Hunters Grim: Part II (Muggs and Krump WiPs)

I wasn't able to get as much done on The Hunters Grim this weekend as I was hoping. You see the weather here in the Northeast was lovely this weekend so I spent a fair amount of time outside doing yard work and playing with the boys. I hate yard work more than cleaning PP plastic kits but I had no excuse not too :)

As I said previously I am leaving Grim until the end so I can really focus on getting his skin the way I want. I would normally jump right into the 'lock but Muggs and Krump are so characterful that I am really enjoying painting these little fellows. Here is where they currently stand:

 

Krump in his current state. I basecoated all the metal sections with VMA steel paint. I then painted the yellow metal sections using VMC brass paint. The yellow metal section on the axe was painted with VMC bronze. I then painted the wraps on his feet and left arm using P3 rucksack tan. I love using rucksack tan as my base color for light colored leathers. This will receive a  wash with GW sepia wash and s quick highlight and be done. I started to basecoat the skin with my trollblood skin tone but didn't put enough on the palette and still need to do his left leg, fingers on his right hand, and belly. It is a shame that Krump is the "unimportant pyg" as he has so much character and I think he is my favorite of the three Hunters.

 

Mugg received similar treatment as his boy Krump above. His shoulder pad was painted with bronze instead of brass (my change this still). He received similar treatment with rucksack tan but I didn't paint the wrapping on his feet with it since his paints will be the light leather. These will either be a dark leather or more of a whitish cloth. You may notice the glove in the second photo has some subtle highlighting. I was playing around with something to try and have his gloves be black similar to Krump's coat but not going through the same process. Looking at the photos I realize I didn't paint the axe blade connection point yellow metal as I intent so will have to do that at a later point.

I don't think I will get back to these guys tonight but if I do I will be finishing up some basecoating and then laying down some of my shade washes. My work week starts tomorrow night so I hope to get more done on them before progress grinds to a halt for the week....we shall see. Hope y'all had a great weekend and catch ya soon.

Hunters Grim: Painting Begins

I started work on Grim and the boys Tuesday evening. The first hurdle to get over is always cleaning and assembly (my least favorite). I powered through this grind and finished this Thursday am while the boys were at preschool. All in all the minis were cast pretty well. There were some legit mold lines on Krump. There was also some flash and mold lines on Grim. Muggs was the cleanest of the unit right out of the blister.

I have decided to leave the knick knacks off for the time being and I have also elected to leave Grim's head and arms off for the initial painting. 

I picked up a new larger needle set up for my Iwata airbrush to use primarily for priming and basecoating. I primed the unit with Vallejo Surface Primer black.

 

Next I basecoated the trench coats on Grim and Muggs with my new airbrush. I only used the new one to get a feel for the trigger and such otherwise I would have used the Iwata I think. I used P3 bootstrap leather for this. I didn't paint Krump's coat at this time as I wanted to try and have his coat be like a black leather.

Here is Krump after his coat was worked on. I got in a bit of a groove and forgot to take photos of each step. I painted a layer of VMA black to have a nice smooth basecoat. The next step was highlight with VMA German grey followed by VMA medium sea grey. I then did some line highlights with the VMA med sea grey to pop a few edges and then I washed the entire coat with an old ink wash I made from a brushthralls tutorial. I probably could have just used GW Badab black wash but went with the old ink wash instead. I have to say I am pretty happy with the coat right now.

 

Next I basecoated Grim's skin with P3 trollblood highlight. I have a few new things I want to try out for my albino skin but I am keeping trollblood highlight as the base color. Hopefully the new changes will work out well.

 

I did a little clean up work on all three members of the unit. I cleaned up the over spray on Grim and Muggs' coats, basecoated Krumps backpack and trap with P3 bloodtracker brown, and laid down a layer of black on the metal sections.

This is where my progress has halted for the time being. I am heading to the FLGS later today to try out the Hunters Grim for the first time and I don't want any wet paint. Next up will be to basecoat the skin on Muggs and Krump as well as lay down my shading wash on all the bootstrap and bloodtracker sections. I hope to get some quality paint time this weekend so if all goes really well I may be able to the pugs done by Sunday night. I am going to take my time with Grim himself as I really want to see if I can nail that albino skin tone.

New Toy!

