Guess What? Zombies!

I just finished my first Zombie Apokalypse Enforcer squad, and for the most part I'm fairly pleased. The colors, in particular the weathering, worked out almost as well as I had hoped. I wanted to go for a sort of "their armor used to be red" look, with most of the minis' armor rusted and bits of red here and there. everything that emits energy including the sergeant's blade, the jump jets on the armor, the lenses of the laser rifles, and the zombies' eyes are painted blue with my best attempt at a glow.

 

I could be more pleased with the flesh on my undead. The purple wash followed by the "camoshade" wash didn't go as planned. I was hoping to give them a dark green complexion with purple in the recesses, but I ended up with a muddy brown instead. Damn.

 

Since a close-up is called for here, I offer the mini which is currently my favorite. As you can see he doesn't have quite the greenish coloration we zombie painters usually look for, but he looks dead enough.

 

I decided to keep the entirety of the rifles black rather than rusting and weathering them. I figure that this way they stand out against the rest of the mini better, and break up the monotony of the rusted silver.

 

As I finished the minis I came to the conclusion that this was a bit more of a dark paintjob than I usually do. Click on my Dark Eldar and Grey Aliens over on the right for an example of my usual blinding color. The subdued coloration fits the grimy, fetid look of a zombie horde better though, in my opinion.

 

I hope to get my next squad painted tomorrow. They are pictured below. As you can see I've finished their armor, and now it's on to the skin, followed by the guns, glow, and bases. Not too far for a painter like myself, especially on only five minis.

 

 

I haven't decided if I'll add any further stuff to the minis' bases (static grass, clump flock, etc.).

 

As a closing note let me endorse Citadel's "Blood For The Blood Good" paint (if you can call it that). It looks really good on these minis, and you'll see more of as my minis become increasingly gory The Enforcers are intentionally left with a minimum of gore. The Marines, well that's a whole other story.

 

I should have more images soon.

End of the Month, and Moar Xombeez

Since my last post I've been quite busy hacking minis apart, drilling holes, and putting in pins. Every last join on these minis, save those that already had tabs, has a pin in it. I've gone through many a paper clip in this endeavor, and I must say that most of the minis are looking pretty slick at this point. I'll post some closeups once I get some paint on these fellas, but for now you'll have to live with the WIP shot to the right. What's really nifty about this conversion kit is that the zombie and ghoul torsos fit right into the top of the Enforcer legs, making for some excellent kitbash opportunities. Of course the Marines, being at first single-piece leg/torso combination parts needed a bit of sawing, clipping, and filing (as well as a fair bit of gap filling) but all-in-all this project has been a blast! I'm the sort of fellow who loves hacking minis apart and putting them back together in new and strange configurations, as will be shown by this project. Plus, zombies.

The process of sawing minis apart for conversion is not easy, and would be impossible without my trusty jeweler's saw. The accuracy of cuts it produces is amazing, and once complete the resultant product requires little cleanup. Then pinning, gluing, and gap filling, and voila! A new Zombie Marine. The challenge of bringing two unrelated minis not intended to go together into a coherent whole is a great time, and to those so inclined I would suggest this kit highly. Yes, there is quite a bit of "restic" involved, but it's not as horrible to work with as I had been led to believe.

I've put quite a dent into the project, finishing Mortis (gaps, basing, and all), 25 Enforcers (with four rocket launchers taken from left over Dust "Bot Hunters") 3 snipers (whom I regret not showing the process of converting their rifles), 2 Marine officers (made from regular minis plus random oddbits I had lying around) and ten Marines.

What has started to irk me is that I still have not heard or received anything from Mantic as far as the missing Marine minis are concerned, and I really don't want to have to shoot off an angry email to get the items I paid for. I have heard that Mantic has pretty good customer service, but regrettably I have yet to see it.

Primer was applied yesterday, as well as some of the paint on the first batch of zombie Enforcers. I'll have pictures of the first completed squad up soon.

Zombees!!!

Yep, my order from Mantic arrived, and now it's time to get crackin'. I first opened the box and found a bunch of loose frames. Ghouls and zombies to fuel my conversion fever, and a good many of them too.

I was of course thrilled at this, as I have been waiting for a couple of weeks to get my hands on these bits. The ghoul sprues (the little ones on the right) are old hat to me, consisting of parts I have seen before when Mantic sent out promotional minis to those who asked. I got one, slapped the fellows together, and promptly lost them.

