Storm Troll

Ut oh better look out guys that's two post in a row with a finished mini..... Here is my storm troll all finished. The mini has been nearly done for some time now just needed to pick out some details such as nails and teeth. You can see some previous shots of the storm troll here: http://nogspaintingcave.blogspot.com/2014/03/pluses-and-minuses.html

 

I had plans to pick out a few layers of highlights but after I washed the arcane blue sections with P3 turquois in I was happy with the results and called it a day.

 

I haven't put this gentleman on the table yet but I hope that will change soon.

 

Pluses and Minuses

In my last post I expressed my desire/plan to have the storm troll finished by this time.....well that hasn't happened. My week off from work started Monday morning which usually allows me some hobby time. I haven't had much hobby time at all as I have been working at my per diem job a lot this week. They are having a staff issue at my other job and I was asked to pick up as many hours as I possibly could. I really like the people at my other job and wanted to help out so that is where my time has gone. This leads us to the +/- of the situation.....while I have little time to work on hobby stuff I will have more $ to spend on hobby stuff. My stash of hobby money has dwindled down over the last few months so its a perfect time to refill the stores with these extra hours.

I have been able to do a little work on the storm troll as you can see here:

Did the final highlights on his skin and put the base color down on all his nubs

Filled in the runes on his skin with P3 arcane blue. The photo above was a shot I took after "testing" it on one side. I have since filled in all the runes with the arcane blue.

 

 

So that is where we currently stand here in the cave. I am not working the next three day so hopefully my next post will be of a finished mini. I may not have a lot of hobby time tomorrow as I am hoping to head to the FLGS to get a game or two in. I am not sure which list I am going to play but I think I am either going to play:

Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Slag Troll (6pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer (3pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 2 Grunts) (5pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 2 Grunts) (5pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)

or

Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels (*6pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer (3pts)

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.

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 :/

 

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 :)