Templecon Painting Rush

Quick list post before I get back to the painting table. I have been painting like crazy over the last few days trying to get ready for Templecon. I still have a bunch I want to try and get done but time is running out very quickly.

 I know looks kinda sketchy right? No worries just mixing up some of my trollblood basecoat

 OK I see what your are doing.

The final result. No mess, little waste, little effort just the way I like it. Just have to squirt it into the empty bottle.

Here are the minis I have been working on. I have made some significant progress and hope to have final pics soon. I have run into a SNAFU however as it seems I am all out of the ink I use to finish my bases. Seeing as no one sells it locally I am going to have to scramble. Wish me luck and updates soon.....I hope

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.

16 Days and a Ton to Do!

If I counted my days right we hit the road of Templecon 2013 in 16 days. Looks like our car will be transporting 5 people this year but I won't be driving which is nice. I have been going back and forth on weather or not I am going to go all in tourneys or just hit up a couple and play games with out of town friends and pick up games in the Iron Arena. I also want to get a demo game of SDE in at some point.

I am preparing as if I am playing in Hardcore and Blood, Sweat, and Tiers so I have to paint accordingly. Here is a list of the minis I want to have painted and their current status:

-Full Fennblades: In the last 2 days I have painted the blue skin and gold metal sections. I need to clean up some of the white metal sections and they are ready for a wash. These guys are slatted for BS&T if at all. Once they are washed they nearly meet basic requirements.

-Full Long Riders: I started these fellows sometime ago and they have sat on my shelf in this state for a while. I need to really get cracking on these guys.

-Horthol: Similar to the long riders

-eMadrak: I started this guys a loooong time ago. He has been in this nearly done state for well over a year. I need to finish up his skin, clean up the tartan (tried to paint the pattern on him) and finish his base then he will be hardcore ready (maybe). I don't have a photo on file and he his packed away so you will have to trust me.

-War Wagon: I did get a pretty good start on this bad boy before he got shelved. I took a second before heading to work last night to paint the wood flooring. After a was on the wood and a few sections of metal the main wagon section will be done.

-Grogspar: still need to put the finishing touches on Bell's Grogspar. Photos after Templecon's completion.

I have a few others things I want to try and get done as well such as paint pDoomshaper and assemble and paint (to basic requirements) a 3rd and maybe 4th unit of runeshapers......

Like I said a TON to do. Luckily I have the two weeks leading up to Templecon off from work. Hopefully some updates coming fast and furious over the next 16 days. See y'all at Templecon....

Late Night Action in the Cave

Last night after the Yankee game ended and the boys fell asleep I grabbed my iPod and headed down to the cave to try and make up for some lost time. I put on a little Goldfinger and started to work. I put in a good chunk of time working between the Sons of Bragg, Rok, the last champion grunt, and a few other odds and ends. Here is were everything stands as of this am:

 Group shot

Tor 

 Rhudd

Wrathar 

All the brothers had some work done on their skins, leathers, and tartan sections. Tor and Wrathar had their kegs painted and washed. As you can see I finally attached them to their actual bases in preparation for finishing touches. They all need more highlights on their skin as well as highlights on the green tartan sections. After those two things are done it will be down to finishing touches and doing the bases.

I brought the hands back up to match the rest of the body. I also basecoated and washed the darker leather sections (I missed one and will have to go back later). I also did a little work on the axe handle. I'd like to do another layer or two of highlights but looking at the beasts I have finished already his skin matches them better now so I might just call it here. Next up will be teeth, nails, and skulls.

 With the left over blue on the palette I started to basecoat some of the long rider's skin

Lastly I broke out the airbrush and primed my second unit of runshapers and two minis for the FADD army.

My night ended with me climbing into bed around 4am. I know I am going to regret this (already am a little) but I am happy with the progression. I didn't paint the entire time as I watched a couple episodes of Dexter season  off on demand while washes were drying and such. I'd like to get both Rok and the SoB finished tomorrow. This months target for PtT is a warbeast/warjack and submissions are due to Gday my midnight tomorrow. I'd also like to get the SoB finished up grab a couple glamour shots and send those photos off as well. We will see how much I can get done during the day today but I think I should be able to get it done......time will tell.

Lovin' the Airbrush

In the the What's in the box III post I mentioned that I have a bunch of wip to show and here they are. These wip span about 4 different days as you can see from the time stamps. I used the airbrush to prime all these mini and to start laying down the basecoats as well. First mini for show and tell will be the war wagon. I was attempting to get this bad boy ready to play in a Borka family reunion list for the ACM but wasn't able to get far enough along in the 24 hours I had.

All of the components were primed black and then base coated with Vallejo Model Air (VMA) steel.

I then broke out the Vallejo Model color brass and started to paint all the trim on the wagon. It isn't all finished but I got a pretty good start on the trim. I am not sure what will be the best way to lay down my shade wash when the time comes. I have seen some online videos where people use the airbrush to apply their wash but for some reason this scares me.

 Next up we have Horthol and the boys. Once again all the minis were primed black. As you can see the riders were left separate from the bison since I intended to spray the two section with different colors and this would help eliminated over spray.

The bison for the long riders were basecoated with a coat of thinned down P3 beast hide. I then mixed up some P3 battlefield brown and basecoated the fur sections.

After the browns were applied I took out the large drybrush and drybrushed the fur in a four color progression from P3 bootstrap leather, beast hide, jack bone, Menoth white base. Here on out the bison will be painted with the brush and my standard layering but I think this is a pretty good start.

Horthol's bison, dismounted Horthol, and all the riders were basecoated with VMA steel. I have to work on my ratios with the steel as it gunks up my airbrush more than any other color.

Lastly I basecoated the blizter. He was sprayed with my standard trollblood skin mix.

Not a bad start with 34pts of models getting started in a three/four day span. The blizter will be the last of the lot to get finished but once I finish the Sons of Bragg I really want to try and push out the war wagon, long riders and Horthol for an eBloodsong list I have been dying to try.

Oh What's in the Box?!? Part III

This post is a few days late but there was a reason. Package number three from Jersey was all basic assembly jobs but ones I have been dying to get on the table for some time. The delivery confirmation and tracking said I would have it with my Friday mail delivery (~1500) but I was hoping to get one of the items on the table for Saturday's ACM tourney so that wasn't going to do. I headed to the post office right when the lobby opened to see if I could get the package prior to it getting put on the truck. Low and behold I was able to grab it and get my new shinnies six hours early so could head into the cave to paint...but I am getting ahead of myself. Lets see what was in the box.

 The anticipation of opening is always so much fun. Like Christmas morning all over again.

 Lets go right to the big present shall we. BOOM! A war wagon

 What's that sound? Is it thunder in the distance? Fifth Street rolling into the FLGS? No! That my friends is the sound of Horthol and a Long Riders coming to get some.

Last but not least is a classic blizter to round out my stable of trollblood heavies. He was the last I didn't own and has a slot waiting for him in a Gunnbjorn list.

All of these new toys have already begun the painting process and some of them are nicely along. I was not able to get the war wagon far enough along Friday to be played on Saturday but he will be rolling into Comix Zone in the not too distant future to see some action. All these toys have distracted me a little from the Sons of Bragg but they too have seen some more work. I will have wip photos of the SoB and all the new whats in the box minis in my next post. tonight starts a work week for me so my painting time will be at a minimum but the SoB are the number one priority for the week. If I can get through them probably the wagon and long riders are next. Exciting reinforcements for the Kriels!!