What interested me much more were the zombies (center). I gleefully looked at the frames, checking out all the different pieces- especially the heads as I have been spending my time looking around the internet at unboxing articles, and both the Enforcers as well as the Marines come with their heads separate. Because of this I wanted to figure out how to put the minis together as best I could. I determined that the best route to go would be to drill holes in the arms and neck, insert some wire, glue the extremities to the pins, and use green stuff to fill any resulting gaps. The heads in particular would be challenging as the zombie and ghoul heads attach entirely differently than the Warpath minis. On the Kings of War stuff the neck is attached to the torso, whereas on the Warpath items the neck is attached to the head. I'll show pictures of this in my next post on this subject.

Next I pulled out the bases (above image on the left) and eyeballed them. Interesting enough they were, but not the focus of my attention.

Mortis was the next out of the box. I took him out of the baggie he came in and began counting and dry-fitting parts. It was immediately apparent that he was just covered in mold release agent, as he was slick to the touch. I tossed him into a screen colander I have just for washing minis and stuck my hand back into the packing peanuts. One, two, three, four, five baggies of Enforcers, all with five minis inside. Twenty five, exactly as expected.

It was then that I stuck my hand back in the box. I didn't feel a single thing. NOTHING. I flipped the box over, spilling styrofoam all over my floor. No sign of any more minis. I began rooting around, and found two baggies underneath one of the flaps. Two baggies seemed a touch ambitious to fit 70 minis into. Very ambitious. I ripped open the baggies and... Sure enough, only twenty Marine miniatures.

That seemed a bit off. The website claims (as above) that there are 70 zombie Marines to be made. Twenty Marines' worth of parts is a bit much to want to spread across 70 models.

I have an inquiry in with Mantic, as I'm pretty sure that this is just some shipping error on the part of a picker, or at least I hope so.

As you can see I have pulled out my converting tools and gotten ready to go to town on some minis. As I'm a pretty experienced kitbasher I should have no problem getting there minis to look fairly slick. Keep an eye on this space for some pictures.

The Deafening Sound Of Silence

Annoyed Etna is annoyed.

Yep, I've been a bad blogger. I have not been posting any updates. Honestly, the reason for this is simple:

I have not done anything of note wargaming related since my last update. Nothing. Sure there have been the occasional X-Wing skirmishes with Demitra (who has also fallen off of the face of the earth in terms of blogging), and we tried out the new Dust Battlefield rules (which are awful), but no real progress. I guess I've hit a spell of the "gaming doldrums", which every gamer has a run-in with from time to time, and that's ground my progress to a halt. I can't paint Malifaux right now (I promised my wife I'd paint with her), and I've pretty much hit the wall in terms of Super Dungeon Explore.

All is not lost though! A week ago I placed an order for Mantic's "Zombie Apokalypse" deal. Normally it's 96 minis for $99, but after the US got eliminated from the World Cup Mantic ran a 25% off sale, and 96 mans for $75 was just too good a deal to pass up. Now the minis are winging their way over from Jolly Old England, and they should be waiting for me in a week or two.

 I ordered this army for two reasons. First, the above deal reasoning, but secondly because this army is a conversion project from A to Z. Lots of chopping up bits and building up minis- kitbashing galore!

I have been chatting with Demitra, and as he wants nothing to do with 40k at this time, I've been trying to convince him to play a game of Warpath (Mantic's answer to 40k) with me. Once my Corporation zombie horde is completed I hope to convince him to try the ruleset out using his Orks as Orx.

My army list is long, and does not belong in this post, but the list of minis I'll be making go here just fine. First there is of course Mortis, who I won't mess with at all. Next the Marines. Sixty, with one Energy Gauntlet and one Tactical Flame Unit for every ten. I will be giving them two of the actual TFUs and then two each of the various other weapons supplied on the special weapons frame. My other four troopers will have the other two weapons supplied on the frame. My Enforcers will consist of two Strike teams with a TFU each, and three suppression teams. Two will be armed with a pair of rocket launchers, and one team will have four burst lasers. For those who don't know, four Burst Lasers cranks out twenty shots per turn! Finally I will be making two Marine officers and three snipers. It has been pointed out to me that zombie snipers "don't make sense", but wait until they're done. They'll be a mass of wires and scopes, making them more than adequate at range.

I'll be left with five marines, and I'm really not sure what I'll do with them, so they'll be bits box fodder for the time being. I also have some ideas as to some "counts as" models (a Panzer IV D as a close assault gun toting battle tank, some Ogres converted into big hulking zombies with tiny little heads for Striders, etc.) so this should work as hobby fodder for the time being.

