It's On Like Templecon Y'all!

Got this in the mail today! All I need to do now is get my clothes packed, Pick up a bottle of Rowan's Creek bourbon and figure out which minis (and games: Zombicide maybe WWX posse) I'm bringing and its on y'all!

I'm not sure how much tourney play I will be doing but plan to hit the iron arena. If you want a game hit me up. I should be rocking either a blue/white or blue/black Team Spite shirt

The Gang is All Here

I know I did a poll on which army I should paint first but seeing as I was missing some of my energy beasts I skipped the Warrior Nation for now (they are next) and instead decided to start working on an outlaw posse. I felt outlaw was the way to go thematically since Mickey is doing lawmen. Nick is doing enlightened but anyone can shoot those dead freaks not reason needed ;)

So with theme in mind and my love for the characters in the WWX world I went about creating a $750 outlaw posse and this is what I came up with:

• Jesse James $200
• Frank James $135
• Apache Kid $100
• Jake 'Smiley' Williamson $75
• Cole Younger $75
• Sniper Rifle $45
• Shotgun $45
• Hired Hands wave1 x3 $30ea.

Total: $750
Influence: 9

 

The big boss man under assembly

 

 Cole Younger. I love this mini I just wish he didn't lose the bowler hat from the concept art.  

Smile

  

Light support in the form of a shotgun and sniper

An earlier version of the list used the Wrath and wave two HH these guys aren't in the first list.

  

Maybe he stole Cole's hat?

  

 

The characters of the list

 

Gotta love the airbrush for priming when its 0 degrees F out

 

Some leather basecoats sprayed

 

   Cole's coat

 

I found some of these barrels in the basement bits box. I figured they would make a nice obstacle.

 

While I was part way through the above steps a box showed up from Outlaw Minis. Here are the contents of the box.

 

 

I wish there was a foam topper. Maybe they will over one through Battlefoam at some point.

Pluck foam layer

Missing KS items!

 

Meg Maples Painting Class

Well this post is months overdue but I had some time and said lets bang this out. Back in October (I think it was October) Mr Bell aka Northblade was hosting a two day painting class up in Toronto. This class was being taught by former PP studio artist Meg Maples. When I found out about the class I checked the work schedule, cleared it with the wife, checked with local guys to see if they wanted to come, and booked arrangements. Local gamer/paint Mickey aka DieselDM was free and he took the trip with me. We got into Toronto Friday at rush hour (great timing). We got settled into the room found some grub and laid low so that we would be all ready to roll first thing in the am Saturday.

 

Saturday morning we hit the free breakfast in the hotel and headed over to the local college where the class was being held. I am nut sure exactly how it was arranged but Northblade got one of the art studios for the weekend for us to use so the space was nice. The class had between 20-25 students of different skill levels but many were very good. Due to the size of the class Meg would people up to her painting station in groups of 5-8 people to demonstrate a technique and then seen them back to do their best. The major draw for me was to learn and watch two brush blending. We were all given a Nemo1 resculpt as out test mini.

 

 

 Training session

 

Mickey working on his beloved Swans

 

Northblade fighting the urge to eat his paints :)

 

I typically prefer black primer but Meg likes white and when in Rome

Base colors. I have wanted to try out the Mirewatch scheme from an old NQ Guts and Gear article  and finally pulled the trigger and gave it a shot. 

 

 End of day one (front)

 

 End of day one (back)

 

So as day one drew to a close this was the state of my Nemo. The day was long and a tab bit frustrating. The technique, while making complete sense, was more touchy and difficult than expected. I went through bits of extreme frustration with my miniature and actually rebasecoated a few section different time to make a second and sometime third attempt. I was pretty discouraged with my mini by the end of class and was sick of looking at the old man. After everyone packed up their supplies we locked up the room and headed out to Dave & Busters for some much needed dinner and drinks.

 

Upon arriving at D&B we were told it was a two hour wait for a table so we just flooded the bar area and took every chair they had. This was a really nice time as we had time to mingle in small groups and get to know some of the people in the class a little better. I had some time to chat with Meg about painting and some future projects like Kingdom Death (man she has some crazy ideas there). Around 9pm Meg was ready for bed and Northblade took her home. Most of the class left at that time but a few of us weren't ready to all it a night so we continued to BS, have some drinks, and ruin a first date (you know who you are ;). Big shout out to Charles who was my partner in crime for the night and while everyone took off hung out and partied with me until I don't know maybe 2am? (can't remember).

