Off to Templecon.....Without Long Riders

Well the time has come to pack up the car and head to Templecon 2013. I was not able to get the long riders finished for my hardcore list so I will have to go to a back up plan there. If I stayed up really late last night I could have finished the riders but I realized the bomber wasn't finished to hardcore standards yet so threw in the towel. I was able to get the war wagon finished however and took a few quick pics before putting him in the bag.

 

I was able to get Horthol and the wagon finished up so not a complete loss I suppose. I really liked that hardcore list too :( oh well my painting OCD got the best of me again.

I was also able to put the finishing details on Grogspar so I will post photos of him after Templecon and he makes his way back up to the great white north and Mr Bell. Hope to have a bunch of Templecon photos and post when I get back (of I don't forget to take photos that is. Safe travels all of you heading to Templecon and those that are not have a great weekend.

Templecon Painting Rush

Quick list post before I get back to the painting table. I have been painting like crazy over the last few days trying to get ready for Templecon. I still have a bunch I want to try and get done but time is running out very quickly.

 I know looks kinda sketchy right? No worries just mixing up some of my trollblood basecoat

 OK I see what your are doing.

The final result. No mess, little waste, little effort just the way I like it. Just have to squirt it into the empty bottle.

Here are the minis I have been working on. I have made some significant progress and hope to have final pics soon. I have run into a SNAFU however as it seems I am all out of the ink I use to finish my bases. Seeing as no one sells it locally I am going to have to scramble. Wish me luck and updates soon.....I hope

Chugging Along

Despite being a work week the looming Templecon painting deadline spurred me to be semi- productive last week. I tried to do 30-45min of painting every day and was pretty close to pulling that off. While never seeing any major progress after a session  added up. I got the fennblades nearly to "basic painting" requirements earlier last week week and focused on my long riders after that. The long riders need to meet "hardcore requirements" so are more important. The list I am hoping to play will require the unit to be table ready.

 

I have also did some assembly work in hopes I will finish my other projects and be able to slap a little paint on these guys before heading to Templecon as well. I assembled my third unit of runeshapers, started my forth unit of runeshapers, and assembled my second gatorman witch doctor. I still need to fill some gaps on both the runeshapers and doctor. The runeshapers were a really rough cast and I had a ton of flash and some really bad mold lines....I hate cleaning and assembling minis. I am not too worried about getting paint on the witch doctor as I have no plans for him to be in my hardcore or blood, sweat, tiers lists. I would like to get at least the runeshaper units ready for blood, sweat, and tiers as I would like to play Doomshaper's runes of war theme as one of my lists. I have been kicking around three different lists one requires two units of runeshaper, one requires three units, and the last (not sure I like it) requires four units. I still need to pick a second warlock for this event to compliment pDoomie but nothing has grabbed me yet.

I hope to grind out the long riders in the next day or so but we will see what happens. When I finish the long riders my focus will be to finish the war wagon, Horthol and the mountain king. I have no plans to put the king in any competitive play lists (maybe one) but I expect to play him a bunch in pick up games around the iron arena.

In the Hall of the Mountain King Part 5

Here we are again back to work on the mountain king. Still doing all those detail section which are soooooo time consuming.

After painting up the teeth and nails I was able to glue the head and loincloth sections onto the big guy. He is start too look whole at this point.

Next up.......WHELPS! I then proceeded to highlight the whelps that are on the kings body or need to be attached. This process followed my normal troll progression. I then hit up all the crests and chin/arm nubs with old school GW warlock purple. I need to do their teeth/nails and eyes and they will be done.

As you can see from the time stamp I started this post a few weeks back. Well here he stands currently as I haven't touched him since. Next post will be the finished mountain king. I hope to get back to him before Templecon but as you can see from the previous post I have a bunch on my plate right now. I have gotten some work done on the other minis in my painting log so hope to have some photos on those later in the week. Time for a nap.

16 Days and a Ton to Do!

If I counted my days right we hit the road of Templecon 2013 in 16 days. Looks like our car will be transporting 5 people this year but I won't be driving which is nice. I have been going back and forth on weather or not I am going to go all in tourneys or just hit up a couple and play games with out of town friends and pick up games in the Iron Arena. I also want to get a demo game of SDE in at some point.