I promise I'll do an unboxing when they arrive, so bear with me for another week or two. Until then, I'll try to find worthwhile content, but I'm not going to muck up this blog with nonsensical ramblings if I can at all help it.

TTFN!

More Malifaux Minis Manifest

Misaki's completion marks the end of me painting up my masters for the Ten Thunders- at least until I pick up Mei Feng and her constructs. Ototo was every bit the pain to paint that he was to assemble. I am finished now though, and that eases my pain- at least until it's varnish time. Yep, still no varnish as the last day I was able to seize was used to protect my now finished Greys (continues to pat self on back).

The next minis in my painting queue were the Torikage. Since they're basically ninjas I decided to forgo the green on all my other minis so that they wouldn't stand out too much. I know, the purple is pushing it, but look around this blog. It's my favorite color, so it made the cut. Yeah, the masks are gold too, but hey, they look cool so in the color went.

Last up (and only because this is the order I painted everything in) come the Thunder Archers. Those little arrows are still super fiddly, so a lot of care was taken painting them up. You may notice that the green on them is not as vivid as on the other minis that sport it. That's an oopsie. I forgot that I had been doing one further highlight with the base green and I washed them. I'll consider redoing the green bits, but now that they're "done" I'm ready to charge on to the Oiran.

...Or maybe the Ronin...

I think I'll paint them differently than the crew "proper" as the base will tie them together. Now to come up with a color scheme.

Almost Forgotten, But Not Quite

Yeah, I know- a picture of a tablet.

Woohoo.....

It's what's on the tablet that counts. Yep, I've upgraded. Since my FNSLGS (Friendly Not So Local Game Store) now has a 40k night, and since I have a freshly painted "Not Tau" army, I figure I need to get out and get my game on. In order to do that I will of course need the current rule set- 7th edition, so I broke down and dropped the $60 to get a digital copy of the rules. After finding that the Google book app doesn't read books not stored on the Google cloud, and the storage system won't accept a file larger than 100mb (the book is 130), I had to root around and find an app to read directly off the device. I downloaded a free one, and since Avast didn't go nuts after scanning it, I started my reading.

First up, the file itself. The thing should have been broken down into three files- three books just like the hardcover. Then I could have put it up on Google, and skip the first book which is a flagrant catalog and advertisement for the company. Look, guys- I just bought your book, obviously I'm interested in your toys. Well, except for my Greys... I also don't need the background of the game. I've been playing for 20 years. I think I know it by now. All I bought the book for was the rules, which start 259 pages in. I am honestly baffled as to who thought that this was a good idea.. *Sigh* Oh, GW...

To the rules themselves. Well, as you've probably read elsewhere the system is 6th edition with some tweaks- the Psychic Phase, new missions, slightly different special rules. I've read a lot of whining that this is a rip-off, but let's look back here. There has been no, and I mean NO serious rules overhaul since 3rd edition. Every edition past that has been building on and re-tweaking Andy Chambers' rules. No exception. I can and will side with those who say that this edition was released far too quickly after the last. Two years does not the lifespan of an edition of a game make.

Gameplay. Well, nobody in either of my home gaming groups is willing to get into this edition of the game, so I'll have to reserve judgement here. Hopefully in a couple of weeks (when my schedule clears up) I'll be able to go into this aspect. If you were to push me I'd say that my first-glance impression of the game is that it'll be tighter and brighter for your gaming pleasure.

So, what I'm saying is, despite the disdain toward "Unbound" armies I expressed on Three Geeks to the Wind (a statement I stand by), I hold out hope here. Now let's see how it functions once the rubber meets the road.

A Victorious Victory... Again!

1,850 point Grey Alien army done.

Really, that about sums it up for me. After a false start trying to make an Irken force, followed by insults directed toward the models and their paintjobs, I have completed this army.

Maybe.

Long-time readers may remember the above picture as my first foray into these minis. These fellas still sit in my gaming closet waiting for an opportunity to be fielded in the right skirmish game. Look behind them. See that big UFO? It is not in my Grey Alien army, and that should be rectified. I have already decided to run it as a Razorshark Strike Fighter. Since the model has four landing struts I can use them to mark arcs on a round model. I do run into the problem of possibly not having the appropriate weapons to "count as" the armament of the Razorshark, but with enough work I can probably figure something out.

So, all I need to do now is order a plane flight stand from GW and get another UFO (this time to model as flying). That will take me to exactly 2,000 points- just right for many tournaments in this area. I will post the exact composition of the army later, but be warned- unlike my Dark Eldar these lil' fellas aren't designed to be honed to a razor's edge. This is well and truly a labor of love.

