Templecon Painting Log Update #8

Merry Christmas Eve y'all. I'm writing this blog post while I wait for the little guys to be fully asleep before Santa puts stuff under the tree. I had a fairly productive beginning to this week. It was fortunate I was able to get stuff done early as the rest of the week will be pretty much shot for hobby time what with Christmas and travel and what not.

After my last blog post it was only fitting I got this gentlemen done. All that's left to do is black out the rim of his base and put some grass tufts and static grass down. All the grass will be done on the army at once. 

I assembled a unit of hammer dwarfs, primed them, did my three color airbrush for grey armor, and started to sponge on the battle damage (after this photo was taken). These fine fellows will most likely be in my Ossrum list. 

Alexia1's risen. I decided I wanted no part of actually painting the risen and that there would be absolutely no time to paint them so ghostly was the only way to go. I did a multicolored airbrush and based them. All in all I am pleased with the quick and dirty results for all 20 risen and all that's left to do is black out their bases and obviously the grass like the good captain above. 

Lastly I primed the nomad from the last challenge update and did the first color of grey on the armor plates. I didn't have time to do the highlights when I did the hammer dwarfs which is why he is lagging behind them. 

Not photo'd: I basecoated the flesh on the old metal unit of drudges, started the grey sections of the earthbreakers arm plates, did a little skin work on Rhupert, and a few other minor things which aren't jumping to mind at the moment. OK my wife is telling me the boys are out color time to get to work. 

Merry Christmas all and hopefully Santa leaves you all that shinny new toy you've been looking for!

Templecon Mercenary Musings (List One)

As Templecon approaches and my pile of unfinished mercenary models continue to pile up I need focus my time on banging out only the models needed for Templecon. I intended to have my cephalyx force be my Templecon painting challenge army but I may have to shift the challenge army over to my dwarf list. I have signed up for every event at Templecon currently but I think I would like to focus on iron gauntlet, team tourney (with Northblade and Adam), and hardcore as the "for sure" events. Seeing as IG is a three list event and needs to be fully painted it may force Thexus to the side for this convention. At the current time I am sure Damiano is one of my three lists. List number two will be an earthbreaker list run by either Ossrum or Durgen (I keep going back and forth). I run into trouble when I start trying to pick list number three. The final list is between Drake MacBain and Exulon Thexus. I have no delusion of grandeur and do not expect to reach the "gauntlet rounds" of IG but I don't think I can have a three list pair that will be unable to make a 75pt which is why Thexus is looking more and more like the odd man out.

I have to lock up my list and I think the Damiano list tis the one I need to sure up first as some of the units can potentially spill into my dwarf list. I recently played in an event and was running this Damiano list:

Captain Damiano (*6pts)
* Rocinante (9pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire (4pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Kell Bailoch (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)

I really enjoyed the list and while I didn't play it perfectly by an stretch of the imagination it did do what I wanted and I was poised to win when a dice spike of 17 on 3d6 at dice off 5 put Damiano in the dirt (killed him to the point). I have no problem with this as it is part of the game but it got me thinking about what I can build into my list to help avoid this from happening again. That brings me to list idea #2:

Captain Damiano (*6pts)
* Nomad (6pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gastone Crosse (3pts)
* Vanguard (4pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Kell Bailoch (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)

This list is obviously very similar to list number one except I drop Rocinante to a Nomad and dropped Alexia2. I like the idea of Alexia2 but I didn't get much use out of her in the game I played and I get the feeling she is a model you need to have some practice with to really make her sing and I'm just not going to have that time before February. Putting Gastone and the vanguard in there gets me some quality boostable guns to make up for the loss of Rocinante and the all important shield guard so I can potentially avoid that one final shot assassination which got me last time I played list one. I also like the idea of the possible Gastone/Galleon going into the earthbreaker list at 75pt if needed. I did a third list because I can't leave well enough alone and have to keep tinkering all the time. Lets take a look at #3:

Captain Damiano (*6pts)
* Rocinante (9pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gastone Crosse (3pts)
* Vanguard (4pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)

Once again very similar but I was able to get Rocinante back into the list at the expense of Kell and the Nyss hunters while slotting Boomhowler and Co into the unit spot. While they will not be as effective at range as the Nyss hunters Boomhowler with deadeye can get some work done and really gum up the works as a tarpit unit. I feel I will be a little more tempted to cycle death march over to the Boomies from time to time which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing as it is really freakin' amazing on Kayazy.

