Currently on the painting table

On the painting table: Batman Miniature Game!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Steampunk Wall #1

In my past post I put up the WiPs and finished photos of my Skull Altar from Dragonforge. In the same order as the skull alter I picked up one of the steampunk #1 walls to test out as well. Here it is all finished up. I didn't spend much time on it at all and it just came together pretty nice.


Unfinished wall from Dragonforge

I'm pretty happy with the results. I feel like the brick sections need "something more" but I don't know what so I guess I'm calling it done. 

hmmm maybe some streaks like the altar? I don't know.

My first attempt at using rust pigments....pretty easy to use and pretty happy with the results. 


Monday, June 23, 2014

Skull Altar Terrain Piece

A few weeks ago I was getting a lot of packages from various places all with tons of geek goodness. One of the boxes I received was from Dragonforge which had a few more 30mm bases I plan to use for my Cephalyx and a couple terrain items I was curious to check out after seeing them on the site.




I still haven't picked up black primer so I primed grey via the airbrush then basecoated with with VMA black via the airbrush



Next I drybrushed up my standard stone recipe from one of my all time favorite NQ painting articles. The progression is Thornwood Green, Bastion Grey, Trollblood Highlight, and a very light Menoth White Highlight (just on edges) 


Painted up the skulls using VMC Beasty Brown, GW Desert Sand, GW Bleached Bone



Glued down some "dirt" sections

I wanted to try out some weathering pigment for future bases so I made a wash of isopropyl alcohol and Secret Weapons Dark Earth pigment and washed it over my dirt sections and some of the surrounding stone. I also did some "dirt" streaks with the wash down the sides of the altar. I was pretty happy with this but I think I actually need to thin it even more next time I use it. 

All finished up. I ended up doing my traditional dirt paint scheme on the section I glued down but left the wash in the areas next to them. I then added some Army Builder Jungle Tufts.


You should be able to see some of the dirt streaks

I am really happy with this little terrain piece. When I originally opened the the box I was a little surprised with how "small" it was but after painting it and putting next to minis it feels "just right". This painted up really fast with me only using 20 min here and there before heading out to work. I'd say the total time was pretty close to 80 min. I'm really tempted to turn this into a large terrain piece but putting it on an MDF base with some ruined walls and stone to look like a ruined temple section or something but we will see. One way of the other I have a nice new terrain piece for my eventual table and a nice obstruction for squishy Mr Thexus to hide behind ;)

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Relic Knight Kickstarter Arrives

The very first Kickstarter that I pledged (some may say started an addiction) was Relic Knights. I'm not really sure how I exactly came upon this kickstarter (most likely due to Super Dungeon Explore) but at the time I was hooked. So back in September of 2012 I pledged my hard earned money on this new skirmish game and waited....then I waited.....and I waited....then I waited some more. I received my notification from CMoN a few days ago my package had shipped and that I could expect to receive my toys next week sometime.....well they arrived today. So a little more than a year past the expected delivery date lets crack open the box and see what we have.

All neatly packed away never to be as organized again

Nice solid hardback rulebook

Black Diamond box set and additional minis. Some of these were add-ons and some where unlocked via the campaign.

Star Nebula Corsairs! Who can't get behind some space pirates? Looking at my pictures it appears I have the least for this faction until I realized I made an oops in my photos. 

The Doctrine. When I took this photo I thought to myself "damn I don't remember getting this much Doctrine" Well....I didn't two of the boxes are Star Nebula minis and that was the oops mentioned above.

The Noh empire or the required "bad guys" I presume. 

Some base inserts I will most likely not use

A couple special edition add-on from the kickstarter. The boost packs were added for free but the two minis I added on and are from the Void faction which (from what I can tell) is like all the "bad guys" together. The "bad guys" are Noh, Black Diamond, and Star Nebula........huh looks like I like "bad guys"

Last but certainly least is the SDE minis based on Relic Knigts. These were originally suppose to be limited editions I believe but Soda Pop Miniatures has since stated these will be available to all after kickstarter fulfillment is completed. 