The other day I mentioned that I ordered myself a new airbrush well today it showed up. I was anxiously awating the UPS guy all day today (of course he was running late) cause he was bringing my new toy. Here is what I picked up:

I also picked up a few other random items I want to experiment with but that is for down time (ha).

We Got Mail WeGot Mail...YAY!

My work week has finally come to and an end and by this point of the day I should be sound asleep and dreaming of nothing but boxcars and passed tough rolls, however, my dumbass scheduled a follow up sleep study tonight at 9:45pm so I am stumbling around like (more of) an idiot. The good part of this is that I was up when the mail guy came and delivered a package from good ole Mr Larsen from chain attack land (discountgamesinc.com). Let us look together shall we:

 The lot all as one

 

 Holy pieces parts Batman! I count 22 for three guys

 

The man, the myth, the legend. Did you hear I have mortality? 

 

" I make this bowler look good! and what do you mean I am the expendable pyg?"

 

 

 Grim1 "Sick hat bro I want one" Grim2 "trade you for those working goggles mine are broken"

I intended to paint up both Grims at the same time but I may have to wait and get Grim2's head as a bit once available. This could look too good to pass up.

 

Last but not least a lil ole base to make sure I got free shipping. This is most likely going to be used for my PoM as an alt 'jack base but I may base the fat man of Skorne on it....we will see.

 

 

So there you have it my little package of joy from Idaho. In my current state of exhaustion there is a high probability of me either gluing my fingers together or cutting myself but I think I am off to start cleaning/ assembling the Hunters Grim. I need to have these bad boys ready for the maiden voyage and it looks like Friday may be the day! Happy hunting all.

Spending Spree/All About the Airbrush

After the disappointment of not being able to get Grim2 the other day I hit up my favorite online retailer discountgamesinc.com and made a purchase. I ordered Grim2 and a second Grim1 to paint at the same time. I picked up a second Grim1 because my Grim1 was one of the first minis in trollbloods I painted and I was curious to see the difference. I also picked up a pot of P3 paint, 2 brushes (needed synthetic brushes for oil washes and for Vallejo Liquid Gold paint), and one resin base. You may be saying not much of a spree there Nog....I will get to the rest of it in a second.

I finally got back down to the cave and splashed a little paint around. I still have little interest in traditional brush painting (not sure why) but I have been really into the airbrush. I have been watching a bunch of painting videos on the topic and just want to work with the airbrush. The first piece I have here is an old metal feral warpwolf. I know a lot of people are saying this mini is "dead" with the riphorn coming out but seeing as I have it I said might as well paint it up.  

 

At this point he is nearly all airbrushed. I did the skin with the airbrush using three colors. I basecoated with VMA sandy brown, then shaded with VMA burnt umber, and highlighted with VMA skintone. I was happy with the results for the most part but I did have some mess up. I had some airflow control issues had had some messy spray sections. One of them is on the right biceps but luckily this one is hard to see. The other is on the left triceps but not as bad as the right biceps. I then basecoated the fur with the airbrush using P3 battlefield brown. I then had to break out the real brushes and I drybrushed the fur sections using P3 bootstrap leather, beast hide, jack bone, and a little Menoth white base. I blacked out the armor plates in preperation for the metal basecoats but I stopped there. I also started basecoating a couple other minis with a two tone basecoat via the airbrush but those with wait until I get a little further along.

This love of the airbrush leads to my second and larger purchase of my spending spree. I have been looking into a second airbrush for a few months now and I finally decided to pull the trigger and buy one. I picked a Harder & Steenbeck Evolution Silverline 2 in 1. I have read good things about this brush and after talking with someone via emails my mind was set. I was considering the Badger Krome but elected to go with the H&B Evo. I also picked up a few other supplies while I was shopping online so that is that.