I am preparing as if I am playing in Hardcore and Blood, Sweat, and Tiers so I have to paint accordingly. Here is a list of the minis I want to have painted and their current status:

-Full Fennblades: In the last 2 days I have painted the blue skin and gold metal sections. I need to clean up some of the white metal sections and they are ready for a wash. These guys are slatted for BS&T if at all. Once they are washed they nearly meet basic requirements.

-Full Long Riders: I started these fellows sometime ago and they have sat on my shelf in this state for a while. I need to really get cracking on these guys.

-Horthol: Similar to the long riders

-eMadrak: I started this guys a loooong time ago. He has been in this nearly done state for well over a year. I need to finish up his skin, clean up the tartan (tried to paint the pattern on him) and finish his base then he will be hardcore ready (maybe). I don't have a photo on file and he his packed away so you will have to trust me.

-War Wagon: I did get a pretty good start on this bad boy before he got shelved. I took a second before heading to work last night to paint the wood flooring. After a was on the wood and a few sections of metal the main wagon section will be done.

-Grogspar: still need to put the finishing touches on Bell's Grogspar. Photos after Templecon's completion.

I have a few others things I want to try and get done as well such as paint pDoomshaper and assemble and paint (to basic requirements) a 3rd and maybe 4th unit of runeshapers......

Like I said a TON to do. Luckily I have the two weeks leading up to Templecon off from work. Hopefully some updates coming fast and furious over the next 16 days. See y'all at Templecon....

Blood, Sweat, and Tiers Test Game

I headed out to the FLGS yesterday to try and get a few test games in with my pDoomshaper T4 Runes of War theme force. I have never played the list yet but I have been looking to play it for over two years and have been playing with lists over that time. I really feel the list is optimal at 50pt as you can get all the desired pieces without mush struggle. I have been having a little bit of a hard time at 35pts as I have to drop something I want. The variation comes when filling the last 6pts of minis. The dilemma for me is an axer for rush (Mulg delivery system) or two more units of runeshapers. Yesterday I took option one and the list looked like this:

Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)
With this my deployment is 2" extended, I start with one wall in play and the KSB start with 3 fury.

I was only able to get one game in as people filed in a little later than normal. I ended up playing Scudo and low and behold he too was playing a theme force. He has been playing a lot a minions lately and brought an Arkadius force:

Dr. Arkadius (*6pts)
* Gun Boar (5pts)
* Gun Boar (5pts)
* War Hog (7pts)
* War Hog (7pts)
* War Hog (7pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Farrow Brigands (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)

Scudo was having some back issues so the game took a little longer than usual but it was a fun game. Looking at the models one may feel I was a little behind the ball seeing as he was running three heavies to my two but really this was a pretty good match up for eDoomie across the board. I was able to purify his debuffs, have a partial counter to his feat via the scroll picking a frenzy target, and my feat has some serious damage potential if he goes for a big output turn. He tried to take out my heavies on his feat turn but I was able to get one of the war hogs out of the way using the scroll and he could only get one hog onto my EBDT sitting at arm 22 so he lived through it and from there on out he was a sitting duck really. Next turn I destroyed two hogs and a gun boar and just had to whittle away at him there after. Arkadius wants to be good but isn't there yet. Once he gets his node may be a different story (if he gets his node).

I was pretty happy with the list but I am playing with options. I am leaning towards dropping the axer and adding the two units of runeshapers. The runeshapers at 3pts are really a pretty amazing unit. I really have a hard time getting rid of rush however. My other thought (probably a bad one) is to drop Mulg (say it ain't so) for a mauler and one unit of 'shapers. I don't know what way to go. I will be playing some version of this in BS&T if I can get in but need to work on list two. I am thinking either Borka family reunion in some incantation or eMaddy at the T1 level. Time is ticking need to make some choices and get painting.

Oh Boy Oh Boy......Can't Wait!

When DieselDM went to Lock n Load this summer he took some pictures of the hunters Grim being sculpted and those green can be seen here. Move forward to today and PP has released the studio shots of the Hunters and if you haven't seen them here they are again:

 

When leaders like Madrak Ironhide and Grissel Bloodsong require the completion of missions in the most remote and inhospitable reaches, it is to Grim Angus they invariably turn. He and his band comprise the first line of defense for the United Kriels. In all his tasks Grim is assisted by a pair of pygs, Muggs and Krump, that have become the core of his team. In short order the pair learned to grasp Grim’s complex system of gestured signals and to fight smoothly alongside him even in silence, all three of them coordinating precise ambushes while tracking down their enemies. Grim has taken the time to teach Muggs how to use his snare gun and has come to entrust the pyg with it, while Krump has proven quite capable of devising and implementing cunning snares even in the midst of battle.