OK there is a quick and dirty run down of what I picked up. I have to be fully honest that after all this time waiting I had lost pretty much all interest in this kickstarter except for the SDE minis. I still have some concerns with this project but now that I have the minis in my hands I am a little excited again to check it out. Due to the small skirmish size of the game and low mini count I am hoping to get a few of my buddies that are scared of Warmachine/Hordes to play this with me since I will be the one doing all the hobby stuff. Over the next few day I will do breakdowns and better unboxings of each individual faction but for now I gotta grab a nap before work.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Kriel Reinforcements: Bearka, Dozer & Smigg, and More

Yesterday was a big day in the cave as it felt like Christmas in June. In my last post I showed you all my pretty new Cephalyx and today I will hit up my newest trollblood minis.

The fancy convention black box.....so exciting! Hopefully there will be a bunch of new toys in black boxes like this at Templecon '15

Only 4 pieces to assemble out bear. On first inspection the part are very clean with the mold lines on the bear's body hidden well in the fur. The arms both have vents that need to be cut off prior to assembly but they are not out of control like some of the previous resin models. 

Very sharp detail

You can see the vent hanging under the armor plate. 


Been on a diet Borka? The mini feels a little thin to me as borka doesn't seem to have the bulk of his previous self.  


Dozer really fills up the packaging but is amazingly light

Dozer is made up of 8 pieces which were for the most part very clean and very detailed



Fist is a little dinged up but should be cleaned pretty easily....I hope

"Maybe we over did it on the fist size?" I don't think those bombard shells on the back of Dozer's hands would actually fit in the bombard ;)

Smigg! The little big man comes in 5 pieces (if you count the bombard)

I also picked up Hogle and a second fennblade kithkar. I plan to slot Horgle and a slag troll into my Grim2 list from the SOO and see how it feels. MoM has still been on the MSU kick lately so I've been thinking of trying it out and two kithkars just seem like a must for MSU. 

Lastly I picked up some merc minis in the order that brought me Horgle and the kithkar. A while back I basecoated Les' Galleon and I have toyed with the idea of doing either a Galleon list or Earthbreaker list for myself. Cephalyx being a merc contract has kinda given me an excuse to do a second merc list.....cause you need two for events, right? :)

I've always wanted to play these guys and a second merc list is the perfect excuse, no?

Tactical Arcanist Corp and Ossrum. The TAC will server double duty as they are going to be "Dominated" into my Cephalyx force and Ossrum is there in case I pick up an Earthbreaker cause sniped Earthbreakers sounds like a blast to play. 


Thursday, June 12, 2014

Cephalyx Army Bundle Unbox!

So I finally was able to drive out to Mickey's (my LnL ninja extraordinaire) house after work today and grab my new toys. While I am really excited about my new troll toys this post is all about my latest FADD force the Cephalyx! Have no fear my fellow members of the kriels I will get to my new trollblood toys soon.



Exulon Thexus pin. Due to my obsessive "gotta have um all" mentality I am trying to stay far awar from the pins but since this was included and free I'll let it slide....hopefully this "freebie" isn;t a gateway drug ;)

Sexy Thexy!

The sexy pre-release gold card. Only card in the bundle that was gold

Lots o' bits

Seems ole Nog got himself a mis-pack. As you can see 3:2:1 instead of 2:2:2. Submitted a ticket with PP we'll see how long this bad boy takes 

Here is a pretty big mold line on his "head" This line is in the exact same place on the other side as well. Doesn't seem to go through any major details so should be too much of an issue to clean. All in all a clean piece of resin

Thexus' potential base


Tiny assembly guides on back




The famous PP plastic mold lines

Pretty nice detail on these guys

Baggy of pieces parts and parts is parts



Double baggies of pieces. 


Ziploc style baggies on these guys. 

three distinct grunt sculpts



Weapon bits

Dominator and Agitator

So many fun merc units to "Dominate"...who's first?


I also got a box from Mr Larsen at Discount Games today (great geek day) and that contained some more merc minis so "in case" I want to play mercs in a two list event down the road I will have options.....but more on this later. So there was my little Cephalyx unboxing for y'all. I will most likely wait for my replacement parts before I jump into workings on these "gentlemen". Once they are officially release I will need to pick up at least one more monstrosity kit, another mind bender unit, and one maybe two more agitators but I have plenty to keep me busy here (plus a pistol wrath, metal mind slaver unit, bloat thrall, and overlords).