Brush for Rent – MIA

Never fear, the posts have not gone, they have just been moved.

http://brushforrent.wordpress.com

is the new home for my commission work. I’ll continue to post what I paint for myself here, though that may be more sporadic than it has been.

2012 – Magic “8″ Ball Time

Here we are at the start of a new year, all ready to make promises to ourselves that we’ll find excuses for in December as to why we did not achieve them.

The following is a list (in no particular order) of what I’d like to achieve hobby-wise in 2012.

• Start painting for commission (likely)
• Maintain this blog (likely)
• Have a fully painted Khador force (likely)
• Have a fully painted Skorne force (likely)
• Place Top-5 in a tournament of 12 or more people (possible)
• Place Top-3 in a tournament of 12 or more people (unlikely, depends who plays)
• Win a painting award at a tournament (possible)
• Build a 2×2 portable demonstration table (possible)
• Become a Press-Ganger (unlikely, ACT already has two)
  • Have painted battle-boxes for Khador, Menoth, Cygnar and Cryx (likely)
  • Have painted war-packs for Circle, Skorne, Trollbloods and Legion (unlikely)

What are your goals for the year?

Skaldi Xmas and his little Whelpers

I’ve been alluding to it for a couple of weeks now, but I can finally reveal most of my Secret Xmas Project…

I like to give painted models as presents at Christmas, and this year I thought to do something a little different. So a grabbed two packs of Trollblood Whelps and concocted a (not very) devious plan. I painted up 6 whelps for “Formerly Known As…” as gifts for the players, and kept 3 of them for a diorama for my wife.

Of course, I told her that they were all for the players and I told the players they were for my wife. Mwahahahahahaha!

And then I had an idea to paint up Skaldi as well, as a Father Christmas!

Up next … who knows?

Formerly Known As …

Today I hosted an end-of-year BBQ to give back to those people who have made my year of (more) competitive Warmachine/Hordes enjoyable.

Originally it was going to be a 35pt tier event – but with people coming from interstate, as well as others starting new factions, there were issues about the ability of people to make competitive theme forces… so the event was changed to “The Event Formerly Known As ‘Tiers, Beers and Xmas Cheers’”. At stake – I’d buy and paint up a small-based model of their choice, oh, and bragging rights (for what that is worth).

I invited 6 of my best gaming buddies to participate in a 3-round, single list, Steamroller 2011 tournament, with an emphasis on fun over seriousness.

I pre-rolled the three rounds (so that I could prepare markers and players could tailor lists) and I came up with:

• Clayton’s Scenario (Killbox)
• Where’s the KaBOOM? (Destruction)
• Survivor: Immoren (Outflank, Outfight, Outlast)

Here are the lists that they took:

Sarah
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
- Mulg the Ancient
- Dire Troll Mauler
Trollkin Champions (max) + Skaldi Bonehammer
Fennblades (min) + Fennblade Officer and Drummer

James
Kallus, Wrath of Everblight
- Ravagore
- Scythean
- Shredder
Blighted Nyss Grotesques (max)
Blighted Ogrun Warmongers (max)
Spell Matyr
2x Strider Deathstalker

Andrew
Master Ascetic Naaresh
- Bronzeback Titan
- Titan Gladiator
- Rhinodon
Agonizer
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)
Paingiver Task Master
Gatorman Posse (max)

Nathan
Lord Arcanist Ossyan
- Pheonix
Arcantrik Force Generator
Dawnguard Invictors (max) + Invictor Officer and Standard Bearer
2x Mage Hunter Assassin
Mage Hunter Strike Force (min)

Shayne
Thagrosh the Messiah
- Angelius
- Scythean
- Seraph
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (max)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Strider Deathstalker
Spawning Vessel (max)

Pete
Karchev the Terrible
- Beast-09
- Berserker
- Marauder
Battle Mechanics (max)
Kovnik Josef Grigorovich
Winter Guard Infantry (max) + Winter Guard Officer and Standard Bearer
Yuri the Axe

At the end of the day the winner was James (3-0), scoring himself a painted model of his choice. Come the new year, looks like I get to paint up Kallus.

From the sides, I watched a couple of tight games that came down to caster on caster and some really swinging rolls. At one point Andrew was averaging 4 on two dice!

Thanks to the guys (and gal) for coming along. It’s the people you play with that really make this hobby, and I’ve been fortunate to have had a stellar year of fun, learning and an overall fantastic community vibe.

I’ll leave this entry with some shots from the day. Thanks again to Cheaty for supplying terrain.

Here’s to 2012!

Painting Update – Dec 2011

With the new version of iBodger, I now have a way to more easily track which of my models have been painted. While I finish up my Secret Xmas Project, I thought it’d be interesting to see how I’m progressing.

