Currently on the painting table

On the painting table: Batman Miniature Game!

Friday, February 28, 2014

Bump In the Road

Hello y'all. Early last week I was riding a wave working on a couple warbeasts, stripping some minis, and restarting Grim2. Here is a pretty decent representation of where I left off:

 
I had plans of finishing at least one of the minis if not two by the end of last weekend but as we all know sometime life has different plans. At the end of last week my wife's grandfather passed away. We spent the weekend and Monday am out of town with family and attending the wake and the funeral. Monday morning after the services we drove back home and I starter my work week (really hard going back after three weeks off). The combination of all the driving, the emotional drain of the services, and starting work I was pretty beat and not really all that motivated to paint.
 
I do not anticipate being able to be overly productive on the painting front until my work week ends I was able to grab a couple minutes this am to do a little work on the storm troll. This is what our electric buddy current looks like:



 
I roughed in the first layer of highlights on his skin. I know I have said it before but I really do not like PP plastic minis. I do like the sculpt in general but the plastic has so many imperfections and the mold lines are always sooooo bad that you always miss some or have to lose detail to get them off....enough of the rant. I also did my shading wash for the bootstrap leather sections. This is drying as I am typing. Once the wash dries and I have time to get back to him I will highlight the bootstrap sections (maybe before work tonight). Then I need to clean up the skin highlights and move on to highlights two and three. The metal sections still require their washes as well. Once those times are done it will be on to details and basing. I hope to have him done sooner rather than later so I can put a fully painted storm troll on the table next time I play (end of next week I hope). Well that's all I have for now. Have a great weekend y'all.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Grim2 Redux

As part of my renewed painting interest I have decided to get back to The Hunters Grim and get them some serious (for me) table time. Sometime I have an easier time getting rolling on a mini starting from scratch versus picking up a previously started mini......so with that in mind Grim and some scouts had a date with the Purple Power. Mugg and Crump were spared as I am happy with their current state and should be able to pick up with out too much trouble.

Into the "Dip"

After their 24 hours soak and a quick scrub

Pretty clean. The mini had a few mold lines I missed previously so I was able to clean them up quickly before heading to primer
 

Blocked in some of the base colors with the airbrush then blacked out the stone and metal sections. The pants are P3 rucksack tan and the coat is P3 bootstrap leather. The plan for the pants is to do dark brown stripes with the rucksack. We will see how that goes.
 
I will be bouncing back and forth between Grim and the beasts I posted about previously. There are a lot of shared elements so I can hopefully assembly line some of those to enable me to get the three beast and The Hunters Grim done in fairly short order. I also need to finish up Grissel1 here soon.

 

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Ranged Reinforcements (WiPs)

While Templecon was a bit of a dud for games played I have to say it has me fired up again to paint my trolls and to try and get more games in. I have been working on lists again, listening to podcasts, watching videos of games at http://endgamegaming.net/ (couple of our guys had games recorded too bad they were both loses). While listening to the latest episode of Lost Hemisphere Radio my good buddy Mr Bell aka Northblade brought up (at least I think) a really good point about seeing painted armies on the table and how they just seem to enhance the game experience. Since I am riding a wave of excitement right now I decided to keep pushing and trying to get more of my trolls painted. The current minis being worked on in the cave are a trio of beasts I have been meaning to start/finish for some time.

Not a bad little battle group. Throw in an impaler and you are all set ;)


 
Here is a bomber I had converted a little back by Rob Hawkins. I wanted him to have the mauler back and head so he looked a little more feral/menacing. I think Rob did a great job of pulling that off. He sculpted the pyg to be hanging off the quills which were sculpted to look more like the classic mauler. So far I have blocked in some of the base colors (skin, leather, and wood grain) via the airbrush. I then went in and blacked out all the sections that will be rock or metal with traditional brush. As you can see there is plenty of overspray of brown onto the skin but I will cleaning this up with brush after I drybrush the rock sections as this too will "mess up" the surrounding skin)
 

 
Next up is a classic blitzer. I think this mini has so much character and I like him better than the plastic multi-beast blitzer. The pyg with the slugger has a large pin that will slot in nicely once the two sections are finished being painted. This guys is a touch further along than his bomber brethren as I have drybrushed his rock section and cleaned up some of the surrounding skin. This work is not new but I figured I'd add him to the post since he will hopefully be finished in short order with the rest of these beasts.