Forward Progress With the 'Faux

So I've been working on my Malifaux minis like a madman. Toshiro is done, Ama no Zako has been finished, and Shang is ready to go.

At least nearly so.

The weather here in NoVA has not cooperated with me, and I have yet to varnish a single mini. This makes me afraid to touch them (too much) as I don't want to mess up my work. I hate handling unvarnished minis. Once the humidity breaks (I type as a thunderstorm rages outside) I'll start spraying, but it's not looking too promising according to my weather app. I have my first second edition Malifaux game Friday against the Ortegas,  and I'd really enjoy moving my little kung-fu mans around without worrying about the oils on my hands damaging my paintjob.

Here's the latest shot of my crew. I'm going to use the schoolgirl to represent the lone swordsman, one because the card appears to be awesome,  and two because it finally allows me to paint her after four or so years.

Mali-Funky

Above is the start to my wife's and my new Malifaux stuff. Mostly the Ten Thunders I have amassed on the left, but you can see the bases she's making on the right. I may have gone a bit overboard on my own bases, but you can judge for yourself.

First up is Yin the Penangalan. I was attracted to this model because she is so disturbing. The camera was acting up when I took this photo, so it's more than a little out of focus, but you get the idea. She's basically a floating mass of viscera, and she uses her horrifying appearance to paralyze enemy models. I still need to varnish her (first matte, then gloss on all the organs), but again you get the idea.

Next are my minions. I painted up my Ashigaru and Chiaki in a misty kind of green color. Their armor got a gold base, followed by a green shade, then a brush of the original gold followed by a brighter shade of the same. I wanted them to look like they were magically animated. They have pink eyes for an evil glow that offsets the green. For the purple I stopped by GW to grab a pair of purples and a purple wash. it made painting the back banners and ribbons a breeze.

Finally, Yan Lo and his Soul Porter. I painted the casting hand the same green as the magically animated minis to show he's casting a spell. The skin was my usual three stage method, similar to the one used on my Chaos Space Marines, just without the rosy flesh step to keep him more pallid and old looking. The Soul Porter was straight forward, what you see is what you get.

My wife has dived headlong into her minis- she hasn't put anything other that the Soulstone Miner together, but her bases look slick. I can't wait to see what colors she chooses for her crew.

Next up is Ama no Zako. I haven't decided how to paint his clothing yet. I guess I'll let my brush decide.

Dusthammer 40,000

This is a short one.

Demitra, having jumped ship on 40k, has proposed something. We like Dust's rules, we like 40k's fluff and minis, so why not put 'em together? This has led to a bit of an experiment: let's apply the rules of Dust to 40k. He has settled on Orks, and I have chosen my usual Chaos Space Marines. He has gone with a horde of Soldier 2 minis, and I have decided that my troops should pretty much all be Soldier 3. I wouldn't have it any other way. So, off to the Dust Warfare force builder. I decided what counted as what and started plugging stuff into the program. Turns out I really couldn't fit in any cultists (just the sorcerer's command section) but I think you'll agree, it has that CSM flavor to it. Since I don't have my "counts as" list in front of me right now I won't list what's what at this point. I will however if this experiment lasts more than a single game. Any way, here's what I'll be running:

Going Back to a Wyrd Place

So, now that my Warmachine career is over I need something to replace it. With 7th edition 40k looming, and me being wary of it and Demitra having sworn off the game (as far as I can tell) that's a no-go. Then a miracle. My wife asked me "what about Malifaux?". Why would she ask? She knows the game is played in stores on days I'm stuck at work until 11:00 at night...

Turns out she really likes the background and minis. Hmmmm... I took a gamble and asked if she was interested in learning the game. The answer was yes! She has been interested in learning how to paint minis for quite a while now, and it's been a while since Monsterpocalypse or Battle Lore hit the table, so I seized on the opportunity. I took the PayPal money I had earned from selling off all my Warmachine stuff and went to the Miniature Market. First up, my crew.

I chose the Ten Thunders. I love their Asian look, and who doesn't like kung-fu and ninjas (pirate fans can go scratch)? Plus their underground mafia theme and the fact that all of their masters have infiltrated all of the other factions is a great bit if fluff as well. The fact that the models look dynamic and super slick was a big selling point too.

My wife loves steampunk, so I turned her straight toward Ramos. It was love at first sight (read?). All his constructs, in particular his arachnids, resonated with her. Super cool, we had picked out our forces.

I, having read the rules and figured out how the various crews interact, placed the order. About a week later most of our stuff had arrived. I say almost since my FLGS somehow had a Misaki crew in stock, and with the second edition cards! This is an almost miraculous find, as no online retailers I know of have them. I snatched them up, unaware of the trials the box would contain. More on that later.

