GenCon Pre-release Unboxings

How's it going y'all long time no post. Things have been pretty busy here and I haven't really had much to blog about. After getting back from the Southern Ontario Open I had a pretty big lull on the gaming front for no real reason other than life I suppose. The cave has started to see some activity over the past week or so and I have some projects I need to get rolling on (more on that soon) but today I'm showing off some new toys. I wasn't expecting to be able to get my hands on any of the GenCon pre-releases but last Thursday I found out there was a potential ninja available so I jumped at the opportunity. In the past it has seemed PP has limited people to only one of each item so I didn't figure I'd be able to get much but seeing as no one was asking for Bradigus Thorle I jumped at the opportunity. I went to the store Thursday to play some of my trolls and our ninja extraordinaire Brian scored me more than I expected......good thing I brought extra cash.

The sexy sexy nondescript black box. I love these :)

Gold cards!

Bradigus is  a white metal/resin model as you can see here with the majority of the model being done in resin. I have found that some of the more recent PP resins have been super clean and needed little to no cleaning (Bearka and Dozer) this mini was not as clean as those previous minis.

Not too bad easy enough to clean.

The plug inside the fold on the left of the cloak has me a little concerned.

All in all not a bad sculpting job. There is a little more work then I would have liked but seeing as I have no pressing need to get him on the table I can take some time. I find the nice thing about working with wolds and rock is if there is a "problem spot" I can just hack into the piece and make it a chip in the rock ;) I have to say I really like this mini and his rules and seeing as I am a big fan of the rock part of circle and have a small all rock force already Bradigus felt like a "must" have.  

Next up is the opera pig herself Helga

Nice and simple two piece sculpt but will most likely need to pin the arm.

Up close and personal. I don't see myself playing pigs but I have loved the idea of this mini since PP showed here are in the Templecon Keynote. I painted a Lord Carver for my but Les aka PG_Oxyguy a few years back so I will need to figure out what I did on his flesh cause I was happy with him. My initial impression of Helga are that she has a solid stat line and a nice spell list too bad she is in pigs. The more and more great spells show up on the these pig 'locks the more I think no pork node for Thornfall....but Scudo will ask at Templecon this year again I am sure......

Last but certainly not least is Ms Jaga Jaga. 

While Helga was a smiple two pieces Jaga clocks in at eight super detailed pieces. 

Details....

Upon details....

Upon details. Jaga is a very solid 'lock (one of best in this book) and while Helga suffers from her pact Jaga benefits. I see taking three units of posse as the back bone for Jaga just like most gator 'locks. 

Thanks for checking in y'all and stay tuned as there should be some work coming out of the cave soon........

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.

Where Did May Go?

Hey there all. Well like the title says I have no idea where this month has gone. I really have had minimal time to work on any of my hobby projects. Here is were I stand on my current projects:

I have been doing a little bit of work on the blister which as been sitting in the basement for a few months. I also got around to cleaning a min unit of bone grinders. They were then primed and basecoated via the airbrush. I then painted the base colors on the fur and loincloths. I also filled the gaps on the witch doctor I assembled months ago. He also got primed and had some base colors applied. I am trying to decide what color the cloth on the witch doctor will be. I am leaning toward either purple or red. I did a little (emphasis on little) on Grim himself. This was mostly basecoating some of the metal sections. I am not sure when I will have painting time again but I am looking to get another few games in with THG later this week. So far my record is less than stellar but I am hoping that by dropping the MK from the list it will improve things for me.

Gargantuans: More Thoughts

I have to say I am really impressed with the Gargantuans book as a whole. The more I look over it the more and more I like what I read. I think you we are going to see a lot of these minis on the tables pretty regularly even after the "new toy" phase passes. I am going to babble about some of the things I am most excited to try out or buy.