 
Last but not least is one of our newer beast the storm troll. I have seen this gentleman popping up in lists and would like to give him a go. Out of the three beasts in the post I have done the most work on him in the last few days. I basecoated all sections of the mini and the skin/fur have received their shade washes. Next I will drydrush the fur and wash the two leather sections and metals. The skin highlights will be next (following my traditional elemental skin tones Slag,  Pyre, and Winter) and I am playing with the idea of doing all the runes on his skin in arcane blue and edge highlighting them with arcane blue/marrow white mixed. The bumps on his belly and arms will be my traditional troll magenta still....I think.

Ok so that is were we currently stand. hopefully I can keep riding this wave of painting mojo and bang out some more minis. The really trick will be finishing some units :/
 

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Templecon '14 Recap

Templecon '14 has come and gone and it's time for the wrap up. This years Templecon was a little on the bumpy side for me but more on that as we go.

My initial plan was to leave my house around 1pm to head out to Les' place. I was going to play a game with Adam before Les got home and we packed up for the ride. Well mother nature had different plans as we were getting hammered by a snow storm here in Central New York. After bouncing around different options he elected to try and leave around 7:30-8pm after the storm had passed. My drive to Les' (about 70min away) was a bit of a nightmare but we made it got the car packed and headed for Warwick. We got into RI between 1-2am and met up with some friends in the lobby. We got a sec to catch up Northblade and Chadi from Canada (had the good sense to leave a day early) and out of town Team Spite members John (Moz), Zack (z1g1), and Jeremy. I ended up heading to bed sometime around 3:30am with the vague recollection I told Les to get me in the am I'd stand in line at the PP store with him.

Day 1

Well the morning came and there was a knock at our door at 6:30......Les all bright eyed ready to roll. Being a man of my word I grabbed a quick shower and headed down to the gaming hall to get in line. We were the 9th and 10th people in line and none of us had an idea what was going on sale. There was speculation that Vengeance would be available but that turned out to be false. They opened the store at 9am and started the assembly line in motion. You were only allowed one of any items so I grabbed an extra floaty CoC heavy kit for Northblade and he picked up an extra trollkin sorcerer for me and we just swapped after paying. I also picked up a gatorman bokur and swamp shamblers box. Directly after the PP table Broken Egg was set up selling trays. I initially fought the urge to buy one but ended up doubling back and picking one up (good call). The PP store sold out of nearly everything by the end of the morning except for Butcher3 and maybe one other item.

Plummer and Shick running register at the PP store.

I really didn't do much day one since I figured I had three full days left to game (bad call). I walked around a far bit that first day and did a lot of watchmachine. A couple guys were playing in the 50pt special forces event so I stopped by to watch them play a bit.

Yes, John, those Kayazy passed another tough check

Nick rocking the Team Spite colors

I did manage to get one Iron Arena game in again Mr Chris 'gdaybloke Miller. We have tried to get a game the last few years and it finally came together.

'Gday setting up his very nicely painted Ret
 
Friday night Les and I headed out to Longhorn for dinner with Trevor and Jay from Chain Attack (Jay was in one of our rooms), Chilly Winters from Texas, and out of town Team Spiters John, Zack, and Jeremy. After having a few drinks with dinner and belly full of steak and potato I ended up calling it a night around midnight. My initial plan was to get together with Jaime and a few people to play some drunken Zombicide but my body had other ideas so off to bed.  
 