My crew consisted of the aforementioned Misaki box, a set of archers, some Oiran, and Yamaziko. I figured this would give me a solid core from which to expand. My wife received Ramos' box, an arachnid swarm, and some metal gamin. Again, I figured that this would be a solid place to start. I made a couple of oopsies with that order. First, apparently Oiran are all but useless. Sad face as the minis are gorgeous. Second, Ramos needs many, many arachnids as one of his strategies is to go around making more and more of the things from the scrap markers as the initial ones get destroyed.

Time for a second order.

With my part of the money I got the Masters of the Path box, with some nice undead samurai to tag along. My wife got more arachnids as well as a Soulstone Miner and the Mechanical Rider. The Soulstone Miner was purchased because it looks cool, and the Rider because according to a few podcasts he just wins games.

Now that I had my stuff either in hand or in the mail (due to arrive two days from now), I decided to slap together the minis I had in hand. First basing, which I decided to do with a sort of ruined city street look. I started with using green stuff to lay down cobblestones, followed by laying some slate pieces over them to look like crumbled walls. I haven't gotten to laying down the ballast yet, but as soon as this post is finished that's next on the list. Now that the bases were ready it was time for the minis. I started with what I thought would be the easiest, Yamaziko. She went together like a breeze, and I glued her to her base. No sweat! The Internet legends of these being some of the toughest minis to assemble on the market were obviously posted by amateurs. Then I popped open Misaki's box.

What a nightmare.

I'm being helpful.

The parts were thin and fiddly. This I was prepared for. There were no instructions and the parts were randomly numbered. This was bad. Off to the Internet I scurried. I looked for an assembly guide on the Wyrd site. No such luck. To Google! Nope. So I started reading Malifaux blogs with Ten Thunders articles. Eventually I hit pay dirt. A color coded diagram. Not instructions, but the next best thing. From there I struggled through putting the nightmarish little things together. I struggled with Ototo, but I was able to noodle through the rest of them.

The Oiran went together easily enough, but then to the archers. Every last arrow, every single one, came snapped in half. I was going to have to get creative here, because they were all the same diameter as paper clips. Not good at all. Again, I was able to bodge the models together, but there are some arrows that are obviously bent and to mu eye you can still tell they were broken at one point. I am a bit more than displeased with these models. Maybe they'll look better painted, but I'd give it a 50% chance that they won't.

In the end the minis did go together, but not at all smoothly. Because of this, unless you are an experienced modeler and have lots of patience, steer clear of this faction. I'll give Ramos and friends a review when my wife puts them together, but as you can actually find instructions online I would give these a much higher chance of being doable than my faction.

That's enough text for now. Here, have some pictures of my finished minis:

Oiran. Useless, but easy to assemble.

Torakage. Middle of the road once you get the color-coded diagram. Still, those chains are fiddly and delicate.

Archers. Putting them together is the biggest exercise in patience in my modeling career

The Henchmen. Yamiziki is easy, Ototo is a pain.

Misaki and Shang. I would figure out later that I had assembled Shang's tail wrong, but it's not really noticable.

SDE News Abounds!

So, as you can see I got back onto the Super Dungeon Explore wagon. I figure I'll go ahead and finish up my Caverns of Roxor minis before I move on to the Von Drakk Manor stuff. Once the Ember Hounds and the last of the Rock Top Gang are completed I'll be grabbing Link- er, I mean the Deeproot Scout, and get to painting him. I'll be keeping up my previous "hero, monsters, hero" rhythm I set before.

 

Why this sudden interest in SDE again? Well, for those of you out of the Kickstarter loop, there's a new expansion on the horizon. I suppose it's less of an expansion and more of a backward-compatible reboot of the game. So far I like the direction the game is going- streamlined and simplified. This is a Very Good Thing, as honestly the game currently suffers from rules-bloat right out of the box. Soda Pop Miniatures is removing the "Power Gauge", the "Loot-o-Meter", heck, most of the record keeping the game had before. Now instead of the Consul throwing waves of minions headlong into the blender of death that is the heroes and then having the Boss swoop in and off everything, spawning monsters is a choice that must be carefully considered because every time a Spawn Point is used it (or they in the case of double points like the Kobolds use) suffers a wound. This gets rid of the tactic I use currently in which I jam up a door with Kobolds and just deny the Heroes access to any further rooms. Honestly, I'm glad to see it go as it just plain puts the game on "easy mode" for the Consul player.

