Cave Challenge: Week Four Update/Stretch Run

Yesterday was the end of week four on the cave challenge. I don't really have much to show so I will forgo my section and skip to the guys that do you have some photos. I have found my motivation severely lacking over the last few days and it looks highly doubtful I will will finish my list. OK on to the photos.

Oxyguy has been having to change his list up due to supply issues. He was unable to get a shifting stones UA so he painted up a Lanyssa.

Evicerae hit his groove again and banged out some more angry elves. The photos are a little blurry but I think there is something there in the background.....not sure I can tell what it is can you ;) He finished up two units of stormfall archers and a unit of battle mages. He has warcasters and solos left.

 group shot of all minis to this paint....what is that back there?

 

DieselDM had a very productive week four and banged out all the greylord minis for his 5th Border Legion Khador and a Kodiak. Despite being worried he wouldn't have a chance of completing the challenge all that is left on his painting table is a Spriggan.

Last but not week for this weeks show and tell is Z1G1 checking in with a full unit of iron fang pikemen. I think all he has left is a full unit of seadogs but things have changed up a bit for Z1G1 so I am not sure painting is high on his list of things to do (more on this at a later time). Here are the IFP:

Cave Challenge Progress/ I'll Drink to That!

I got a little cave time over the last two days and was able to get some work done. I am by no means out of the woods but a little better off than I was. I have, for all intent and purposes, finished the sunburst crew. I have also done some work on the choir, attendant priest, and a little on the steelheads. The last thing I did before I packed it in tonight (should still be working but to tired) was block in the white metals on the 'jacks.

 

The foot print of the sunburst is so large it will not fit on one of my Dragonforge bases so I had to build one to try and match as closely as possible. The dirt has all been washed with brown ink and is drying. in the am it will get drybrushed and the sunburst and gunner will be glued on. I had a little bit of a SNAFU with these guys as the matte varnish came out a bit hazy. I will do what I can with this latter. I have to press on for the time being.

I need to do a touch more metal base work on these three fellows then they will be ready for the metal wash. I hope to have that done in the am tomorrow so I allow the wash time to dry prior to hitting the plates with black tomorrow evening.

Late order of business prior to bed is these bad boys. I ordered both of the con exclusive sculpts from PP to go along with my kilt lifter from a few years back. I need to get the three of them painted up and maybe to a bar scene with them all. OK time for bed. Need a big push tomorrow to have a shot. Check back tomorrow evening to hopefully see a bunch of done photos.

Week Three Update... Update

On Tuesday I did the week three update and forgot to put in a few finished photos my Oxyguy. Here they are. Les had himself a pretty darn successful week and after talking with some of the guys it appears he has pulled ahead on the point count.

 The cursed bloodtrackrs finally finished. Don't drop them again Les!

I have been sputtering along again. I had a nice little push on Monday and Tuesday but have be far less productive since. I have to get in a groove this weekend if I want to have a shot.

Cave Challenge: Week Three Update

Three weeks down and here we are. I don't think many of us are feeling overly positive about getting done on time currently (with the exception of one or two guys). I didn't get all that much done during the week but was up at 0430 today and was able to have a productive morning prior to posting this. I have been working on the sunburst crew, attendant priest, and steel heads.

I drybrushed the bases, finished up the metals, painted the grey robe sections, and (not photoed) washed the robes and some of the chainmail with Badab black wash.

I base coated all the metal sections on the sunburst launcher and have subsequently washed it with my metal wash. My plan is to stay up late tonight and get the crew finished and add 3pts to the finished pile.

Like the sunburst crew the priest had his base drybrushed, metals finished up, grey robe basecoated, and robes washed with Badab balck. When I am workin on the crew later I hope to get the highlights done on his robe and maybe the red sections basecoated.

Here is a blurry photo of the steelheads. I did a little extra metal work this am on them and they were ready for wash. One of the metals didn't take the wash too well so I am trying an alternative approach. The remaining nine got a quick coat of matte varnish via the airbrush to see if the extra tooth from the matte will make the wash sit better on the lighter metal sections (fingers crossed) I hope to give that wash a go in the next hour or so.