I have was really excited about the Hunters when I first saw the artwork and greens and those in our gaming group have thrown around rampant speculation on abilities since. I am really excited now that I have seen the finished minis and cannot wait to get them on the painting table. I am a little worried about how the warlock unit thing will work and really hope these guys aren't a swing and a miss rules wise like our king was....only time will tell but they are sexy.

Quick update on the painting front....I have Grogspar ~95% finished. I did a bunch of work on him Monday finishing the shirt and skin sections and doing more work on the metals and backpack. I do not intend to post a final photo of Grogspar until after Templecon as I was Bell to see the finished mini for the first time in person not on the blog (I think he checks in here from time to time). I will post the final photos after Templecon and if he isn't thrilled with the outcome I will be more than happy to take him back for my pending pirate force. After he is finished it is on to long riders, Horthol, and a war wagon.

Burning a Hole in My Pocket

So with the holidays behind us I ended up with some spare money in the "little man" fund. I was running through ways to spend it when last week I finally caved in and placed an order with www.thewarstore.com. You may be asking yourself why there I thought you were a www.discountgamesinc.com guy? Well that is true but the two main items I wanted to buy discountgames didn't have in stock or didn't carry at all. I also looked at www.miniaturemarket.com but they too were stocked out of the PP item I was looking for.

OK enough words lets see what I picked up:

Here is the main driving force behind my purchase. This here is unit number four of runeshapers to complete my T4 pDoomie theme force. As I said I went online and checked my favorite online retailer but out of stock, I looked at MM and they too were out of stock, I went to one of my FLGS and their distributor was stocked out and couldn't special order......alas TWS has some in stock. I really want to try and save as much on these guys as possible seeing as they are not the cheapest unit and I will rarely use them outside the theme. I am hoping to have them assembled for Templecon.

Here is the next purchase which pushed me to placing my order. I have been watching a fair share of online painting videos lately and I have seen the liquid gold line popping up more and more. All the accounts I am reading say they are amazing so I had to try them. I picked up red gold, old gold, and white gold.

These were kind of a throw in purchase none of my FLGS carry VGC paint anymore so I just threw a few in the cart I may use in an up coming army.

That brings us to our last purchase. Wait? What? Sea dogs? Yup Sea dogs. I have been fighting the urge to do a Shae theme force for over a year now. Painting Grogspar for Mr Bell has not been helping that urge and when I saw this bad boy in the discount pile....well ballgame. I think this will be a slow long grind but the end result will be a Shae theme force. The other upside is I can play that pDenny list with the pirate load out I have hear plenty about online. I think the idea behind my pirate force will be only pick up the next item after the previous one has been painted. I know I have said that in the past but this time I think it should be much easier to pull off.

So there you have it my next purchases. My week off started this am and while I am tired as all hell I hope to get a little painting done tonight before I go to bed for good. This week's goal finish Grogspar/mountain king and get back to work on my long rides/Horthol, and war wagon.

A Goodbye and a Grogspar (wip)

As many in the WM/H community are aware Gday Bloke over at Lost Hemisphere announced that LH as we currently know it will be coming to an end. I read this as I was walking out of work this am and felt a little saddened but fully understand where he was coming from. Lost Hemisphere has played a large roll in my enjoyment of this game/hobby and has been appointment viewing every am just to see what is going on. I have published a few article with the guys (I think three) and while not part of the inner circle felt I always felt welcome to contribute. The LH guy has provided a lot of fun hobby reads, event coverage when I couldn't go, and (for me) guys who I would happily call friends in the real world. I'd like to say thanks to you guys and best wishes in future endeavors and look forward to seeing you at Templecon.

OK After I got home from work I headed down to the cave to get a little work in before bed. I played around a little with Grogspars hat and did my wash on the skin and metals. The metals will need additional shading prior to highlighting and the skin needs to be highlighted in my normal troll progression.

I also did some experimentation on another mini but that didn't turn out so hot so he will remain locked up in the basement.