Spending Spree/All About the Airbrush

After the disappointment of not being able to get Grim2 the other day I hit up my favorite online retailer discountgamesinc.com and made a purchase. I ordered Grim2 and a second Grim1 to paint at the same time. I picked up a second Grim1 because my Grim1 was one of the first minis in trollbloods I painted and I was curious to see the difference. I also picked up a pot of P3 paint, 2 brushes (needed synthetic brushes for oil washes and for Vallejo Liquid Gold paint), and one resin base. You may be saying not much of a spree there Nog....I will get to the rest of it in a second.

I finally got back down to the cave and splashed a little paint around. I still have little interest in traditional brush painting (not sure why) but I have been really into the airbrush. I have been watching a bunch of painting videos on the topic and just want to work with the airbrush. The first piece I have here is an old metal feral warpwolf. I know a lot of people are saying this mini is "dead" with the riphorn coming out but seeing as I have it I said might as well paint it up.  

 

At this point he is nearly all airbrushed. I did the skin with the airbrush using three colors. I basecoated with VMA sandy brown, then shaded with VMA burnt umber, and highlighted with VMA skintone. I was happy with the results for the most part but I did have some mess up. I had some airflow control issues had had some messy spray sections. One of them is on the right biceps but luckily this one is hard to see. The other is on the left triceps but not as bad as the right biceps. I then basecoated the fur with the airbrush using P3 battlefield brown. I then had to break out the real brushes and I drybrushed the fur sections using P3 bootstrap leather, beast hide, jack bone, and a little Menoth white base. I blacked out the armor plates in preperation for the metal basecoats but I stopped there. I also started basecoating a couple other minis with a two tone basecoat via the airbrush but those with wait until I get a little further along.

This love of the airbrush leads to my second and larger purchase of my spending spree. I have been looking into a second airbrush for a few months now and I finally decided to pull the trigger and buy one. I picked a Harder & Steenbeck Evolution Silverline 2 in 1. I have read good things about this brush and after talking with someone via emails my mind was set. I was considering the Badger Krome but elected to go with the H&B Evo. I also picked up a few other supplies while I was shopping online so that is that.

I am really looking forward to getting my new toys next week and hopefully my new trolls will get me back into the full swing of painting. I plan to play some games next week (most likely Friday) and I plan to test out Grim2 for the first time. I have yet again come up with another list one that I can play without having to finish ant assembly, other than Grim and the boys, prior to game day:

Grim2 (-4pts)

*Mountain King (20pts) 

*Rok (11pts)

*Runebearer (2pts)

Fennblades: full (8pts)

*UA (2pts)

Pyg Burrowers: full (6pts)

Fell Caller (3pts)

SSC (2pts)

I kinda miss not having the bone grinders in there but I really like the damage potential on nearly all the models in the list. I think mortality can go a long way to helping the mountain king reach his potential but that will remain to be seen. I am fairly comfortable in the statement that the dygs will be a terror with the potential to benefit from mortality, a fell call, and charge of the trolls. If you pull off the perfect storm these little buggers can get to mat 10, P+S 12, and P+S 18....not to shabby :)

OK thats is that for now. Have a great weekend all and hopefully next week will see a flurry of activity in the cave and a bunch of updates.

Templecon Day 1 Wrap Up

OK Templecon was officially to begin. After being up until about 2am catching up with out of town Team Spite members we woke up about 7am to get some breakfast and head down to the gaming hall to get seats for the keynote address.

Les rocking the new official Team Spite shirt. I picked these up two days before we hit the road. 

 Little Scudo wandered over to say what up and get some steamroller sheets.

z1g1 wide eyed and ready to roll to the team tourney.  

The crowd grew outside the gaming hall as we awaited our chance to grab seats for the keynote presentation. Guarding our door was the famous/infamous G'daybloke. It was nice to BS and catch up a little prior to getting into the hall.

PPS Ed Bourelle, Will Shick, and Lyle Lowery preparing to dazzle the crowd with the new hotness. If you haven't seen the keynote presentation yet....but I am sure you have head over to privateer press and check it out.

