'Scrum Hangover/Back on Track

After finishing up the 'scrum challenge and taking the family to Sesame Place for a mini vacation I have don't very little painting since the last wips for Rok and Mouth. The prospect of painting up the Sons of Bragg in the near future has lit a fire back under me and I was able to get a little work done this am before I crashed.

I have put my shading wash down on Mouth now it is time to start the long grind of highlighting all that sexy blue flesh. Have I said it before....I love how he came out.

I also did a little work on Rok. Rok is lagging a little behind his EDT cohort because I need to basecoat his metals before I can put down his shade wash. I put the basecoat down on his beard and drydrushed the stone blade for his ask. Both minis have also received one layer of matte sealant to try and protect from chipping.

Lastly I painted up all the cork for Rok's base so that I can attach him to it once I get the shade wash on him. This photo was taken right after the sepia ink was put on the dirt section which is why it looks wet.

'Scrum Week...oh Wait a Min That's Over?

Well LnL is in 4 days so despite starting a mini for this weeks 'scrum challenge the challenge is over. I am not sure what I was thinking but oh well he is underway. I'd like to give a shout out to Goris for your running the challenge and to all eleven painters that made it through to the end (could some of you dropped so my chances of a battle engine were greater?). Have not heard yet who won the battle engine but the way these things go it won't be me.

Seeing as I didn't have to rush to finish my champion grun I shifterd gears a little the last two days. Yesterday I did some cleaning for my FADD army. I truely hate assembly and this unit doesn't look like it is going to be fun. I also cleaned and primed a few more of my Dragonforge bases.

I also took some time to finish up the two 30mm testbases for the FADD army and broke out the airbrush and my freshly mixed pot of trollblood skintone to basecoat Rok and Mouth (EBDT). I didn't take photos of these.

This am my four year old woke up screaming blood murder for no apparent reason (only guess is nightmare) but after that I was awake so I headed down into the basement to do some work. This am I blackend all the rock sections for Rok/Mouth so that I can go ahead and drybrush them up.

Next up on Rok I need to lay down the basecoats on this axe and other various metal bits. The next two steps will go pretty fast with a three layer drybrushing of the stone section and then the wash of the skin/metals. After that will be the laborious process of highlighting all that troll flesh and then the detail work. I also need to axe Rok a suitable cork rock base to go along with Mulg and my EDTM. The more I look at these two models the more I love what Rob did with the, He did a fantastic job of building what I had in my mind just via a couple emails. I am not sure how much more paint time I will have over the next few days bu I hope to have one or both of these bad boys done in a week or so.

I also took some time to work on a test 'caster and grunt for the FADD army. After laying down a little color the vision in my mind is shifting a little so the scheme is still a little fluid at this point. More on them later down the road.

'Scrum Week 20 Progress/Target Missed

Over the last two days I have been able to get a fair amount of progress on the 3rd grunt for my champion unit. This is were he currently stands:

Saturday's work.

Today's work

As you can see he is almost there but I have just run out of paint time for today as I have to get off to work. I thought I had until the end of the day tomorrow to meet my PtT goal but I just looked at the deadline and it is today....target missed. I intend to finish this grunt off tomorrow and maybe start a little on Rok or Mouth the angry EBDT.

Last night I was able to sneak a couple min to do some cleaning of FADD minis. Today, wile waiting on drying, I did a little drybrushing on a couple Dragonforge bases for the FADD army as well. I am really liking these bases and just placed another order so I can expand the army down the road.

'Scrum Week 19 Done

Despite having the house to myself most of the day and being really tired I ended up forgoing much of my sleep time to bang out this weeks 'scrum mini. Here is one of the grunts for a min unit of champions. He goes along nicely with last weeks champ hero and three weeks ago mini Skaldi (I think it was three). I need to get grunt number two done so I can submit them to 'Gday over at LH before the end of the month for the PtT.