Then we have an update from Oxyguy. I don't think he got a lot painted this week but he had to call an audible on his list. Due to unforeseen issues the blackclads, Lord of the Feast, and Lanyssa are getting shelved and he is swapping in Snapjaw and Wrongeye and the stone UA.

Next update is from DieselDM who continues to bang through his 5th Border Legion Khador army. This week he did a unit of doomreavers to add to the homicidal maniac feel of his eButcher force. Here is a photo of the finished unit. The swords came out really nice imo.

As always swing by Dieseldm's blog to follow the narrative and see more photos. All he has left are the greylords + escort and two 'jacks....get on it my man :)

I don't have updates from Evicerae, Scudo, or Z1G1 but Scudo and Z1G1 are recovering from GenCon and I am sure Evicerae got his stuff close to finished as he was on a major role in previous weeks. He has set a goal of two 50pt list by December.

That is that for the weekly update. Keep at it guys and best of luck.

Cave Challenge Update/ Carrot + Stick

My week off starts today so I should be excited and primed to get a bunch done but things have turned on me. Looks like we will be spending most of the day cleaning house so that will kill much of today and since my softball team has a bye tomorrow night it looks like we will be heading back to my parents for a few days. While I love spending time with my folks and the boys have a great time too I don't get any painting time. I am really setting myself up for some all nighters here in the not too distant future.

Yesterday when I got home from work my little guy was up and wanted to hang out with me so I didn't get much time to work on my army again. I did get a little time before I went to sleep to do a little more yellow metal on the steelheads and I also did the yellow metals on the sunburst crew. This is were I stood when I sent to bed yesterday.

This am when I got home I did more of the yellow metal on the steelheads and the spear tips on the sunburst crew. I also did the white metal accents on the attendant priest. After those were done I washed the attendant priest, and sunburst crew with my armor wash and set them aside to dry. A few days ago I mentioned my issue with mold lines on the choir. It turns out my OCD got the best of me and I tried to clean them up:

I went back and put brush on primer over the bare sections and will have to see if it covers OK. If it doesn't cover the way I'd like these gentlemen will have a date with some stripper (not as fun as it sounds) and get pushed to the end of the line.

OK that is where we currently stand. I hope to get back to cave later tonight after cleaning up to start putting the grey on the steelhead's inner cloth, sunburst crew's robes, and attendant priests robes. I need to get all three 'jacks done by the end of the week or I have no shot of completing this challenge.

In an effort spur myself on and give myself some extra incentive (if I needed it) I decided that if I get this challenge finished I am going to buy myself a Vessel of Judgement (it is so sexy and really want it for pSevy) but if I do not get it done I cannot buy a single mini until I fully paint my ENTIRE Menoth collection which is now in the range of 150pts (counting 'casters as 5pts each) so that could take a long time. This might be a case of cutting of the nose to spite the face but hopefully it doesn't come up and and I am placing a discountgamesinc order for a VoJ.

Sputtering Along

I haven't been able to get a really good chunk of time in to paint so far this week but I have been able to sneak a little here and there. First I finished the little details on Reznik all he needs now is for me to finish his wrack and he is completely good to good. I also finished up vassal number two aka blondie. Like vassal one aka red I did a little freehand red stripe on the bottom of his robe. I know it isn't much of a freehand but I am happy with the added result. I also took a second to glue some army painter tufts on the bases of all complete minis. Here is a group shot of the "done minis"

I did a little on the grunts for the choir of Menoth as well. I blocked in which robes are going to be grey and which are going to be red. I am very happy with the layout but very unhappy with the piss poor job I did cleaning mold lines. I am not sure I have time to stop working on them fix the mold line issues then repaint but my obsessive nature on this matter may not allow me to just move on.....errr I don't need a set back like this.

Lastly I started on the steelheads.I had already basecoated them white metal via the airbrush so I went in and started hitting random panels with yellow metal (GMC brass) as seen on the studio models. I am liking how they are coming together with this random/hodge podge armor.