 

After the keynote address and Q&A it was time to get down to some gaming. The first event of the weekend was the team tourney. I played in this last year and lord is it a long event. it is far too long for my liking so I sat it out and decided to try and play in the 75pt time crisis event later in the day. I walked a round a little checking out the demos in the hallway, the vendor booths, registered for iron arena, and headed back to the room to relax and work on some lists for time crisis.

Time crisis was suppose to be a 75pt event with frenzy timing per the new steamroller 2013 rules. Frenzy timing for those of you that are unaware uses the turn times of two point lvls lower. This means a 75pt event would have seven min turns with one three min extension! The didn't have enough of the correct clocks so we ended up playing 42min deathclock instead. There was a drawing for anyone using two 120mm bases in a single list after watch round. The two lists I settled on were:

Chief Madrak Ironhide (*6pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Sons of Bragg (6pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)
Troll Whelps (2pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)

and

Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Rok (11pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
War Wagon (9pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)

The Madrak list is a variation of the pMaddy list I have been paying for the last year and love to play. I have this list down pretty darn well and have my order of activation pretty well set. The second list is a Family Reunion list that I have played some but never with the two 120mm bases. I was really excited to try this guy out and planned to play this most if not all of the games. It was at this time that I ran into a serious snag in my plans. While I was unpacking my lists for the tourney I noticed I didn't have my keg carrier! I ran out to the war store booth to try and buy a new Borka but they had non in stock. Well looks like just pMaddy for me. The event had a pretty small entrance seeing as so many people were still playing in the team tourney.

My first round opponent was Andrew from New Jersey. The first round scenario was into the breach. He decided to run a Constance Blaze list. We both made some mistake throughout the fight but I think he forgot the effects of snaking when he selected his list as on his feat turn my beat up beasts destroyed large chunks of infantry and due to snaking he didn't get the souls and therefore the major benefits of the feat. The game ended with Constance being assassinate. We both played a little sloppy but it was a fun game and was a good opponent. 1-0

Round two I played Brian from New Hampshire. He was playing pDenny.....uggh. As a troll play I loathe pDenny since unless I am play pDoomshaper I know one of my units/beasts will be out of play the entire game. The game was back and forth. While he decided to crippling grasp the mountain king and take him out of action I was able to do some serious counter damage and was able to weather Denny brutal feat. This too was a fun game but there was a clock SNAFU on my part. Since we didn't have a chess clock that switched time over I forgot to start my clock. In response I decided to let my clock run off time as a penalty which we both felt was fair. I forgot I could just adjust the time and restart my turn. Well the round time ended and we learned of a new SR2013 rule. If the combined time on both clocks is greater than 5 min the game is considered a draw. my clock showed 5 min and his showed 1 min. Result = draw. We were pretty sure his clock was <30 sec so while waiting for the pairings for the next round I hit the start button and began to count. the clock had 12 sec left. Uggh I screwed this game up. 1-0-1

My opponent for the last round was Tim from Pennsylvania. I am not sure if you can make it out but this was a Sturm and Drang force made up of seven war hogs and two road hogs! Here I thought I was rolling beast heavy. The mission at hand was incursion. Incursion is not a favorite of mine playing beast bricks as spreading out is something I really would like to avoid. The game was going pretty well for me as the mountain king just wouldn't die and I was able to continuously block charge lanes with spawning whelps. I got a little careless however and ended up losing on scenario as I couldn't get enough back to contest the last flag. S&D killed the mauler that was contesting the last flag and dominated to get the last two CPs required to win. When the dust cleared I killed all seven war hogs and one of the road hogs but that darn scenario victory jumped up and bit me.