Here is the grunt with his leader ready to apply axe to mouth on any enemies of the Kriels. In the background Bloody B is begging to be completed.

While waiting for washes to dry on the grunt I also took some time to gloss the gems and all in all not a bad second attempt at gems.

I also took a little time out of my day to sort out some coins to reinvest into my minis. I haven't emptied the change jar in some time so as you can see not too bad of a pile. I ran out of quarter rolls.
Time to get ready for work...BOOO! The house will be empty in the am so I hope to bang out a few hours of work for both next weeks 'scrum min and the PtT seeing as the end of next week will have no painting time.

Lil Something

This week has been an aweful showing for me i the hobby department. I have really done next to nothing and it is bugging me yet I am still unable to get going. The prospedt of doing the EBDT for this weeks 'scrum mini is completely off the table and it appears I will be scrambling to do a champion grunt over the next two days. Here is where the grunt stands after last weekend:

If I can get the yellow metal down tonight and maybe the metal/skin wash I should be in OK shape tomorrow for a last min push (sounds familiar). I have also been working a the test base for the FADD army. Here is a 40mm base from the forgotten empires line. I have done three layers of drybrushing on the stone and 3 layers of paint/drybrushing on the dirt sections. I painted both gem sections white and then Khador Red Base on one of them. I am going to try and produce two different gem stones on this base. The first one I am going to attempt will be a blood pearl which Ron Kruzie demonstrated for his studio showdown Skorne army in NQ 19. The second is going to be a traditional red gem stone following the gem tutorial from NQ 36. Gemstones always intimidate me so I rarely do them but I really want these to work out so fingers crossed. After all is said and done I will be attaching Army Painter tufts to finish the bases.

The last thing I did was in preparation for painting the EBDT and Rok. I mixed up a new batch of my Trollblood skintone and then further diluted it for easier airbrush application. This mix is essentially 1:1 of GW enchanted blue and fortress grey. This was then further diluted using 70% isoproyl alcohol.

Where is the Week Going?

This week (painting challenge week starts on Saturday) is flying by. I had planned to paint up Mouth my new sexy EBDT but that is looking sketchy at best. I ran out of my trollblood skin mix so I need to mix up another batch but don't currently have everything I need. Even if I could get my pot mixed up there is just so much surface area that it looks like Mouth is going to have to wait. Luckily I started a Champion grunt over the weekend as an "in case" mini and for this months PtT. He has his metals based and the skin is based too (last on my mix). If the house is quite when I get home this am I intend to get a little more done on him before I crash.

I have also been doing a little for my FADD army project. I primed one of my dragonforge bases and began painting it up as a test to see how will it will work across the range. On my way home from softball last night I stopped by Comix Zone and picked up some Steelhead Halberdiers for the army as well. I hear that the steelheads are a little bit of a nightmare to assemble but we shall see. OK back to finish up here so I can leave on time. Hope to have some photos later today of progress.

'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.

What's in the Box? Part II and WIPs

Yesterday marked the arrival of batch number two from Rob. This batch consisted of two troll minis that I have been planning to do for a long time now. I had all the parts purchased months before I even came across Robs blog and probably before he even left PP. I got my parts and then they sat and sat. This happens often with me I get an idea and I just dislike assembly so much that I just say forget it and the go in the draw. While rob was just starting the first batch and sending me some wips via email I knew these two minis needed to be done. I sent him an email discussing the projects and after locking down terms they went out to the Garden State as well. One of the minis couldn't be completed right away 'cause we were still waiting for parts to be released by PP. So here is What's in the Box?!? Part II:

Oh the joy of new shinnies. The opening. I was in a rush to get out to the store so I didn't get a chance to take any pics other than this one yesterday.

Here is the primed shots for EBDT 2 (calling him Mouth for the time being). I forgot I hadn't taken any "raw" shots of him before I put him on the priming table this am. He is all EBDT except for his head which is that of the classic mauler. I picked up the extreme mauler head and the classic mauler head and the classic just fit better. The neck section blending the head to the body is all sculpted. I really like how this one looks more ferocious and ready to eat any that stand in his way.