Day 2


 
Friday am brought about the PP keynote address. All in all nothing too groundbreaking or amazing but still cool none the less. Looking forward to more info on the troll minis show in the presentation and the "something really awesome" Will Shick mentioned trolls would be getting instead of a beast pack.
 
Against my better judgment I decided to organize a team and try to play in the marathon that is the team tournament. Team Plan B was formed consisting of myself, Les, and Nick. John, Zack, and Jeremy also formed a team and tried to get into the tourney via the standby list. Well Team Spite got shut out of the event with our two teams being the last two out of the event. We ended up playing out our own team event with Les playing Jeremy (Jeremy Wins), Nog playing Moz (Nog wins), and Zack playing Nick (Zack wins) for an out of towner Team Spite W.
 
After this I grabbed an Iron Arena Game with Chadi from Canada. It was a fun and loud game ;) It was at this point however that things started to turn for me. I could feel the convention plague setting in and was only hoping it wouldn't bee too bad. I headed to the room early that night and just hung out in bed. I ended up having a really nice chat with Les and Chain attack Jay about the keynote, the con, and the state of the game in general. The chat was cut off when old man Les started snoring in the middle of the conversation signifying it was getting late.

Day 3

Saturday I woke up feeling like hell but decided to try and get into the special forces 50pt event. My two lists were:

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)

Reinforcements:
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (4pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Professor Victor Pendrake (2pts)

and

Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

List one is a pretty standard style Madrak2 list. List 2 was one I played 3 time in Iron Arena games and really enjoyed. There is a ton of beef in the list and if I can play a single zone scenario against an opponent with minimal armor cracking it can be a bear to chew through. I intended to play the Grissel1 list most rounds but long and short of it I ended up playing Maddy all three games.

Round one was vs Charles aka Omnus from Removed from Play. He was playing a Vayl2 theme force with three angels. The board had a forest in the center of the board which was not great for me. Charles is a very good player and between my illness and lack of recent gameplay I wasn't on the top of my game and ended up deathclocking myself. Charles was all set to win even when I deathclocked myself so the L was inevitable. Hopefully I can get a rematch one day when I am not sick cause I think we could have had a really fun game otherwise.  

Round 2 I was paired up with Danny playing Cryx. He played a fairly standard pSkarre list. I was starting to feel worse and worse at this point and don't really remember the game too well. eMaddy survived a 12 focus Skarre assassination at the end of the round timer and we ended up with a tie. It wouldn't be a Templecon if I don't get a tie no?

Round 3 I got paired up vs Nick from my own meta. nick played his Zaal T4 theme force. The game felt like he was in control the entire way then all of a sudden I ended up tabling him and winning the game. It was at this point I decided I was going to have to drop. I never like to drop from an event but I felt terrible and was miserable. As I turned our results to Stubbs and was going to tell him I was dropping he said unless you were undefeated the event was done. So I avoided the dreaded drop but my day was over. I went to bed at 6pm and was there sweating, shaking, and coughing the remainder of the night. 
 
Day 4
 
Day four was pretty much a wash I was feeling like complete dog poo and was not up for gaming at all. We packed up out gear and got the car loaded for the right home. Nick was struggling after having a rough night of beermachine the night before. We hit a Denny's with John, Jeremy, and Zack so we could hang with our out of town brothers one more time. After getting back from breakfast we walk through the gaming hall one last time saying good buys and doing our last mini shopping. Even though I was ready to leave I am really glad I made that last pass as I was able to get one of the Zombicide season 1 minis Marvin! The CMoN booth had four of the season one exclusives and while they are not allowed to sell the minis they were giving them away with the purchase of a game. Since I have all the games already I though I was SoL but after talking with the guy he said I could grab one if I picked up one of the box of zombies. I wanted more toxic zombies so this was a no brainer. BOOM Marv is part of the crew now!
 