 

The game also has two more great additions for multiplayer games. First, the addition of "Princess Coins". These can be used to return a character to life after they have been slain, so that player isn't stuck sitting on the sideline for the remainder of the battle. Second, there is "Arcade Mode" in which the players band together to fight cooperatively against a card-driven "A. I.".

 

I do wonder however if the Consul is in some way getting the short end of the stick here. The heroes have upped their game considerably, and this makes me wonder if the "rebalanced" cards for the initial releases make the enemies a bit nastier. The dragons really need it, and while I have yet to employ the Rock-Top Gang I don't think they look too menacing on paper.

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Forgotten King edition of the game, and I will most likely wax more as more gets "leaked", but mostly watch here as my minis come along toward completion in the next weeks.

No More Cryx in my Neck

After much consideration and gamer soul-searching I have an unfortunate announcement to make. I have been playing Warmachine for over 10 years- since the very day it hit the shelves in fact. I have gotten a lot of joy out of the game in those years, winning two tournaments and taking home a "best Cygnar player" coin. Those days, I am afraid, have passed.

The game has outgrown me, or perhaps I have outgrown it. There is too much going on in the game, too many $120-$150 (or more) models, too many units, too much. The game has actually gotten as (if not more) expensive to play than Games Workshop games. I don't have the money needed to be dumped into the game at the rate it calls for.

I also do not enjoy the way the game plays. There is too much inactivity when it is not your turn. If your opponent alpha-strikes you it is all too frequent that during your turn you get to do nothing other than watch yourself lose. This game used to be about aggression, but now it seems to be whoever dances the best wins. I don't like games where you have to sit back and do nothing as your opponent runs roughshod over you. Even in Warhammer 40,000 you at least get to roll dice to try to save your guys. In Warmachine you do NOTHING. Perhaps this is why I have been so drawn to Infinity, X-Wing, and Dust; games where you never sit down, pull up a chair, and have a sandwich while you just pick up your mans from the board.

The game also has a jerky feel to me. I can't really explain it, but even during your own turn it has too much of a stop-and-go aspect that just doesn't appeal to me.

...And so I come to the point of this announcement. I am done with Warmachine. Permanently. The rules bloat, prices, and lack of overall enjoyment I get from the game have quite simply driven me away. There is no turning back, there is no convincing me otherwise. It's sad to close this chapter in my gaming career, but there we go.

Ready to Rock and Roll

Paint pots prepared. Pallet positioned. Aliens aligned. Brushes... I dunno, bristled?

I'll be painting this last Grey squad today, followed by my last squadron of walkers. That means as soon as I varnish them the army is done! Time to get down to business.

And... FTW!!!

 

After a long, devoted day of painting her it is. The big stompy robot. Now I'm but a single Alien squad and a pair of "Broadsides" away from acrylic completion. Then varnishing of course, but one step at a time. Soon(ish) my invasion force will crush the lesser species beneath their boots of doom!

Blue -> Silver

 

Done with the blue, onto the silver. All of it will eventually be metallic purple, so stay tuned as the robot develops!

Step Two: The Blue

 

Now I'm on to the next step, the blue bits. I'm starting to run a bit low on blue, so I'm getting concerned. It's also a bit frustrating using an old large-ish brush to apply this layer. I really can't use a medium brush (and retain my sanity) so if I slip up I get blue onto the magenta. Next I'll be adding some white to the blue, or maybe I'll add the black stripes. That way if I slip up on the black I can add highlights to cover the bits that go outside the lines.

First thing's first however. a bit of blue ink in the seams.

The Long Slog Begins

 

Today I'm starting the second "Riptide" for my Greys. As you can see I've basecoated the exposed workings with magenta. As of just now I inked the gubbins, and the "mini" (if you can call it that) has been set aside to dry for the next 40 minutes or so. I'll get back to the retouching of the magenta soon. I'll update throughout the day as I make progress.

Another Day Another Squad

One more squad closer to the finish line! Yep, my Greys have yet another squad ready to hit the battlefield (barring varnishing). this means that I have only one "Riptide", one "Broadside" squad, and one last alien squad to go before the army is fully painted. Once everything is done I'll need to strike out into the world and see if I can get a game in. I'd probably enjoy taking these lil' fellas out to a tourney, but...

1) They're not Citadel Miniatures.

2) Tournaments are pretty much exclusively held on Sundays around here (a day I must be at work).

3) Being as they're small some jerk would most likely accuse me of MFA (Modelling For Advantage).

4) I would totally need to get the TO's approval before bringing these fellas.

