Cyber Monday...

Yes, the Monday after Thanksgiving.... Cyber Monday.   Stupid media and marketing types.  Man that sounds so lame.  Anyway, TheWarStore.com's Black Friday deals continue.  Honestly, aside from the 5% and a great deal on Flames of War stuff across the board, not much of note.  GW stuff is limited to terrain and splash releases in stock for a reason, PP is mostly soon to be obsolete books, and the clearance rack is mostly family games I am disinterested in.   It definitely is not the gold mine that it was last year.  A few of the gems though:

Flames of War
Firestorm: The Bagration Campaign
Firestorm: Market Garden

Games Workshop (direct and licensed)
Rogue Trader
Warhammrer RPG 3rd edition
Space Hulk

Rackham
Confrontation Army Boxes

While I did not buy all that stuff, if you were in the market, some of that is a decent deal.  5% on top of the already great prices is also nice.  What I did order will show up over there on the right hand side when it arrives.

Dragon Age Update:
I am now to an impressive 31%, and presumably almost done with the Brescilian Forest.  It makes me rather skeptical just how accurate the progress percentage is.  I know that it is across all characters and all options, but it seems like I should be farther along than this.  Still loving the game though.

Painting Update:
Back banners are attached to all the Skorne warbeasts now.  Now it is just time to even out the whites and purple, and touch up.  White and purple are two of the worst colors to even out in my experience.  The metallic touch up is going swimmingly though.  These are definitely "good enough" models.  With Warmachine MK II almost upon us, who knows how much I'll actually play with these guys.  I might just unload them and the rest of of the Skorne on some tourney player to make room in the ....

Basement Update:
Yes, I have been cleaning out my basement.  So far, I have removed 14 cubic feet of junk from my shelves.  This is somewhat misleading though, as much of it was half empty GW core game boxes from various editions.  Still, I managed to clear off the nightmare that had once been my pool table, and put away a couple hundred minis (GW and Infinity), and box up a huge amount of terrain.  All that and I still have about 8 cubic feet of shelf space left and I haven't thrown out anything other than boxes (so consolidation is pretty much done).  Once I get to college text books, broken appliances, dry rotted sports equipment space and rusted house paint cans space should abound (well, at least be better).

Blog Photo Updates:
Since the basement purge is under way, setting up the tripod and light box is a non-starter, so this evening/tomorrow I'll post up some of my early, learning and prototype minis.

So.. if you actually read this far, thanks.  This entry was more of a sanity check on myself than information to the masses post.  Luckily, I haven't stumbled into a rant.

Mordheim: Middenheimers

Mordheim is easily my favorite game in all of GW's properties.  They are one of the few sets where I have a completely painted (and even in most cases varnished and based) armies.




This bad boy is the Middenheimer Mercenary Captain. Generally, he ends up seriously wounded in the first game of the campaign and I end up using a different model with a crossbow and very heavy helmet to represent him.





These are my champions. These are heavily used models. The lad on the right seems to be be missing a hammer. At +1 Strength starting, you really want to get these guys in hand to hand combat. Sadly, my models seem to have a built in arrow attractor.




These are my Youngbloods. Girlie on the right was my first good model. On the tabletop, she looks much better, which is nice because she is pretty much worthless there too.

These some the various henchmen I have made use of over the years.  Telly "Who loves ya Baby!" in the top middle and Karl "Of course I am the Emperor!" in the bottom middle (not wearing his very important helmet) are easy my favorite.

These are my two hired swords: the Tilean Marksman (left) and Duelist (Right).  You may recognize them as Dogs of War characters.  Umm, ya, the unfinished Dogs of War Army.

And so the Dragon Age and Black Friday continue...

After about 40 hours (or more) I am at 30% of Dragon Age: Origins.  2/3rd of the allies quests, Denerim and the DLC are done.  Will this game ever end?  I finally got back to painting after some frustration caused by getting toasted by a dragon.  So the back banners are now glued to the cylcops and I am just doing touch up work on the metal fasteners at the joins.  By this evening, I should be down to just that Titan left and most of that is just the banner colors being evened out.  In order to prevent the blog from sitting idle too long, I'll start uploading some of my early hobby finished figures.  Sometimes I forget just how nice some of those Mordheim models were.  Oh, and of its Black Friday...   You can guess what that means in my house.

Goal of the Week Update for 11/13/2009 Goal

Okay, so this week has been really busy with evenings well past midnight Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I got my first learning games of Malifaux in.  I think I like this game as much as Infinity.  It defiantly out ranks GW and PP games.  Simple mechanic, low model count and and an interactive turn.  So none of that "Take your turn while I run to the bathroom, I'll make the armor saves when I get back" stuff.  While the response mechanism is different that Infinity, I am actively involved the entire game.  Also, while I am not a huge fan of the "bucket o' dice" mentality.   Malifaux doesn't even use dice, just a deck of cards (even standard poker deck if you want).

I received my first Winsor Newton Series 7 brush.  So far, it is just a nice brush.  The handle seems a little thinker than the Winsor Newtons I am used to and the bristles are cut much closer to the ferrel. I also received my B&H 67mm protective filter.  Now my camera can go outside with out compromising that 18-105 lens.

Sadly, both my dishwasher and 30" monitor died too.  So I will be spending Veteran's Day figuring out which part of the washer is leaking, and then weighing the replace/repair costs.