Trollblood:

The more I look at the Hunters Grim the more I can't wait to play them. Mortality is just a stupid good spell and I cannot wait to abuse the hell out of it. I have playing with list ideas in my head for the last few days and it really feels like you can play anything with him and he makes them pretty solid. Most of the lists I have been building have been at the 35pt level and while this is not my favorite point level it seems to be where are meta is comfortable at the current time. I'd like to put a melee heavy in the lists but at 35pts I just haven't been able to squeeze it in. I think the melee beasts for him with be Rok or EBDT and I am leaning towards Rok as the ability to put primal on a bomber or blitzer and then allowing them to charge for free with blood lure from Headhunter can turn them into melee monsters. Here is the latest builds I am playing around with:

Hunters Grim (-4pts)
*Blitzer (9pts)
*Impaler (5pts)
*Runebearer (2pts)
Scattergunners: full (8pts)
*UA (2pts)
Dygs: full (6pts)
Bone Grinders: min (2pts)
Fell Caller (3pts)
SSC (2pts)

I am pretty excited about this list and think it will be pretty damn fun to play. It uses a few models I have never played before (blitzer, scattergunners, and bone grinders) but I think trying new minis will be good...plus I have been meaning to play them anyways. I would like to put the fennblade kithkar in there instead of the SSC to have a commander near the dygs to try and mitigate failed command checks but since I have no idea when he is to be released I left him off. I didn't worry too much about trying to build around the feat but instead built around mortality (so good). The nice thing about the scattergunners is that on the feat turn they should be able to mark most of their own spray targets or let the dygs mark, spray over the dygs, clear a lane for the dygs to charge. The scattergunners will also be the mirage target in most cases. I went with the blitzer to have access to repulsion and the potential volume of attacks he can put out. The bone grinders are a unit I have been meaning to get on the table with Calandra but getting mortality (did I mention I like it) up to 12" is nice. I am really excited to try this out and may play my first game with a proxy mini just to do it.

One last thing on the Hunters Grim...I think this may be the home for the mountain king as once again mortality make everything just better and there is always the snare gun for KDs. The longer I look over the book the more the warders are growing on me. You really get a lot of model for not a lot of points. I am a big fan of the kithkar. He is a really good combat solo and can replace the champ hero in the dyg support package and reduce the cost of the dyg package by a point. I also see a home for him in my pMaddy beast brick. He would make a very nice crusher target and also save me a point over the champ hero. Still cannot get my head around the night troll. OK enough about trolls lets talk about some other cool stuff.

Circle: They got some pretty amazing things in this book and it is making me want to work on my circle army again.

-Morvahna: best 'lock in the book in my opinion. The model looks beautiful, the spell list is top notch (can you go wrong with purification?), and her feat is sweet. All in all she is an A caster in my views and I would be shocked if she doesn't see a ton of competitive play the remainder of this year.
-Rip Horn Satyr: Wow this guy is awesome too. His damage output is going to be scary with 3 base attacks of p+s 16 (4 with smash & grab), a free charge, and circle buffs. I know Scudo is crazy excited about this guy. Damn you Scudo (just 'cause)
-Warpborn Alpha: He got spoiled a while back and he is still really good.

Skorne: Also got a lot of really nice minis. I think the general feeling is they got the best gargantuan by a long stretch in the mammoth. Skorne is one of the two factions I do not own a single mini for but PP keeps pushing me closer and closer to picking some up.

-Makeda3: She looks like a blast to play. She is an in your face I will take care of it myself kinda girl. The feat looks like it could get out of control and be a blast if you are playing her. The models for the unit are really nice too.
-Reptile hounds: Look like a fun little lessers
-Despoiler: I like this guy. Mordikar has been one of the skorne warlocks I have been interested in painting/playing and this beast is his baby. Unlike some of the other characters beasts of late (looking at you Rok) this mini begs to be with Mordikar.
-Willbreaker: Like the warpborn he was spoiled a little while ago and is also still good

Legion: Haven't really looked at much. I am not overly interested in legion right now.

Minions: I have a soft spot for minions. I have a blindwater army and I have wanted to start a thornfall force ever since I painted up Carver for Les. I was able to hold off on thornfall but then the Sturm and Drang theme force pushed me closer to the edge. I am afraid that Midas and his theme force may just push me over the edge.