I finished 1-1-1 and never having played at 75pts in the past I have to say it was a fun event to play in. I enjoyed playing with all three of my opponents which helped to make it a fun event. Time to grab a little dinner and get ready for midnight madness. The midnight tournament was warcaster's dilemma which was a 35pt event with specialist. Specialists is a new feature in SR2013 which acts like a sideboard. The two lists I selected for the event were:

Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
specialist:
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (4pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)
Troll Whelps (2pts)

and

Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood (*6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Ršk (11pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
specialists:
Sons of Bragg (6pts)
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter (2pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)

My opponent for the first round was Tyler from Connecticut. He was playing Legion and while I cannot remember what his other list was I was pretty sure he was going to pick Saeryn and he did. I went with pDoomie. In hindsight I am not sure why I picked this list as I think Jarl would be a bit better here. I had an odd feeling the dygs were really going to get their moneys worth and maybe that is why I picked pDoomie. I won the roll and went first. Turn one nothing eventful on either side other than buffs and advancing. Two tur I popped the dygs, fell called them, fortuned them, and purified the respawn on an angle. The dygs then charge an angle and neph bolthrower killing the angle and taking out half of the neph. This was an early piece advantage for me and I was able to ride this out to a W. it did get a little hair there for a second near the end when I left the smallest of gaps between minis allowing Saeryn to throw some knifes at Doomshaper but he made it through relatively unscathed. 1-0

Round two I ran into Derrick from Canada. I actually met Derrick last March when I headed up to Toronto to play in the Conquest Tournament that Northblade and Boots were running. Based on his two lists I selected Jarl planing on popping feat early to prevent some shooting. He selected Ravyn as 'caster. The game ended top of three when he moved Ravyn a little too far forward and I was able to drop two sniped bomber shots on top of her. 2-0

Round three was Chris from NYC playing Protectorate. I watched some of his game from the previous round and hear him say he like to play Thyra versus trolls so I had a pretty good idea which list he was going to play. I selected my Jarl list. The game was back and forth with both of us making some mistakes. My biggest mistake came when I had an enlivened Avatar in charge range of Rok. When enliven was put on the Avatar I laid out my plan to trigger enliven and still be able to get Rok on him. Well when I got to that part of my turn I forgot my plans and just primaled Rok and charged....oooppps. We were both starting to see a lot of attrition when the judges came over and called time. I was a little thrown off by this as we didn't have any major clock issues that I could recall. His deathclock had less than a min left on it and my had just over 5 min. What did we learn earlier kiddies? Doh another drawn 2-0-1

 

The last round of the tourney started about 5:30am. I was pitted against Paul from NYC (a buddy of Chris in fact). He was playing Cirle and picked a Grayle army. I went with pDoomie for no specific reason. I was a little on auto pilot at this time and figured out game really didn't mean anything. Paul had me from the get go. He was putting his pieces in far better location and was just out playing me without question. He ended up winning the game on scenario. We had a fun game but he won really easily. While out game was still going on the sun began to shine through the windows and when all was said and done it was 7:00am when the event was over.

 

I really enjoyed this event and liked all my opponents. Despite being thoroughly beaten by Paul I was really happy to hear during the announcements that he finished fourth in the event and qualified for masters. I guess our game did mean something. 

 

After the tourney nick and I stumbled a round for a little bit looking to grab some breakfast but ended up just heading back to the room and crashing. That wrapped up day one of Templecon and I have to say it was a fun day and I was really glad to have seven games that were enjoyable and seven opponents I would gladly play again in the future. Thanks guys for fun games. 

In the Hall of the Mountain King Part 5

Here we are again back to work on the mountain king. Still doing all those detail section which are soooooo time consuming.

After painting up the teeth and nails I was able to glue the head and loincloth sections onto the big guy. He is start too look whole at this point.

Next up.......WHELPS! I then proceeded to highlight the whelps that are on the kings body or need to be attached. This process followed my normal troll progression. I then hit up all the crests and chin/arm nubs with old school GW warlock purple. I need to do their teeth/nails and eyes and they will be done.

As you can see from the time stamp I started this post a few weeks back. Well here he stands currently as I haven't touched him since. Next post will be the finished mountain king. I hope to get back to him before Templecon but as you can see from the previous post I have a bunch on my plate right now. I have gotten some work done on the other minis in my painting log so hope to have some photos on those later in the week. Time for a nap.

In the Hall of the Mountain King Part 4

At this point the king has had the bulk of his painting done and it is down to the nitty gritty work of details. While detail work can be tedious and frustrating it is really what bring the final mini to life making it a necessary evil.