 

I was pretty burnt out on painting the next morning and didn't have the same enthusiasm as day one but after grabbing some breakfast we headed over to the class room. When I left the class room after day one I was pretty discouraged with my Nemo but I guess sometime away really helped this as when I sat at my station day two I no longer hated my mini and could see some positives. Day two I did the blending on the blue sections of Nemo's cloak and a few details here and there. I wasn't able to sit and focus for long stretches as day one so I just listened to Meg's lessions and mingled most of the day.

 

 

 

While not 100% at the end of day two here is Nemo as we packed up and called it a weekend.

 

I have to say the class was very informative and I'm glad we made the trip. Meg was cool and very helpfully and the class had a lot of quality painters that were fun to be around. We had a lot of laughs and learned some new techniques so it was a very successful weekend from my point of view. Due to the nature of the weekend I didn't have as much time to catch up and BS with Northblade as I would have likes but them the breaks, eh? I will leave you with some photos of the sample minis Meg brought along with her.

WWX Assembly Begins

I have not had a ton of time to work on my WWX minis but I did start playing around with assembly and getting the hang of working with resin.

The first thing I did was get to hacking my Union line troops (hired hands) off their sprue. If you are working on your minis I highly recommend looking at Outlaws main webpage and their instructions.  http://www.wildwestexodus.com/assembly-instructions/ The minis are fairly complex for basic troop minis and if you clip everything off at once you may have a heck of a time figuring which parts are for which mini.

I cut all 10 line troopers off their sprues (one at a time) and stored them by trooper. As you can see above each trooper has their own vial and I will be using these as handles when I get to painting.  

 

Sitting bull clipped and cleaned of mold lines

Assembled Sitting Bull

 

Roar!

Sitting Bull and Geronimo ready to defend the Warrior Nation

 



All and all these minis were pretty easy to clean and assemble. The mold lines on Geronimo were worse than the lines on Sitting Bull but due to the soft nature of the resin they cleaned pretty well. I have a couple tiny gaps I may fill on Geronimo where his arms meet at the elbow but I may just let it slide. I am a little concerned about the seam where Sitting Bills leg sections went together and I may have to do something so they aren't too noticeable once he is painted. I need to clean these with some soap and water to get any mold release agent off then they will be ready for paint. I am not sure what colors I am using yet so we will have to make a decision here soon. Two posts in one day.....look out!

 

When it Rains it Pours

After waiting so long for Kickstarters to arrive I have now received two boxes in the last 7 days :) I received my Rivet Wars kickstarter shipment about an hour ago. Lets do a little unbox shall we.... I love new toys :)

Brand new game smell :)

Packaged nearly identically to Zombicide

The green cards are the starts for all the minis the other cards say what they are ;) The dice are just regular old brown dice. I will be receiving faction dice later down the road when the fulfill the rest of the pledge items.

Small box contained the tanks and their hatch plug. Another try will be arriving at a later date.

Allied forces. This tray also contains the wound markers and a few other tokens. Will be getting another tray like this (minus the characters) when they fulfill that part of the pledge.

Blighten Empire. I think these are going to be my guys. Same as Allies another tray or grunts coming.

Dashboard sheets with the stats of all models in the base set. I think these will be very handy up front but once more of the Kickstarter items arrive the will lose some of their utility.

Punch cards for bunkers, objectives, and terrain items. As part of my pledge I will be getting plastic 3D versions of all of these but they decided they are going to ship them at a later time with other pledge items.

Lastly we have the boards. While I wanted to unwrap them I held off due to an email I received earlier today. I guess some people have been having some issues with warping and the guys at CMoN said they feel it may be due to some of the extreme weather going around at the moment....seriously its like Hoth cold here I'm pretty sure if it gets colder we are going to have to go to Tauntauns for transportation. The box and the contents were icy cold when I opened it so I am going to allow it come to room temp before I unwrap the boards and hope that will avoid any issues.

 

There you have it my shiny new copy of Rivet Wars! I hope to get a couple games here soon and I'll try and take a few photos and do a little write up on our first few games. Have a good one and try and stay warm y'all.