-Midas: A really solid 'lock across the board. I don't think he as a bad spell on his list between bad blood, battle lust, calamity, and hex blast. His feat brings back minis and his collection of bone tokens mean you don't care if his beasts die. His theme force is full of minis I have wanted to add to my collection or already have. Bone grinders we already mentioned, Slaughterhousers I have wanted to try Jarl, he can use boneswarms (have three), and the pig beasts are just so cool. Here is my very first shot at a list:

Midas (-5pts)
*War Hog (8pts)
*War Hog (n/a) <---T4 benefit starts dead
*Boneswarm (4pts)
*BoneSwarm (4pts)
*Razor Boar (2pts)
*Razor Boar (2pts)
Slaughterhouser (6pts)
Slaughterhouser (6pts)
Bone grinders: min (2pts)
Bone grinders: min (2pts)
Bone grinders: min (2pts)
Bone grinders: min (2pts)

This is T4 granting me a dead beast as listed above, three corpse tokens on both boneswarms, and 4 war beast get advance more. What’s not to love here? At 50pt just add more razor boars, grinders, and road hogs to taste :)

This has gotten long. Real quick....Rask = really good, Shamblers = good just not pAlexia good, mechanic = good 1pt filler if you are playing a battle engine.

Like I said I am a fan of what PP did with this book and looking forward to seeing these minis in play.

Chugging Along

Despite being a work week the looming Templecon painting deadline spurred me to be semi- productive last week. I tried to do 30-45min of painting every day and was pretty close to pulling that off. While never seeing any major progress after a session  added up. I got the fennblades nearly to "basic painting" requirements earlier last week week and focused on my long riders after that. The long riders need to meet "hardcore requirements" so are more important. The list I am hoping to play will require the unit to be table ready.

 

I have also did some assembly work in hopes I will finish my other projects and be able to slap a little paint on these guys before heading to Templecon as well. I assembled my third unit of runeshapers, started my forth unit of runeshapers, and assembled my second gatorman witch doctor. I still need to fill some gaps on both the runeshapers and doctor. The runeshapers were a really rough cast and I had a ton of flash and some really bad mold lines....I hate cleaning and assembling minis. I am not too worried about getting paint on the witch doctor as I have no plans for him to be in my hardcore or blood, sweat, tiers lists. I would like to get at least the runeshaper units ready for blood, sweat, and tiers as I would like to play Doomshaper's runes of war theme as one of my lists. I have been kicking around three different lists one requires two units of runeshaper, one requires three units, and the last (not sure I like it) requires four units. I still need to pick a second warlock for this event to compliment pDoomie but nothing has grabbed me yet.

I hope to grind out the long riders in the next day or so but we will see what happens. When I finish the long riders my focus will be to finish the war wagon, Horthol and the mountain king. I have no plans to put the king in any competitive play lists (maybe one) but I expect to play him a bunch in pick up games around the iron arena.

One Year Old! Random WiPs

I cannot believe it has been a year since I started this blog. It has been a good gaming year despite never getting to play as much as I would like. Some of the highlights of the year include going to my first Templecon and getting to meet and BS with Gdaybloke for the first time, road tripping to Canada with Zack and Scudo to meet "Northblade" Bell and Boots and bring some Spite to Conquest Toronto, and the obvious sitting around after a game night eating pizza and arguing with each other over the topic of the night. The lowlights of the year would have to be loosing two more of my gaming buddies (Zack and Mr Cash) to out of state jobs after we lost two the previous year.

The goal of this blog was to keep me painting and while I have had my lulls I do feel it is helping me get minis finished. In the year I have painted and babbled about many things. The blog has over 13K views so I would like to say a heart felt thanks to all of you that check in regularly and to those of you that follow the blog. I'd like to give a couple shout out in honor of hitting the one year mark. The first shout out is to Nuclear who was the first person to officially follow the blog so thanks.....if you still check in that is ;-) Next up I'd like to give Oxyguy for leaving the most comments. Thanks to Oxyguy, DieselDM, PG_Eviscerae, PG_Z1G1, and Scudo for joining in on the blog and taking part in the Cave Challenge. Lastly shout out to Russia for being the country that checks in with the Cave more than any other (narrowly beating out the UK and Canada).