My new Broken Egg trollkin sized tray. I elected to go with the single 120mm tray vs the double 120mm

SDE minis
 
My ticket to Marv!

Marv!
 
Gator Alexia and two sorcerers

Templecon dice from Iron Arena and a bottle of VGC paint I picked up

The full score
 
So that was my Templecon. I am not sure I am a huge fan of the new four day con but that may just be cause I was sick for >50% of it. Hopefully next year I can avoid the plague and get some more games in and spend some more quality time with friends.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Borka!

Title says it all. In a post prior to Templecon I was said I was trying to get the Rob Hawkins Borka conversion finished prior to leaving for Rhode Island. While I never got a chance to play him (see Templcon recap post) I am happy to say I was able to finish the big guy prior to making the trip. Here are the WiPs of the Kegslayer from the days leading up to Templecon:


Primed with black Vallejo Surface primer via the airbrush

Blocked in the base colors via the airbrush. Skin is my trollblood blue mix, fur is P3 trollblood highlight, leather is P3 bootstrap leather

I decided to try something new on Borka and paint the fur with a snow leopard pattern. I was a little worried going into this but followed the tutorial from a NQ GnG. When I went to bed after finishing the fur I wasn't too happy with it but upon second examination in the am I was very happy with the result and that I took the chance.

I also did the snow leopard pattern on the fur coming out of the gloves.

After cleaning up the base colors I washed the skin on Borka and pGrissel with my standard skin/metal wash

Different angle of above photo

Skin highlights. Also washed the leather sections and basecoated the metals.




Since I was working on my new Borka I took this time to touch up my old keg carrier. I reworked the keg and his skin.

Painted the tartan in Cygnar blues. I attempted to paint the tartan pattern from the trollblood forces book but didn't have time to get it right so just repainted it blue for now.

Detail work

Picked out the runes on the skirt with P3 hammerfall khaki

DONE! I have to say I am very happy with how he came out and in only 2 days. The matte varnish I used, after this photo, knocked down the highlights a little more than I would have liked so I may go back over him with satin varnish to see if I can bring some of the highlights back.

While she didn't get finished 100% pGrissel was very close and did get used three time at Templecon. I need to finish the red scarf and light brown tartan and she will be done too

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Templecon Paint Push (Borka Begins!)

What would it be if I didn't have a paint project I was trying to finish the days before Templecon? I really didn't have anything going so I decided I would try and finish a mini I had started months ago and paint one that was still unprimed. Those that are new my not have seen this unboxing but back in July (sad it took this long) I got a great box from Rob Hawkins. The crown jewel of that package was the sexy sexy Borka conversion. I have been putting of painting him cause I wanted him to be "perfect" but the more I thought about it I am doing this beautiful model a major disservice leaving it unpainted and that a quality paint job, even if not perfect, is far better than leaving him "naked". I have wanted to play Borka a bunch at Templecon this year so no better time than the present.....right?


 Borka with some of the "family"......anyone need a refill?

All primed and ready for paint
 
While not nearly as sexy as the Borka I all had a subtle Grissel1 conversion in that box from Rob as well. I have heard over and over that she is amazing to play and a local play Lord Sorrow aka Tim has been playing her a lot lately and singing (no pun intended) her praise. I had started her a few months back but finally put some more paint to mini. I did the yellow metal trims last evening before work. I need to clean up a few spots but then a wash of the skin and metal will pull the mini together pretty fast. Here she is as currently stands:
 

 
Well I have two more nights of work then Monday and Tuesday off before we hit the road for Rhode Island. Will I be able to get Borka done in time? Will Grissel be signing the blues? If you're heading to Templecon hit me up in the iron arena for a game and see for yourself and feel free to talk some

$%@# if they aren't ;) Most of y'all don't know me so I'll be the big guy with the goatee wearing a Team Spite shirt or just ask a Team Spite player to point out Nog. Hope to see some of y'all at Templecon and maybe I can make a Templecon deadline for a change.