5) They're all "counts as" (NOT proxies- there is a difference) and this may confuse some people.

6) Tournaments around here are usually 2,000 points, and this army is only 1,850.

The list goes on and on. This basically relegates them to a "friendly game only" status, which is fine, I just need to get some friendly games in.

Tomorrow I'll be starting on the second of the big robots. I'm not a fan of painting these suckers, so I want to get it out of the way before I run out of steam again. With only three units to go until completion of the army however, I'm pretty sure this is a project that I'll get done soon.

Grey Alien Kick in the Rump

 

More painting of Grey Aliens. I finished my first two heavy robots (Broadsides). As you can see the minis are designed to fit on 50mm bases, and there are no GW bases of that size, so 60mm bases it is. I went ahead and put a Grey next to them to show their size (in comparison to an admittedly tiny mini).

 

 Now the figure case is looking much more full. There's a missing squad off to the right there, which is normally occupied by the squad pictured below. They are my mission for today, but as you can see in the horribly out of focus picture below I have a fair bit of work ahead of me. 

 

Ever onward and upward. Next: blue armor. Then grey, black, purple metal, and squad markings. Back to the grind!

Sort of a Twofer

I forgot to put this up. It's a picture of my potential DreadBall uniform. I'm partial to the pink & black, and I've gotten nothing but hate for it, but I guess that means I'll be entering my "forget them, I like it"phase of my painting career. I have some tweaks to make once I get my actual team, but despite popular opinion my monkeys be wearin' pink, and they be proud!

Tournament Results, a Break, and Back in the Saddle.

Above is the army I took to the Warhammer tournament. I basically got stomped. Two things were learned- I am way out of practice, and Skaven are no longer my tournament army of choice. Ogres all the way!

After that showing I took a bit of a break. No assembly, no purchases, no painting, no wargaming save a touch of X-Wing with Demitra. On that front I did finally pull a couple out against him (I don't ever remember winning, though he assures me I have). TIE swarms for the win, baby!

After that Demitra introduced me to DreadBall. now I am hooked. I mean to the point I bought into the Kickstarter for DreadBall Xtreme. Now to pick up the Space Bugs and Space Monkey Clones. This is not a cheap game to buy into, I'm looking at over $100, but that's far better than a Warhammer army (or Warmachine). As long as there's an opportunity to play it'll be money well spent.

Finally, yesterday I finally fulfilled my vow to pick up painting my Grey Aliens where I left off. Haters be damned, I'm going to do this thing. Wish me luck.

Oh, and go buy my Cygnar stuff off of eBay. It's extremely cheap for what it is. My wife is selling it, just search "Painted Cygnar" and look for the stuff on the gaming board. Shameless plug over.

Mean Green Mini Stripping Machine

Once again Blogger rotates my photo.

Not too much to report today, other than that I've finally gotten around to stripping the paint from my old, old Skaven. As you can see there is a collection of Plague Monks, Globadiers, Stormvermin, even an original Warlock Engineer in there. I still don't have the varnish to take the shine off the minis I dipped, so no army photo/list yet. Not that it matters, as the weather on NoVA os about to go from bad to Very Bad, making it so that I have exactly a 0% chance of varnishing today any way. Curse the snow! Give me summer any day.

I've also been slacking on the painting front. I have Super Dungeon Explore minis to paint, as well as Mice & Mystics, even my Grey Aliens, not to mention the fact that I'm way behind on my podcasts, but I'm just having a hard time picking up a brush lately. Maybe something will get me into gear here, as I really hope it will, but maybe I just need to pick up a dang brush, open some paint, and go to town. Watching TV is getting really boring and all that's on is depressing stuff.

That's it! I'm going to start back up on my Greys, snide comments about my color scheme be damned. I bought them to enjoy the hobby aspect of these games, so I'm going to enjoy it weather certain people want me to or not. Besides, I've gotten more compliments than criticisms on my army, and I like the color scheme.

Time to grab my brush and go to town. Now, if you'll excuse me...

Doom, Doom, Doomwheel

Since my army list now calls for two of these suckers (rather than a pair of Abominations) as well as two Warp Lightning Cannons (suck on that multi-wound models) I had to run out and get a "modern" Doomwheel to run alongside my "classic" one. Since no two Skaven war machines should look exactly alike, this works just fine for me. Off to the right is my newest addition to my Skaven horde. Thinking I had a practice game coming up at my FNSLGS Wednesday I frantically assembled it at work, fully aware that once again, much to my chagrin, I may have to field an unpainted miniature. Turns out, that due to circumstances beyond my scheduled opponent's control, the game would be cancelled. This sparked two things in me- annoyance at the situation, and a burning desire not to run an unpainted mini in WHFB. Thusly I sat down at my painting table with purpose- invigorated by my fury at having to miss one of the very few warm-ups I would be afforded by the time crunch.