So I haven't made too much progress on anything lately but I do have some WiPs to show so that this isn't back to back blog entries with just words. Here are the projects I plan to focus on in the near future and hope to have finished before the end of the year.

Current status of the War Wagon 

Current picture of Horthol. He is close to getting his shade wash then it will be a matter of highlighting and all that jazz. Once he is finished I will want to get his long rider brethren finished as well. 

Second unit of Runeshapers. I will get the third unit assembled at some point and then buy a forth as pDoomies tier will get played at some point. 

I have a Jarl list in my head I am really looking forward to getting on the table and Nyss hunters are a very big party of it. I have had the Nyss for sometime now but decided it was time to get some paint on these bad boys. I broke out the airbrush and basecoated the main body sections with RMS muted purple triad (I forget the actual name of the color). I intend to put two additional layers of RMS purples prior to washing the cloth with GW liche purple.

While I haven't seen the official statline I hear Rask has been spoiled and is pretty darn sexy. Looks like I will be working on some gators at the end of the year/early next year. Here are a few of the gators I have in partially painted states and will be trying to finish up.

I also have some other projects I am going to start in the near future but will keep those quite until they are finished up. Thanks again for a great year and following along on my journey.

Gobber Thief "Sammy" Nearly Done

When I got home from work this am the house was quiet so after sitting down and watching last nights Ultimate Fighter I headed down to the cave. I did some work on Sammy and also some other assembly work and an "experiment".

First off is the assembly. One of the projects is on the DL so I will not be putting photos up until it is all finished and whatnot. The other project is I finally got around to putting together one of my gatorman witch doctors. I have been itching to play one of these gentleman since I saw them in Domination. I have planning on playing them in my Jarl lists. I like to run Jarl heavy with either a quickened quickened gatorman posse or Nyss hunters. I think traditional logic says Nyss are the way to go but I have had better luck with the gator. I find a lot of people get surprised how far they can charge living models.

It bothers me how PP decided to split the jaw but they didn't ask me did they? There seems to be a trend of this as it was also done with Sturm and Drang (does two minis equal a trend?) and I am not a big fan of it. I will have to break out a little green stuff to fix up the jaw gap but I guess that is OK cause I need a little green stuff on the mystery mini. The next time I get out to play I hope to get this bad boy on the table with the Devil himself. I am looking at something along these lines at 35pts:

Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood (*6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Rok (11pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
OR

Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood (*6pts)
* Slag Troll (6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Sons of Bragg (6pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
At the 50 pt level I am thinking something like this:

Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood (*6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Rok (11pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Sons of Bragg (6pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)

OR

Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood (*6pts)* Troll Impaler (5pts)* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)* Ršk (11pts)* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)Sons of Bragg (6pts)Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)Rorsh & Brine (9pts)
My experiment centered around a croak hunter I primed some time ago. I went with the Vallejo surface primer via the airbrush and used grey (although it is really light). I like the way brighter colors show up on white but find it a little unforgiving if you miss any coverage. This months PtT over at http://losthemisphere.com/blog/ is a minion or merc mini so it seemed fitting I tinker with this guy. To try and overcome some of the issues I have with "white" primer I gave him a layer of Badab Black so that there was dark in all of the recesses. I hope this will help but only one way to find out eh?

Okay last but not least is the work I did on lil Sammy here our ruthless IKRPG thief. I highlighted his cloak, little highlight on his pants, and started his teeth and nails prior to the boys getting up and calling downstairs for me to come play Candyland. I have to do one more layer on the teeth/nails and do his eyes and he is gonna be ready for a base and matte varnish.

This post is a little on the long side so when I get Sammy finished I will go into his stat sheet a little then. I will also introduce you to Capt Noghannan who is going to be my first converted IKRPG mini. Okay time for a nap so I can get up and watch the Yankees/Tigers game 1 before work.

