minis before I get to my mods. Heh. Maybe I'll actually go thru and inventory what I have so I can track my progress over the blog. Maybe have a few "Iron Man" painting sessions with SeerK, Mr. O, and the DFG crew and record a podcast while we paint the night away.

Time to kick it into high gear!!! Yippee Kai-yay MF!!

... in which I discuss my frustrations at Witchfate Tor.

I'll go into way more detail when I do a product review on GWs Witchfate Tor, but I found this piece so frustrating that I had to vent before hand. I finished the first floor of it last night, after a good 3 hour marathon of painting, which is more time than I've been able to devote in the past month... Thanks Michigan State University, you do wonders for my free time. :p Anyhow, Witchfate Tor should come with a huge warning on the box:

"Citadel Miniatures is an incompetent company, who has no quality control. Our directions for building this piece of terrain were written by a drunk monkey, and should not be followed. Build at your own risk to experience anger, frustration, hair loss, and sudden fits of rage. Caution: Use of this product in the specified way my cause you to punch small children."

Now that I've got the insults out, lets get to the meat of what I'm bitching about.

1) Do NOT build the tower before painting it. It is impossible to get your brush in there to get to the fine details.

2) Test fit all your pieces. I did this, but one of my walls was warped, so it went together extremely bad. I had to heat the piece up, and bend it to the correct shape. Something I should not have to do when I pay that much for a model. Now, because the wall was misshaped, the bottom floor of the tower is not circular, but you can't tell by the naked eye. You can tell, however, when you go to put on the second floor, and the piece will not fit. I had to do some HEAVY cutting with the Dremmel to pare down the floor so that it would fit on top. Now, it only fits on one way, but at least it fits.

3) The wall panels are a lie. The directions tell you to put a rubber band around them to hold them together while gluing. .............. Ok, except for even the loosest rubber band collapsed the tower every time, because you have to trim so much off the walls to be able to FORCE them together. Half of the time I was swearing at the thing because I was hurting my hands forcing the pieces together, then getting glue on my hands, then while trying to force the last part into the circle, having the forst two parts collapse.... all in all, a horrible design. There could have been a better way to support the walls.

4) Even with the walls "fitted" together properly, there are visible gaps between the pieces, be prepared to break out the green stuff.


Sorry folks, I just had to get that all out of my system. This is seriously the worst model I've put together. I think I still made the 1st floor look amazing, but the amount of effort I had to put into it was WAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY too much for what it was. It would have been easier sculpting and casting a tower myself.

I'll post pictures soon, when I finish the tower. The 1st floor is by far the hardest and largest. The other floors went together ok, since there there was such a learning curve on the first. Hopefully I'll get this done this weekend, so I can finish some of the other projects on the bench, and get to all those minis from Adepticon.

... in which I discuss my new banner, and battle hobby lethargy.

As you may have noticed, I have a new banner! (Much better than the crappy one I designed, but you get quality when you take it to a professional!) John Leftwich did the brilliant artwork you see before you. I posted a link to his portfolio, so hit him up for any graphic design work you need. His work is top notch and his rates are good.

I am such a slacker.

I'm letting a little thing called life get in the way of my hobby. Sheesh.

I know everyone experiences a general malaise from time to time, but it's getting back on track that's the hard part. My trips to the gming stores in the area haven't dropped off, nor has my purchasing, but the time I dedicate to my hobby has all but stopped. Boxes of mini's are accumulating on my desk (not that it wasn't backlogged already...) and I just haven't had the drive to do anything about it.

Mostly, I think it is due to the cold. It's on average in the 10-20 degree range outside, and my work area is in my basement. I can tolerate the cold, but the paint can't. I tried to work on my second monolith probably a week ago, and I gave up after about 5 minutes because the paint was running slower than molasses.

I put a heater next to my desk, and I'm going to turn it on about an hour before I sit down to paint. Hopefully, that will fix the stiff paint issue. If it doesn't, I'm all ears. I need ideas and motivation to get back on the horse and get to painting. Life has pretty much adjusted around the new schedule, so I just need to get the motivation to continue.

With that said, I'm going to turn on the heater, and see if I can get any work done before I have to head off to work this afternoon.

...in which I discuss painting Bretonnian Heraldry

Now that I have fended off the Lesser Daemons of Nurgle, it is time to delve back into the world of painting.

I will confess, when I chose to play Bretonnians in WFB, I let my professional world collide with my hobby. You see, I am finishing my degree in history, and to keep it short and to the point, my specialty is Medieval Europe. I also do a lot of research into geneaology, and with that comes heraldry. So, not only do I now all the symbology, I know how to research particular family crests.

My own families coat of arms:

This lends itself well to such an army, as a way to personalize my army, and to have some real pride and sense of connection to the army.

Painting the heraldry is easier than you think. Take a look at my Knight of the Realm Gallant.

All heraldry will have 2 primary colors, with a thrid color to use in a minor capacity. My family's heraldy is relatively simple, being only 2 colors and 2 gold bars on a blue field with a gold bend(diagonal). I'll go into more detail below about how to do custom graphics for the heraldry in a bit, lets stick with the design first.