I didn't get a chance to do all the members of the unit before I was interrupted yesterday so I hope to finish that today and slap my armor wash on the unit before I head to sleep so that once I wake up and can get back to them the wash will be fully dried.

On a different topic the guys seem to be having a good time out at GenCon. Scudo picked up a Woldwrath and two gatorman witch doctors. The Woldwrath is assembled and table ready. They were also able to ninja two Hyperion models for local players before PP sold out so Evicerae and Ty have some sweet shinnies to look forward to.

Z1G1 had good run in hardcore with his MoW brick of doom list. This list is a variant of his Templecon hardcore list with the addition of a Conquest. The list consists of the following minis:

Supreme Kommandant Irusk (*5pts)
* Conquest (19pts)
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
* Battle Mechanik Officer (2pts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
Man-o-war Demolition Corps (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)

He runs them literally in the shape of a brick and slowly plods towards you chewing up anything that is within 9" of the front row. The combination of eIrusk's martial discipline, total obedience, and battle lust make this army sign for Zack. Due to the slow nature of the list and how it sets up and moves hardcore is one of the only formats where he can comfortably run the list know that it is a center scenario and all the action with take place is one spot. If he had to spread out it would suffer some. He went 4-1 on the day with his only loss to Phatasian playing Lord Tyrant Watt's pMorghoul Skorne army (see http://museonminis.com/gencon-hardcore-army-swap-2012/ for what I am talking about). Phatasian ended up finishing 4th in hardcore so once again good showing Z1G1.

That's about the extent of my news from GenCon from the few texts I received. Man I wish I was there too. If I can get through these steelheads by the end of the weekend and can spend next week on the three heavy 'jack I might just pull of this 35pt challenge.....not looking great right now.

Cave Challenge: Week Two Wrap-up

We are 14 days into the Cave challenge and the trend of superstars, slackers, and tweeners continues. Sadly I fall into the slacker category. I have finally finished the wracks but they are the only minis that I can say are 100% finished. I posted a photo of them the other day. I have Reznik at ~95% done only needing to put the metal on all those little nubs and attach his spare wrack. I did get the two vassals closer to finish status as well but, after looking at the art in forces PoM, decided to try a few new things on these guys. I am painting a red stripe on the bottom of the robe to give it a little more pop and also red sleeves on blondie.

I also took a little time to start painting the choir not too much to show but a little paint. I also sprayed the metal basecoat on the steelheads. I need to pick out a panel or two on each mini to paint yellow metal then they will be ready for their wash. I am hoping this unit will help me pick up my pace a little. The real make or break is going to be the three 'jacks.

Oxyguy had a hit or miss week and showed the is an uber klutz. We will start with the hit part of his week. Oxyguy was able to get Grayle and his feral warp wolf painted so we are looking at a solid 14pts (counting the 'lock as 5pts) and now for the misses. Oxy has been wanting to work on his bloodtrackers but....after he sent me the initial shot he tripped and dropped them needing to reassemble them. During the week he rushed home on his lunch break to prime then and when we was walking in from outside tripped and dropped them needing ot reassemble them. So he was tacking the freshly re-re-assembled and prime bloodtrackers to his basement to paint and guess what happened? DING DING DING he tripped and slammed them into a wall. Look on the bright side Oxy 3rd time is the charm.

DieselDM finished up Beast-09 to go along with his eButcher 5th Border Legion scheme. The narrative continue over on his blog and is really fun addition to the painted photos. He is concerned he is falling behind but I have confidence he can get it done.

PG_Evicerae came off a monster week last week in which he painted 17pts and followed that up with an additional 5pts this week. I don't have the shots of his current work while I am writing this but I know he was painting 'cause all day Saturday when I was playing a practice Hardcore game with PG_Z1G1 Evicerae kept calling out letting me know he was painting at the FLGS and not "wasting time" playing games. Now that is true spite showing up at the store just to paint and rub it in :) Well played Sir.