The Skorne Warpack is slowly getting closer.  These guys were never intended to be my best work.  They are more for experimentation and playing.  The Highborn Covenant will be my "master class" faction/contract.  the free hand is a mixed bag.  It turns out I can do some really nice free hand in a one off, but replicating it is just asking for disaster (and in this project I both asked and received).  You can see the difference of copying the Skorne symbol versus the common practice of easy to reproduce geometric shapes.  Anyway, I am just having fun painting something that isn't a tank or warjack and learning to use the camera.




Attached Banner pole, and you can clearly see differences in the free hand.







Here is the titan. He is pretty much painted. I have the interference paint as seen in the 3rd photo on him. I think because he is a nice solid mass, the camera auto-focuses on him much easier.  this is the first time I have really tried to use that paint, it is challenging, but I am slowly getting the hang of how to use it.  You have to thin, but also put in some medium and flow release otherwise it puddles and you can see the brush strokes.  Hey its a learning model.  I also tried wet blending the tusks, just about the worst place to try on, since the other tusk gets in the way of the brush handle when trying the pull the brush for the actual blend.  I tried to shade the whites with a light blue.  That was an absolute failure.  But I tried it and that was the point.  So this guy is almost ready for protective varnishing, and then matte varnishing for the skin, and gloss for the purple enamel parts.  Then comes the weathering and distressing.





Okay the banners. As said before, Matching free hand, not so great, but it is getting there.

So I think all this will go on custom swamp bases to hide the painting errors.

Mid Week Update for 11/07/2009 Goal

Okay so I want to finish this Skorne Battle Box I have been slowly working on.  When I started playing Hordes I made a rule to myself: NO new units hit the table unit I finish painting a Skorne unit.  So for instance, I finished Morghul, and now I can use Hexeris, once I finish the Cyclops this week I can use the Basilisks.  I started the this rule when Mark II is a known but distant event.  Now Mark II is almost upon us now not only are more goodies are coming, but the pull of older miniatures is working on me.  My favorite faction in Privateer Pres is the Mercenary contract for the Highborn Covenant. Mercenaries are due to get their revamp right before my Skorne, which I actually play with (albeit, in a very limited way).  Therefor I wanted to push these guys out before they get eternally shelved.

So here is what I started with Sunday night:




Cyclops Savages with Banner Poles. These guys are mostly done.

So here you see the Titan Gladiator with Banner Pole.

He has a long way to go.  The skin is all done and the gold metal is pretty much in, but everything else is just base coats and guide coats.  From five feet away, it is passable, but the closer you get it becomes exponentially bad.  So bad that about that if you closely examine the model from under two feet away, all the Democrat gubernatorial candidates  up for election lose, that is how powerful my bad painting is.


As of Tuesday night I was this far:




Handles on the Cyclops are based in light grey craft paint, then double washed with Delvan Mud, a la Ron's Deathwing.  Gives a decent spotty leather really fast.





The Banners are getting roughed in.  Now  it is just slow layering to get even whites and purples.

You can see the ropes are all done the metals are cleaned up, the purples are nice and solid and the whites are started, the loincloth painted and washed.  I need to go back and start putting contrast on the whites, do the tusks, and then put the interference paint to the purple armor and minor spot highlighting on the loincloth.  After that, attaching the banner poles comes.

However, I don't think I will be able to do all that with my limited time this week, so this project may drift into next week, which is okay, as I can add basing to the project and I will have limited time due to travelling anyway.

Finished Random Models

So I buy a lot of models. Most miniatures go to a game of some kind nowadays, whether it is some thing as common as Games Workshop's Warhammer 40k to more esoteric stuff like Avatars of War or Ron and Bones. This is where the really random "Hey that is cool!" purchases and other models that don't fit another category will end up being documented. Here you find stuff from Resina Planet, Enigma, Reaper, Dark Sword, and Mega Minis, etc. If it isn't elsewhere on the top or side links, it should be here ... if I have finished it.


Reaper Miniatures


Hyena, from 03277: Hyena Pack (2) by Jason Wiebe

This pack of models was used for the first Painter v. Painter feature on From the Warp.  The only way to tell this thing is actually a hyena is the coloration.  If you study pictures of hyenas, the muzzle is all wrong, far more ursine than canine.  It would make a great demonic hyena or a hellhound though.  Animals are one of the things I have the worst time painting.  This model did satisfy one prime requirement though--you get two for $7.99 making it ideal for our purposes.

Goal of the Week 10/31/2009

So this week's goal was to finish some tanks. Those tanks being 15mm Flames of War M4A1 Shermans. this week also the saw the introduction of a D90 camera, and me building a light box out of a cardboard box, some Kleenex, tape and a office paper.

You'll notice some dramatic sways in photo quality as I learn to use the camera.

So there they are.


I did some weathering using powders and added an antenna using 1st string from a guitar. No enamels, no oils. Caked, dry mud made from weathering powder and matte medium. The decal softener and setter worked like magic. Notice how the Allied Star meshes perfectly to the seems in the front.As you can see I build a little light box. That will probably get added to the Side Projects heading later. While it worked for this, I am learning fast how to improve it. I discovered this wonderful thing called white balance. I still haven't figured out how to use it on the camera itself, but Picasa has a white balance bar that lets me remove the excessive yellow from the photos.