 "Finally the Rok has come back to Team Spite and Syracuse!"

"The Rok is gonna lay the the smack down on your candyass. If yaaaa Smeeeelllllllll........what the Rok is cookin"

So here he is Rok. The plastic dire troll kit left me very flat. I really hate working with the PP plastics so as soon as they announced Rok and that plastic kits were coming I knew he was going to be an upgrade kit for their plastics. When I saw the base for the plastics I ran out and got a metal bomber to use instead. At this time I needed to come up with an idea for his back and started looking through the PP online store. I saw the back of the extreme mauler and bingo I had my back. All I needed was to figure out a hand and for the Rok kit to be released. My intention was to get the body done and just attach the kit when it was released, however, that didn't happen. Once I started working with Rob I knew he was the man to make the Rok in my head become a reality. Rob sent me the finished photos for approval prior to calling him done. He did a phenomenal job getting the back to look just like I envisioned but something was not 100% right with the neck and head. It was at this time I realized on of the major issues I have with the plastics and that was the gap of nothingness behind the head. After discussing this with Rob he sent be a photoshopped sketch and we were back on track. As you can see he extended the spin mohawk to the top of the head and had it incorporated around the collar. Some of the spines go thorough the ring on the collar and the others fold over it. Rob was able to make the Rok in my head a tabletop reality and I am extremely happy with the results he achieved. It is really going to be hard for me to wait but seeing as there are only three weeks (two if you take out this week) left of 'scrum challenges I think Rok is going to be my final entrance for the challenge.  

After the awesomeness of above these shots are a bit of a let down but here they are. Couple more wips of Harlan. I have been enjoying painting this mini and he was fun to field on the table killing more than his points both games I put him on the table yesterday.

Champion Leader for this weeks 'scrum challenge and hopefully a minimum unit for this months PtT. House is still quiet at the moment so I am gonna head in the basement and see what kind of work I can bang out quickly before people start to stir.

Dis and Dat

Morning all. Well I woke today at 2am to find my wife wasn't in bed. I got up and noticed my oldest wasn't in his room either so I headed downstairs to find them both on the couch watching TV. Apparently he got up a little after midnight and she had been trying to get him back to sleep since. Like an WWE tag team I got tagged in and she went back to bed. By 4:30am He was still up and I decided might as well get some painting done. After exchanging a couple text messages with Zack, and finding out he is going Mercs on Wed, I I decided I will play Khador. My package from Jersey should be her Wednesday but the mail gets here around 3-3:30 and I have to hit the road ~4:30 to head to the store so I won't have enough time to base one of the models like I want to.

I didn't really accomplish too much on the painting front just did a little here and a little there. I worked a little on Harlan blacking out where his metals will go and blocking in some base colors to see how I like the layout.

All the colors aren't blocked in yet (as evident by primer still being visible) but I think I like the direction he is going. I might try and block in the rest of it before the rest of the house wakes up but I should probably start doing some house work.

Since I decided on playing Khador on Wednesday I also had to look around and find one of the 'casters I intend to play. I am going with Vlad who is the 3rd oldest PP model I own. I bought and paint the Dark Prince back in late '03/early '04 (evidence below). He was am early work and I plan on doing a repaint at some point but he is good to hit the table.

OG MKI black and white card which had everything on just one card. Even in BW Vlad is a Pimp.

I also broke out the airbrush and put down the 5th Border Legion Green on my Extremoth. This thing is massive and is going to take a long ass time to paint but should be fun.

I told you he was big.

Last but not least I picked a model for this weeks 'scrum challenge and it is going to be the leader for a unit of trollkin champions. I also intend to do two grunts before the end of the month to meet the May PTT on Lost Hemisphere. There is not too much to see but here he is.