I primed. I basecoated with a purpose. I even made a new batch of "not quite the same color as Army Painter but still pretty good looking" Finish Floor Wax dip. To the left is the final product.

You may note that off to the right of the freshly assembled Doomwheel and behind the painted but unbased one there are Giant Rats. For those of you long-term GW fans out there you may even note a pair of Necromundan Giant Rats. I have been desperate to fill in my "rat dart" units, and much to my relief between the ones included in the Doomwheel kit and the ancient metal treasures returned to me by Demitra I have enough minis (even a few extras) to finish out the units. I'm on a mission here. I am going to finish painting the Skaven army, as I had a few lingering minis that had not yet been completed. I'll need to get some Army Painter Camo Green to prime the stragglers, as well as some Simple Green, a new toothbrush, and finances permitting a box of the new plastic Stormvermin (and/or a Plague Furnace should the Great Horned One smile upon me) to bulk out my remaing rat collection holes. I should likely add some Night Runners and maybe a Plagueclaw Catapult to the roster, but let's be honest- compared to the other entries in the army book those options are sub-par. Then there's Poisoned Wind Globadiers and Plague Censer Bearers of which I have a few. Maybe I should fill out those units. I mean, they're already started...

To the point- I'm almost done painting what rats I already own, and I'm nearly ready for the tourney, so all it will take to complete my army now is a can of Dullcote and the $15 entry fee to play. I'll post the army soon, as soon as I can snap a picture of it fully assembled and painted. The army list will be in the same post, as the tournament is an open list format so I don't really care who sees it ahead of time. Expect some exciting things for the rats in the very near future!

Tournament Time Again!

After a long hiatus, it is time to pull out my beloved Skaven again. My Friendly Not-So Local Game Store is having a Warhammer Fantasy tournament coming up on February 22nd. I had to juggle my work schedule around a little bit, but I managed to switch shifts with a co-worker in order to attend.

To that end I have been looking for input as to my army composition, and I have been getting... A very mixed response. On Dakka Dakka I was getting several different responses from a fair few different army lists thrown my way. Some swear I should take a massive block of Stormvermin, others claim that my Grey Seer is going to miscast and blow himself to tiny bits. Since he's not going to be dropped under any circumstances (the Dreaded Thirteenth is just too useful against enemies like Chaos Warriors that my shooting and other spells won't be able to crack), I had to sift through the feedback in order to find a suitable kit loadout. The real debate was over the the Arcane Item he would be carrying. I settled on a kit that allowed him to cast The Curse of the Horned Rat more easily.

Since this is an open-list event, I have decided to forego subtlety and simply go for the throat. The usual shenanigans- a Grey Seer, a "suicide" Warlock Engineer, a super tanked-up battle standard bearer. You know the drill. I did however tweak things a touch this time. First of all, this game is going to be smaller than I'm used to- 2,000 points. That means I had to take a scalpel to my army and remove a few things. Less Gutter Runners, no double Hell Pit Abomination (in fact none at all), and less in the way of Clanrats. I'll be running my old nemesis, the Doomwheel again. Two of them. Lots of "rat darts"- nine strong Giant Rat packs that are there to take up unit drops, redirect the enemy, and generally make a nuisance of themselves will be present as well.

I dropped ten Clanrats, demoted my Warpfire Thrower to a second Poisoned Wind Mortar- the reasoning behind this is simple- it is a more stable weapon, it can move and fire, and it doesn't need to see its target. It also ignores armor. I will be throwing away my flaming attacks, but that just means I'll have to blow those regenerating targets I face up with my various forms of Warp Lightning. Dragon Ogres will be incredibly dangerous, as I'll pretty much auto-frenzy them with all the electricty I churn out, but hopefully the fact that I have thirteen drops (fitting, no?) will allow me to see where my enemies deploy and react by plunking my Doomwheels down on the opposite end of the board. A couple of rat darts will have to soak up the lightning bolts (or Skavenslaves as each unit consists of 40) to keep the Doomwheels from nuking one another. I have a limited amount of time to experiment with these concepts- I haven't even purchased my second Doomwheel yet!

Suffice it to say, I have some work in front of me. The journey begins with a game against the Lizardmen Wednesday afternoon. It terminates with three games in a few weeks. May the Horned Rat smile upon me and my troops.