pGrissel WiPs

I got started working on most of the minis from the latest what's in the box series. I primed everything (except Borka) via the airbrush. Once the primer had time to cure a little I basecoated the blue skin on Grissel, the bomber, the scattergunners, and keg carrier with my standard troll blue via the airbrush. The storm troll got basecoated with my standard elemental troll skintone. I then roughly blocked in some of the leather sections via the airbrush on the minis. That was all done two days ago. This morning I did some extra work on the queen of jams pGrissel. This is Ms. Grissel in here current state:

 

After the skin and leather skirt were airbrushed I painted her scarf with VMC burnt cad red, the tartan with foundry drab, the boots with P3 battlefield brown, and blacked out the metals in preparation for metallic paints. There is obviously a lot to do still but she is coming together pretty nicely. I think I am going to try and add details to the tartan on her seeing as it is a large portion of this mini...we will see. My work week starts tonight and one of my regulars is off this week so could be a long one. Fingers crossed it will be ok and I will have some more photos for you. This latest barch of minis had me excited to paint so gotta ride that wave ;)

Oh Buddy! What's in the Box Part VI (I think)

I was up until well past 4am last night with a coughing child so I took a little nap this afternoon. When I woke up my wife brought me a package I received while sleeping.....oh happy days. Those of you that follow along can probably guess whom sent this pack but for those newer to the cave it was from Mr. Rob Hawkins. OK you don't care what I have to say lets get to the shinnies!

 Pretty straight forward....unit of scattergunners cause eGrim demanded it dammit :)

Storm Troll. One of  the last light I didn't own 

 

Bomber #2 cause what's better than two boostable 4" AOEs? Four of them. Once again at the request of eGrim and Gunnbjorn. You can see more angles and info on this conversion here: http://robhawkinshobby.blogspot.com/2013/07/bomber-conversion.html

Here is a little pGrissel conversion. pGrissel was the last of the trollblood 'locks I didn't own and mainly because I don't like the sculpt. Well I figured it was time to pick her up and rob did minimal cosmetic work on here since it is a tough model to convert without major work. He swapped out the much nicer hammerhead/end cap from eGrissel in exchange for the original (they are the same hammer they should look the same now?) This brings us to the best part of the post.......

What can you say but badass! You can see step by steps from Rob here: http://robhawkinshobby.blogspot.com/2013/06/building-better-borka.html the only thing that has changed from Rob's blog post can be seen in the final picture above. Rob sculpted some fur coming out of the gauntlets to match the artwork even more closely. I am so thrilled with this mini I cannot truly put it in works. I cannot wait for the plastic champ kit in September so I can properly fill out my family reunion list.

 One big happy family of troll beat down heading your way!

 

When I took that final photos I realized how much it looks like the cover of Forces of Hordes: Trollbloods. I may have to re-stage this photo when everything is painted up nice and pretty. OK I have to run I think I have a date with my priming stations :)

Broadside Bart WiPs

I mentioned the other day how scatterbrained I have been with my hobby time of late. One of the projects I have started is Broadside Bart. I idea of playing Bart/Galleon has been really intriguing to me of late and when I backed into a second place finish at the last tourney I used the winnings to pick up a Bart. I am still doubtful I will get a Galleon anytime in the near future but I was inspired to work on Bart.

This is Bart in his current partial painted state. I did the vast majority of the work on him in an afternoon when I was particularly inspired. The reds on the coat were painted via the airbrush and the rest was done by hand. I cut the treasure chest out from under his foot and will most likely do a cork rock bluff when he gets based. I am up in the air a little on the yellow tassels but we will see. What do y'all think?

Holy Hell! What's Goin' On?