Painted Log

• Khador – 94.1% (of 34 models)
• Circle Orboros – 62.5% (of 32 models)
• Legion of Everblight – 7.7% (of 13 models)
• Skorne – 60.5% (of 43 models)
• Trollbloods – 100% (of 2 models)
• Mercenaries – 100% (of 2 models)
• Minions – 100% (of 1 model)

I always thought I’d invested a lot into Khador, but I have two other factions that have close to if not more models – Circle and Skorne. Though, the numbers are skewed because the majority of my Khador are heavy warjacks, while my Skorne and Circle both have infantry.

The list doesn’t look so bad considering this year I’ve given away / sold off my Cryx, Cygnar and Trollbloods and have not included the Protectorate of Menoth that I painted for someone else.

Come 2012, lets see if I can get 100% painted!

Lanyssa Ryssyll

I like to wind down the painting year, and spend December knocking off casual projects. Lanyssa is one such project. I didn’t hate my previous attempt, but felt it was time to update her. Keeping Althai’s Lanyssa on the screen I gave her another bash.

I’m really happy with the skin, I started dark and worked my way up to light, and I think it’d be my “go to” method for skin on small-based models. Because your only going in one direction with your layers, you don’t have to try and hit recesses, potentially rubbing paint on the wrong areas. I’m not so happy with the hair – the decision to dry-brush it may have been the wrong one and the effect doesn’t mesh with the rest of the model. And she’s my first attempt at pulling off Object-Source-Lighting (OSL), on the glowing gems (hanging down from her waist). It’s subtle, but does look very cool. After deciding on the blue, I was not sure what colour to paint the pants/leather – I choose Umbral Umber (a really dark brown), because I wanted to keep the blue as the focus of the model. She’s essentially two-tone (with the cloak being a neutral grey), and almost “urban” in feel. You will note that I have no painted the eyes – after being happy with the face I didn’t want to ruin my good work with jabbing paint into the eye socket. One day I’ll get the courage to do it all, but not today.

Every time I look at her, I just want to paint a Cygnar army.

Up Next … … Secret Xmas Project

Titan Gladiator

Apologies Internets, but I owe you some posts. I’ve been busy painting and playing, so have not had a chance to upload new photos until tonight. Here is the first shot – the Titan Gladiator. I learned a lot from painting the Bronzeback, and that meant that painting the Gladiator went a lot smoother. I undercoated in black, and it has resulted in much darker golds and an overall more menacing feel to the model. I’m also hitting my stride regarding the whites and they’re starting to look smoother (still room for improvement).

I made a custom base for this model in an attempt to raise up the tusks and alleviate the “titan problem” of sticking out too far. Its better, but still too much overhands. At least now, however, he can chomp on a small/medium based model and not put its eye out.

A fantastic model, both rule-wise and sculpt-wise, I’ve just got to get used to trying to slam things.

Next Up … Lanyssa Ryssyll

Aptimus Marketh

Aptimus Marketh, aka, “MC Arketh” (just look at those ‘Hammer’ pants!) – flew off the paint brush! All told, he took just over 2 sessions (about 4 hours) to finish – and I am pretty damn happy with the result. I’ve got my white cloth mojo happening, and the Skorne red blended nicely. I think the flesh tones could be tighter, but am still happy. I even didn’t mind painting the gold!

After looking at him on the base, he’s leaning a bit forward for my liking, but he’s still an impressive model – which will hopefully translate on the field.

Next Up … Titan Gladiator

Nihilators

My first (real) attempt at painting a full “cannon fodder” unit. Rather than attempt the entire unit at once, I’ve broken them down into two groups of 3, then two groups of 2 – knocking them off while painting other things (like Tyrant Xerxis, or Master Tormenter Morghoul). The unit does suffer for consistency – I’ve changed the way I paint white cloth since I did the first three, for example – but it’s getting done!

These are a nice model to break up the other Skorne with, purely because they have so little armour – and it helped me work on my Skorne flesh tones. I’m still not painting flesh as smoothly as I’d like to, but I think that painting the darkest layer first is paying off as I don’t have to go back so often and fix it up – resulting in faster models, which I think is important for units of this size. Sure, I could spend 10+ hours per model in the unit, but I’d prefer to spend 4 to 6 and not burn out.

Looking at those numbers, its quite shocking how much time I spent per model. I’d never really looked at things that way.

Next Up … Aptimus Marketh

Master Tormenter Morghoul

Mr Stabby was a (surprising) joy to paint. A while ago I painted up Lord Assassin Morghoul and he just annoyed me (pose looked awkward, a lot of the ‘same’ armour) – but I was surprised at how simple MTM is to paint. His weapons/arms still feel a little unnatural when posed – I get what they were trying for, but (to me) it makes his arms look too long. Perhaps if the claws were angled down from the wrist, rather than straight out from it – it may look better.

I’ve played him a couple of times and he’s a really interesting caster – good beast support and can run, jump and dice himself if needs be. Fortunately, he’s also really good at getting out of the way again so you can keep him nice and hidden. As befits a ninja-assassin-torturer.

Next Up … Nihilators…