Just like painting anything, you should work from light to dark. I have a heck of a time working with white and yellow, they just seem to disagree with me. I started by priming the sheild gray, then completely pinting the shield Vomit Brown. Then I built up painting the entire shield yellow, to ensure that would be a bright and vibrant color. Next, I masked off the bars and bend. Tamiya does make some model masking tape, but I just used regular blue masking tape I picked up from Home Depot's painting section. I just cut the tape into small strips of the desired size with my hobby knife. Once that was masked off, I could paint the blue part of the shield, and it was done. Rinse, repeat 4 times on the horses coat.

Now not all coat of arms are as easy. 

This is the coat of arms of the royal family of England. Queen Elizabeth & Prince Charles family. Even in miniature, this coat of arms would be possible to do.

 The easiest way would be to put it thru photoshop, and print it on water slide decal paper. Testors makes 2 kinds, clear & white, and they are readily available at your local Hobby Lobby, Michael's or craft store. BE CAREFUL. You must also pick up a can on decal bond spray, to lock the image in place! Otherwise, the ink will disintegrate when you put the decal in water.

I prefer to use the clear paper, then I can overly they symbols on whatever color field without having to cut too close to the image. For something as complex as the Windsor coat of arms, I would actually go with white, and print the whole image. 

I hope this makes heraldry a little less intimidating to paint, regardless of whatever army you play.  If you are interested in looking into your own family heraldry, you can visit House of Names. Their search engine is pretty good, but of course individual familes crests and arms will vary depending on about a billion factors, so it is not 100%, but it's a step in the right direction.

Constructing a Necron Tomb Stalker Part 2, Painting

If you were out at Evolution this past Wednesday, you saw me bring the Tomb Stalker out to play. It's about 95% done... I still want to make one more addition. Unfortunately, the TS didn't really get into the battle, (Stoopid phase out), but I will post that battle report soon.

I put more into painting the base then I did the TS. For the Tomb Stalker, I stuck to my Necron Army paint scheme. I start with a black primer, then drybush Boltgun Metal on top. After that, a drybrush of Mithril Silver is added. I picked up some metallic colored paints from my local Michael's store, and I use those pretty often, especially with the Necrons. I use the metallic turquoise to paint the Necron sigil, with a highlight of the sigil itself in shining gold. I then went over the eyes with metallic red. That pretty much sums up how I do it, however, the best trick is the sealer. I use a heavy coat of Armory Matte Sealer. That really dulls the shine of the metal, and gives it a dead, souless, look.

Sorry I don't have pictures of it up yet, but I felt that the basing was more important, and you'll see it in the finished picture shots.

 For the base, I used the standard 50/50 mix of Elmer's glue and water to secure the talus rocks to the base. The Rhino shell I painted with a 50/50 mix of shadow grey and space wolf grey, so that it would have space wolf colors. I then used a heavy wash of black and brown inks to dirty it up.

 Next, I painted the whole base with a dark brown (P3's Umbral Umber). To simulate the blast marks, I used some "grimy black" weathering powder. This stuff is absolutely amazing, and very easy to work with. Look for a product review in the near future.

To finish off the base, I drybrushed a brownish/grey color (P3's Bastion Grey) over the rocks to make them pop. Next, I sealed the base with the matte sealer.

Finally, I glued the Tomb Stalker to the top.




I'll post more pictures in Part 3 of the series, flocking the base, and the finishing touches.

Until then!

Recent Paintings

Despite being such a busy holiday time,  have managed to finish 3 rather large and focal pieces of my Bretonnian Army; King Louen, The Green Knight, and a Damsel of the Lady.

Damsel

 The Damsel turned out really well. It's very hard to see in the picture, but the jewelry and scroll have exquisite detail.

I'm much more excited about the Green Knight. Not only did I layer him with 3 shades of green and gold highlights, I used a trick I picked up from painting Battle 'Mechs. I used a drybrush of a color called "Pearl" to give the whole model a shiny and metallic look. Then, instead of using matte sealer, I opted for brush on 'Ard Coat gloss. The whole model just shines, and looks very ethereal.

 His mount just shines too. I included this pic because of how his tail and legs absolutely glow. Now the model looks as intimidating as the character actually is.

 King Louen was a straight up paint. No special tricks or combos here, just a really great model. Beaquis' wings could have turned out a little better, but they still look great.

The heraldry turned out great. I also used a metallic black on the Hippogryph's claws and beak to give them a killing sheen. I guess I would be prouder of King Louen if I thought the model was as good as the Mod I did for Lord Kilmister.








I am still working on my other Bretonnian Lord mod, it took a back seat over the last couple of weeks. I find white such a pain to work with, he just got sidelined. I got the white worked out now, so he is the very next piece I am going to work on. I also started working on another piece of custom terrain, I'll post pictures as it is finished. I also have ~35 Bretonnian Men-at-Arms and Archers in  mid paint.

Plus, I am also getting ready to run a D&D 3.5 campaign, so my gaming future looks rather busy! I couldn't think of a better way to spend these cold months!



Next: That store review I never got to and D&D tools!