Well I look up and another month is gone and I have barely been on to write or update anything. I really don't have a ton to show as finished projects but I have been hitting the cave from time to time. I was pretty scatterbrained in the month of June and bounced back and forth between a few projects. Those of you that have follow along have know my propensity to wander and have my mind drift. Here is a run down on what I was up to in June and I hope to have some photos for y'all in the near future:

• Played 6 games with eGrim at 50pts (need to get a bunch more)
• Wrote an article on eGrim from my buddy Northblade's new blog http://www.hobbyhysteria.com/
• Picked up new resin bases and a scenery kit from http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/ to try out with my Blindwater force
• Started working on a couple test bases
• Picked up Rask and started painting him
• "Borrowed" Les' Galleon after a quick game and started to lay down the base colors to help him "speed up" the painting
• Played in a 35pt SR2013 tourney at a FLGS and despite being very rust backed into a 2nd place due to scenario points
• Purchased Broadside Bart (with tourney credit) and started to paint him.

Well there you have it pretty much all my hobby related activities for the month. I hope to get Rask and Bart finished here soon for you and need to get back to working on my Hunters Grim. I really don't know where the time has been going this year as every time I look up another month is gone. I hope everyone if having a great start to their summers and hope to have some pretty photos soon.

Why We Play the Game

Today I was reminded why we play the game and why I love it so much. While playing with big monsters, stompy robots, magical leaders, or hordes of troops is fun it is the people and relationships that make this game special.

This is a work week for me and those of you that follow along know I rarely make it out to the FLGS to play on work weeks....today was different. A few days back a post showed up on our local forums from one of our old PGs (PG_Moz) saying he would be in town and wanted to hang at the store. I was going to just stop by on my way to work but my wife said go ahead and head out early and play and hang out (she is the best). I cut my sleep short packed up the trolls and headed to the store to say hello, BS, and get a game in. After games ended we all headed to a local joint for pizza and wings and more BSing. Seeing a friend from out of town and just hanging with the guys over greasy food just made me reflect and realize how great this part of the hobby is.

I am not sure who will see this but I just want to say a big thanks to the guys that make this so enjoyable for me. PG_Moz, PG_z1g1, PG_blklotus thanks for being great teachers and great ambassadors. Oxyguy and Bloodyarcane thanks for always being upbeat and for fun games. Scudo (damn you), Tim, Abe, Alan thanks for the fun games and the special twists you all bring to your own games. While not at the store nearly as much as you would like thanks Mickey for being my hobby go to guy and BSing about painting at odd hours of the day.

Like I said the game is fun and well designed but it is days like today where one realizes that the people we play with are as important if not more so in making our game the best game there is. Thanks guys.

Borka is Smiling

If you saw my last post you know I have a really exciting new mini coming in my near future and with that my new Borka got a pleasant (yet expected) surprise on the PP main page today. They showed the plastic Trollkin Champion re-box based off the Trollkin Warder sculpts.

I currently own two mini units of champs and was in desperate need for a max unit to fill out my Family Reunion list. I know where this unit is coming from and will not have to worry about major conversion work to have some variety from my other champs. As you can see PP has three different sculpts in the five man unit which is a little disapointing but has been the trend with these kits. I think it will be pretty easy to integrate a little variety by getting a box of warders and mix n matching a couple heads and by clipping off a couple weapon heads and swapping them between champs. I am excited to gfet my hands on a box of these and suspect they will be a Sept/Oct release which should give me plently of time to get the other parts of list painted. Here is hoping the mold lines on these gentleman is no where near as bad as the fennblades or Nog's head may explode.

Just Have to Share

Hey all. As you know I have commissioned Rob Hawkins on a few different projects over the last year. He has done some awesome conversions for me and I have loved everyone of them (Rok/Extremoth/etc). Rob has just fnished up the latest conversion project and I just have to share it now. I would typically wait for a "What's in the Box" post but this is just too cool not too share. Here he is:

The latest project was to do a Borka conversion to make him holding Truama in two hands and looking more like his amazing artwork on page 47 of the Trollblood forces of box. Please check out this link to Rob's blog where he shows step by step shots of the project and has a ton of photos of this awesome mini:

http://robhawkinshobby.blogspot.com/2013/06/building-better-borka.html#comment-form

If you aren't familar with Rob's blog you really should check it out. He is an amazing hobbyist (that a word?). I really look forward to getting some paint on this guy. There are a few other things coming back with Borka but I will do a "What's in the Box" for the other stuff.