The first sections to receive detail work would be the metal sections and his loincloths. Once these sections are completed I can proceed to final assembly. I started to paint the seams on the loincloth. These were picked out with P3 rucksack tan.

I really liked how smoothly the airbrush put down the basecoat of bootstrap leather on the loincloth sections so I masked off the skin with some painters tape and blutac and base coated the belt the same way. I was able to avoid any overspray issues.

I know some people paint their metallic right over the base color but I have always found the results to look better when painted over black. This often require and extra step for me as I have to back over all of the metal section black prior to hitting them with their metallic base color.

I mentioned in the previous post I wasn't 100% happy with my first attempt at the oil wash technique. I decided to try it again but with a little bit more concentrated wash. I did this on the loincloth and belt section with van dyke brown and the skin with a mix of cobalt blue hue, van dyke brown, and ivory black. I was happier this go around but still have room to improve this technique. As you can see here I also did the metal section using VMA steel on my white metals and VMC brass on yellow metals. The loops on the belt were picked out with P3 rucksack tan prior to being washed. I also took the time to paint the smaller rock outcropping which were too small to drybrush with the rest as it could have messed up the skin around them.

It was at this time I started toying with ideas for the mountain king's base. One of my initial concepts was to use a heavy Cygnar wreck marker with a whelps standing on top as a little jab to my Cygnar playing buddies (you know who you are) but didn't really love the idea. I was also having a hard time fining a great spot of it. This lead me my second idea and the one I went with. I took half of a krielstone and removed the hand sections. I then pinned a pyre whelps on top. This is going to go in the back left section of the base. I am also going add an EBDT whelp near the front of the base like he is running along next to the king. you can see the EBDT whelp on the cork. The other whelps pictured are the ones that need to go on the king himself.

OK this post is long enough. Next time more details and some assembly work.

In the Hall of the Mountain King Part 3

In my last post I mentioned I was about to enter new territory for my painting. Up to this point everything I have done was familiar to me. This isn't 100% true as I never did highlights with the airbrush but I am comfortable using the brush so it wasn't that big of a leap.

The first new technique I was going to try out was the use of dry pigments to shade and add variety to the skintones. I have seen this done by Schnauzerface and Les from www.awesomepaintjob.com and liked the results. A few days ago I posted some photos of some new supplies I received in the main and the pastels were for this process.

I took a few purples, blues, and red from the box and scrapped off a fine powder with my hobby knife. Here are the four I tried out. I found while applying it I preferred the color at 6 o'clock and used the colors at 3 and 9 for variety and didn't bother with 12 o'clock much at all.

I am not sure how well it came out in the photos but I was thrilled with how it added nice subtle and smooth shading. I was a little apprehensive at first but once I got it down a little I loved it and can see myself doing it more in the future. I did end up with some dry powder on my rock sections but this cleaned up really easily with a clean damp brush. At this point I gloss varnished the entire mini in preparation for my next new adventure in painting.

I have seen many tutorial on the oil wash technique and was really interested in giving it a go. I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up a few supplies to try it out. I figured I would try it on the loincloth sections first so that if I messed it up it wouldn't be too hard to redo.

The oil wash didn't turn out as well as the use of dry pigment. I think this was due to my apprehension in using the product and I think my wash was actually too dilute with not enough oil paint. I wouldn't say it came out poorly just not spectacularly. I also played with some oil wash shading on some of the cracks in the kings skin (forhead, nuckles, back).

At this time I hit the model with a coat of matte varnish....ut oh. The matte varnish came out a little "fuzzy" and really muted the nice shading done of the skin. I actually think the matte made the stones sections look better but I was worried about the skin. I painted a little gloss varnish over a small section of skin and it seems to "revitalize" the previous work so I am not too concerned as I will hit the skin with a gloss layer again to bring the skin back to life. I have bought a new bottle of matte in hopes of avoiding this issue when I do the final layer of varnish on the king.

Well the major components of the mountain king are essentially done. It is not time to do the time consuming and tedious task of detail work.....and as they say the devil is in the details.