Cave Challenge: Week Three Update

Three weeks down and here we are. I don't think many of us are feeling overly positive about getting done on time currently (with the exception of one or two guys). I didn't get all that much done during the week but was up at 0430 today and was able to have a productive morning prior to posting this. I have been working on the sunburst crew, attendant priest, and steel heads.

I drybrushed the bases, finished up the metals, painted the grey robe sections, and (not photoed) washed the robes and some of the chainmail with Badab black wash.

I base coated all the metal sections on the sunburst launcher and have subsequently washed it with my metal wash. My plan is to stay up late tonight and get the crew finished and add 3pts to the finished pile.

Like the sunburst crew the priest had his base drybrushed, metals finished up, grey robe basecoated, and robes washed with Badab balck. When I am workin on the crew later I hope to get the highlights done on his robe and maybe the red sections basecoated.

Here is a blurry photo of the steelheads. I did a little extra metal work this am on them and they were ready for wash. One of the metals didn't take the wash too well so I am trying an alternative approach. The remaining nine got a quick coat of matte varnish via the airbrush to see if the extra tooth from the matte will make the wash sit better on the lighter metal sections (fingers crossed) I hope to give that wash a go in the next hour or so.

Then we have an update from Oxyguy. I don't think he got a lot painted this week but he had to call an audible on his list. Due to unforeseen issues the blackclads, Lord of the Feast, and Lanyssa are getting shelved and he is swapping in Snapjaw and Wrongeye and the stone UA.

Next update is from DieselDM who continues to bang through his 5th Border Legion Khador army. This week he did a unit of doomreavers to add to the homicidal maniac feel of his eButcher force. Here is a photo of the finished unit. The swords came out really nice imo.

As always swing by Dieseldm's blog to follow the narrative and see more photos. All he has left are the greylords + escort and two 'jacks....get on it my man :)

I don't have updates from Evicerae, Scudo, or Z1G1 but Scudo and Z1G1 are recovering from GenCon and I am sure Evicerae got his stuff close to finished as he was on a major role in previous weeks. He has set a goal of two 50pt list by December.

That is that for the weekly update. Keep at it guys and best of luck.

'Scrum Week 18 and More

I had to finish up this weeks 'scrum submission early as we are heading out to my folks this afternoon. Here is the lead for a unit of champions t go along with Skaldi from a few weeks ago. All I need to do now is get some grunts done for them to lead. I was going to paint two of them for the last two weeks of the 'scrum challenge however that all changed with the package from Rob. Unless something changes drastically Mouth the angry EBDT will be painted next week and Rok will close out the festivities with a big bang....or big ass axe. The grunts should be painted in between these heavies so I have an entry for this months PtT.

I also did a little more work on that angry witch hunter Harlan. He is looking pretty sloppy right now as the leather was is drying and looks a little splotchy. This shouldn't be an issues as once I highlight the leather it should all tie back in nicely.

After working on the boneswarm last week I have been eye balling my Blindwater Congregation minis again. I looked over at the partially painted shelf and saw Snapjaw looking sad and unfinished so I did a little it of work on him as well. Seeing as my gator are suppose to be a "speed painted" faction for me I did a quick drybrushing highlight and two shading washes. He is mostly done at this point only needing his teeth/nails/ chain/nose ring, eyes, and base painted.

He is nothing fancy to look at but all an all not too bad. I need to finish up his buddy Wrongeye who is about 85% finished and there will be one more lesser warlock and beast finished. Once I get this pair finished and Brine finished I think I am going to play the minion carnival with Grim. The list is something like this:

Grim Angus (*6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Blitzer (9pts)
Brun Cragback & Lug (9pts)
Rorsh & Brine (9pts)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)

I don't think it will be overly competitive but looks like it would be pretty darn fun to play.

The last thing I did over the last few days is prime a couple test minis for the FADD army to see if the scheme I am seeing in my head looks good and is as fast to paint as I am hoping. I don't anticipate putting any paint to these test minis for at least two weeks but who knows. Time to go pack the car have a great weekend y'all.