I think for the present time I am leaning towards list number two but three is still in play. If I go with number three I can play Durgen/Earthbreaker and put the Nyss with him. If I go with list number two I'm more likely to play Ossrum/Earthbreaker and have boomies available if I want. Once I settle on the Damiano list I will be able to pick a dwarf list and once lists one and two are locked in I can see my 75pt options between the two lists and that will help select between Drake and Thexus for list three.

So what do y'all think? Damiano list 1, 2, or 3?

Templecon Painting Log Update #7

I keep trucking along taking baby steps to my fully painted merc goal. Once again I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I would like but I did travel out of town to play in a tourney with my mercs so I guess that's acceptable, right?

'Cause Im all about dat base, bout dat base

First off I have no idea why these photos keep turning but I dont have time right now to monkey around with blogger. These are the standard Dragonforge bases I have used in the past. I did my standard four color drybrush on the stone consisting of P3 thornwood greem, bastion grey, and trollblood highlight, menoth white highlight on the edges. The dirt was washed with secret weapon dark earth pigment, once dry washed with vallejo sepia ink and then drybrushed with old GW graveyard earth and bleached bone. I also washed a little dark earth pigment onto the stones to add a little character. The reason I did these bases was I anticipated some minis getting finished and needing them.....lets see if I accomplished that shall we

Kinda. Drake MacBain. Nearly 100% finished. I need to paint his eyes and the lenses on his goggles and I'm pretty sure that's that.

Durgen pretty much in a similar place as Drake just needing a little more attention. I need to highlight his purple loincloth, paint his eye, lense, handle of his hammer, and a few detail items.

Ossrum needs his face painted, lenses painted, and yellow metals painted.

I keep tweaking my lists and I wanted to get a vanguard into my Damiano list (with Gastone). I assembled this vanguard and got his feet situated on a resin base.

Did some metal work on Drakes Galleon.

Blocked in some test colors on Rockbottom. I think I like them but need to figure out my shading and highlighting for the color used on the jacket

While not pictured I also finished the yellow metals on Exulon Thexus, finished the leathers on Damiano (calling him done except for his base), painted and shaded the leathers boots on Hawk, and I did some work on the nomad which I may or may not be using in the Damiano list anymore. My dumbass may have added another mini to the log by looking at swapping in Rocinante instead of the nomad. Like I said my lists have been in constant flux as I can never seem to just settle into a list I have to keep tinkering and tinkering. Well I have to start getting ready for work

Templecon Painting Log Update #6

The song remains the same progress nothing completed. I've done some work on the galleon, restarted Ossrum, worked on Durgen, Drake, Damiano, and a few other things along the way. I decided no photos just gonna get back to work as the time is flying by. I have today and some of tomorrow to work. I am hoping to travel to Albany for an event on Saturday and my wife and I are taking the boys on the "Polar Express" train ride tomorrow night which is done out of a local train station.....if the boy are both health which has been nearly impossible to have both health at the same time since the weather has started to change. Enough babble back to the cave.

Templecon Painting Log Update #5

Same song as previous update.....progress nothing complete. This week the progress was even less significant due to the Thanksgiving holiday, travel, and starting my week of work two nights early. In theory the latter should allow me to be more productive on my week off seeing as I'll have an extra two days but again that's purely in theory. Well pretty much all I did was work on some dark steel as outlined in the Forces of Cephalyx PDF:

nine grunts where painted only photo'd one of each scupt

six thrall warriors were painted for Alexia2

Yup that's all folks. Thats that for this week. See you next week for a real update I hope.