I posted a picture of PG_Z1G1's work the other day but seeing as he fully painted a Conquest in less than a day I will re-post it here. Conquest is part of his Hardcore list for GenCon which is actually a twist on the list played at Templcon 2012 Hardcore but I won't spoil his list until after GenCon.

The last painter is Mr Scudo I haven't heard from Dave since I saw him at the store Saturday. He has done solid work on a full using of tharn with UAs and started his fulcrum. Scudo is also heading out to GenCon so I don't expect to have update photos from him until next week.

So there you have it week two in the books. I am starting to sound like a broken record but damn I need to pick up the pace. Safe travels to GenCon gentleman and bring back some sweet swag.

Cave Challenge: Weekend Update/Put to Shame

The weekend has come and gone and I was able to get some work done on my Menoth army. I finished up the three wracks and have Reznik 95% done. I also did a little other work on bases and random minis in the army but didn't take any photos 'cause it was enough to show really. Here are the three wracks and the man who loves to make them Reznik:

I need to freehand the text on his scroll/ribbons, paint his eyes, and put metal on all the little black circles along his loin cloth. I am also thinking about painting the crest on his helmet red to add a little more diversity to the head. I also need to paint up the wrack for his back and attach it. I forgot to clean it when I assembled his so it had nasty mold lines still.

Here are the wracks. I tried to paint all three victims with different skin tones so that they were all a touch different. I probably wasted too much time worrying about it but I am happy with how they came out. I am thinking about doing a little dried blood/bruising around the shackles but that will be at the very end if I do it.

As I was getting ready to head down to the cave I decided to look at my email and saw I had one from Z1G1 with some attachments. OK can't hurt to look at some WIPs right? Wrong. This is what he accomplished in the last 24 hours. Yes conquest was not even started yesterday.

Great job brotha and I no longer feel good about what I got done. I need to get some sleep but will have to get right to it in the am. Once again I feel really behind.

Progress....Finally

I was having a hard time sleeping Friday night and ended up getting up around 0430. Instead of tossing and turning and trying to get back to sleep I headed down to the cave. I put an episode of Mohr stories on the iPod and got to work. I then listen to the lasted MoM:Road to War podcast. After about two hours of working assembly line style I felt like I hadn't really accomplished anything and was feeling a bit discouraged.

At this time I decided I needed to focus on a single mini and crank it out. That mini was Reznik. Over the remainder of the day I snuck down to the cave to grab 30 min here and 45 min there. In doing this I was able to get a lot done on Reznik and it helped me feel more productive and like I had accomplished some thing.

During the day I painted all the white metals and bronze sections, washed the metals with my armor wash, washed the yellow metals with GW Gryphonne sepia and whites with GW Badab black, basecoated the grey sections, washed the grey with more Badab black, blackened the armor sections, basecoated the scroll, and hit him with a coat of matte varnish. OK now he is starting to look like something!

Here are a few shots of the other minis I was assembly lining earlier in the morning.

Here are two of the three wracks. I am trying to have the skin tones on all the "guests" slightly different. The darkest one is done the middle tone one needs one more highlight and the lightest one (not pictured here) is only basecoated. I also did the leather wrap around the legs on all three. I should be able to finish these soon. I need to finish the skin, paint the crows, and drybrush the dirt.

While I had the P3 Rucksack tan on the palette I basecoated the paints on one vassal and wraps on the other. I also base coated the skin while I was doing the wracks. The skin was also used on three of the choir boys which can be seen in the group photo above.

I was pretty happy with yesterday as a painting day. If I get a solid session in I should be able to finish Reznik but I don't see it happening today. I plan on heading down to the FLGS to grab a game or two. Zack wants to try out an alternative hardcore list for GenCon and my pMaddy brick wants to say hi. I also have a buddy looking to get his first 25pt game in with his Cryx so I think I will be bringing him down to the store too. I will update progress once I get some more done. Hopefully a finished Reznik and three wracks are here by the end of tomorrow.