I am really looking forward to getting my new toys next week and hopefully my new trolls will get me back into the full swing of painting. I plan to play some games next week (most likely Friday) and I plan to test out Grim2 for the first time. I have yet again come up with another list one that I can play without having to finish ant assembly, other than Grim and the boys, prior to game day:

Grim2 (-4pts)

*Mountain King (20pts) 

*Rok (11pts)

*Runebearer (2pts)

Fennblades: full (8pts)

*UA (2pts)

Pyg Burrowers: full (6pts)

Fell Caller (3pts)

SSC (2pts)

I kinda miss not having the bone grinders in there but I really like the damage potential on nearly all the models in the list. I think mortality can go a long way to helping the mountain king reach his potential but that will remain to be seen. I am fairly comfortable in the statement that the dygs will be a terror with the potential to benefit from mortality, a fell call, and charge of the trolls. If you pull off the perfect storm these little buggers can get to mat 10, P+S 12, and P+S 18....not to shabby :)

OK thats is that for now. Have a great weekend all and hopefully next week will see a flurry of activity in the cave and a bunch of updates.

Buzz Kill

After dropping the boys off at pre-school this am I headed down to the FLGS to get my Hunters Grim....didn't have it :( While I was waiting for the guy at the store to see if they even got one I called the other FLGS and they didn't have one in either...uuugggghhhh! So frustrating. I even skipped going to bed so I could get my new hotness. Well I guess that is just how things have been going lately for me. I have been in a kinda funk lately and this isn't helping. I did get a couple minis assembled and primed the other day but more on them at a later time.

I was starting to put my unit of scattergunners together the other day and was reminded how much I hate assembly so I decided to alter my Grim2 list for the time being to minis I have and can get table ready soon. Here is what I am looking at now:

Hunters Grim (*4pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Blitzer (9pts)
* Rok (11pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Sons of Bragg (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Trollkin Scattergunner Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter (2pts)

The fenns took the place of the warders seeing as I have no idea when we will see them (could be a long time), I dropped the scattergunners to a min unit (should still have plenty of infantry clearing), and added on of my all time favorite minion solos Mr. Ashley (far strike target on feat turn so can still shoot crazy far). Well quick post but I haven't posted in a bit (part of the funk) and I wanted to vent a little. Hopefully y'all were able to get the new shinnies you wanted.

Quiet Cave

So things have been very quiet on the hobby front as of late. I started working on Rasheth at the beginning of the month and haven't gotten anything else done on him. I have been picking up extra hours at my part time job and here at my main job and that has just been sapping my energy. When I get home I just want to veg out on the couch, play with the boys, swatch some baseball, or just sleep. The good news is that the extra hours equal extra hobby money. I know I will be picking up the Hunter's Grim in a week and a half. I am also eyeing a second airbrush. I am looking at picking up a Badger Krome to go along with the Iwata brush I am currently using.

Despite not actively doing anything hobby related I have had my mind on it a fair amount. I picked up a second Skorne 'lock the other day and have some big plans for him. I want to try out a few new things that if I can pull them off should look really sweet but also have a high chance of being destined for the stripping solution. I will go on this more once I start attempting it. I have also been really working on list building ideas for when I get to try out the Hunters Grim. The more I play with the list the more I realize you really can put anything in faction with him and see positive effects. I think I have settled on my first list and it is as follows:

Gunters Grim (-4pts)
*Rok (11pts)
*Blitzer (9pts)
*Impaler (5pts)
*Runebearer (2pts)
Trollkin Warders: full (8pts)
*Sorcerer (1pt)
Scattergunners: full (8pts)
*UA (2pts)
Sons of Bragg (6pts)
Bone Grinders: min (2pts)

I don't typically proxy minis but I will obviously have to when I play this list as we have no idea when the warders or sorcerer will be coming out (fingers crossed Gencon the latest). When looking at beasts I went with Rok for a melee beatstick that has a dmg buff built in if needed and late game closing potential, the blitzer for the volume of attacks and his animus, and the impaler for non-feat turn snipe on Grim (I hear range 17 boostable guns at mat 8+ are pretty good). When I was picking troops I had a hard time and was going back and forth on a bunch of units but settle on the three you see. I really think the warders are going to be awesome on the table and weapon master attacks against mortality targets is really nice, the scattergunners are there to spray units into the ground, and I love the SoB normally but getting to attack a mortality target with fervor up sounds like a good time to me. The last two minis were filling points but also had a purpose. The grinders give me 2" extra on mortality and the sorcerer can try and keep those pesky upkeeps off the warders. I have also been working on some Skorne ideas but those will wait for a later date.

I am picking up an extra 20 hours of work next week but I still hope to get some painting done so hopefully some wip/finished minis in the next few days.