Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Spyrers step by step.. or using washes the "wrong" way

I've always been a fan of washes. With the latest GW washes I've taken it a step further in many cases check out my Raptors space marines or my LOTR/WHFB orcs & goblins if you are interested in seeing more.

I've had a couple requests for step by step on my Spyrers, which I'd call more of a staining method than anything else.  I wanted a similar style to paint all my Spyrers but wanted the various "suits" to have an easily recognizable colour.  I decided to try stealing a technique I'd seen used in 'Eavy Metal by Mike McVey for painting horses.  This was basically a grey/black undercoat, with a heavy white drybrush and a couple coats of brown ink to stain it the correct colour.  It handled all the highlights and shadows, looked solid and above all seemed really easy!  I thought it would work well on the Spyrers due to all the texture to the models (armour plates, tubing, etc.)

Step 1: Basecoat
This will define the overall look of your finished mini.  I went with black & red mainly because I wanted my malcadons to be reminiscent of spider-man (and I'd chosen to use a blue wash for them)

Step 2: Drybrush
Here you can see I basically just drybrushed the entire model white.  It picks out all the detail, and looks like crap - until...

Step 3: Stain (aka wash) #1

Ta-da! You can see it starting to come together here with the first coat of purple wash.  The black takes on a purplish hue and the white is quite easily stained to a light purple colour.  I go quite heavy and literally just splash the wash all over (told you it was quick!)

Step 4: Stain #2

Here the effect has really come together.  Without close inspection you can't tell the highlights were originally white and drybrushed on, they end up looking quite natural since the wash is used (quite liberally!) all over it pulls all the colours of the model together with it's unique tone.

I usually like to do some small details with proper paints, I find instead of being glaringly obvious (the difference between the washed parts and painted parts) when used correctly it can really bring the mini to life and makes the staining method even less obvious.  For the Spyrers I painted their weapons silver with a black wash and painted their faces.

I hope this inspires you, be sure to let me know if you try out any crazy painting with washes techniques!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Week 38: Tristan - a couple singles

A couple singles that I've gotten finished up over the past little while.  I've had the wyrd finished since I got into building my pit slave gang.  I took some time trying to get two good photos of the wyrd with the magnetized electric bolt (pretty cool if I do say so myself) this was as good as it got.  I actually ended up leaving his skin (pretty much just the head) as just the skull white + badab black wash undercoat I've been using frequently of late.  I wanted to try and get a very pale/albino type look and finally just realized it was staring me in the face!
This guy is an old warhammer fantasy elf from back when there was marauder miniatures.  I kept him to build up my collection of mini's suitable for warhammer quest (or any other fantasy character based game) and the original plan was to use him as the elf ranger or lord of aenarion from deathblow.  I was browsing through a buddies blog when I saw he had a few warhammer quest posts up, and in one he has a mini to use should the ranger select the "mage" path.  Well another mini I've kept from before my hobby sabbatical is a high elf mage.  I've decided I'm going to touch him up and re-base him along with the other few warhammer quest mini's I've painted this year to use as the "mage" version of the ranger. For now this guy will be the "knight" version, but I may decide at some point to get a specific elf knight model so I can count him as only a lord of aenarion and boast of having a model painted for all the "official" characters.

Friday, September 17, 2010

200th post giveaway!!

Wow! Post #200.  This calls for something special.  I have a prize for each of the five GW games I play frequently.  I just want these to go somewhere they'll be used, from the hint you should be able to guess what the model is.  If you want it, post your guess as a comment and the first person to get it right will win the miniature.

Simple, right?

40k - These guys work in a team and are generally associated with vehicles named after mythical creatures. WINNER: ctreleheb

WHFB - He wears warpaint, rides a beast with tusks and his head can explode! WINNER: Kuffeh

Blood Bowl - These bits will let you make a star player who only plays for two extremely unlikely teams. WINNER: eriochrome

Mordheim - He carries a weapon with an axlike blade and a steel spike. WINNERFajalheretic

Necromunda - A visitor to the underhive armed with sword and shield who almost wants to be shot at. WINNER: Mordian7th

Good luck!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

other blood bowl related matters...

Over the month of August - other games (8th ed.) and lack of motivation (read: opponents) has led to the second season of blood bowl at one of the local GW's to die a slow death.  I thought I would just post up some stats here since we used the OBBLM php league manager.  I was fielding my dark elf team, the Karond Kar Raiders.


Season 2 standings



It was a little disappointing for the season to die so soon.  I had quite a good record going on, having the best points to games played ratio.  My witch elves were skilling up quite nicely, I even had a second skill on one witch (also league leading scorer with five td's) I did however lose my skilled blitzer to freakin' death last game though, so I was in for a journeymen filled game next up.

ps. I'm going to do some work on a few new blood bowl teams, as I need some more variety.  I've got this crazy idea to make a daddy long legs "counts-as" slann team using styrofoam balls with flower wire and googly eyes.  The deathbowl tournament in October in Ottawa gives bonuses to slann teams and I'm positive I could get that team done on time.  Mini wise there's an all female team that could count as amazons, norse or wood elves and the original plastic humans (that I've converted) which I'm going to do halved white & red with some black detailing and probably dip them.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Week 37: Tristan - Necromunda... Pit Slaves!

I've practically finished up my necromunda pit slave gang.  Gave them a light dip and left to dry.  Then I did the bases by gluing some techy bits down, painting them and adding a mixture of various sand/rock flock - the rest of the base was painting black. A spray of dullcote followed by a few touch ups to cover up some dipping accidents (some blood on a few arms and the barrels of guns) leaves just a thin layer of mud to finish up the base.  I left the mud until last because I'd like it to keep a bit of a gloss (impossible with dullcote)
I can't wait to get a game in with these guys.  I'm currently sealing my recently reacquired escher gang, so I hope to get some nice pictures from the next couple battles using completely painting gangs. I'm planning on using Anthony Cases updated rules.  I'm already collecting bits to make some more arms.  Since I've actually glued armour bits onto all of the plastic models, I'll probably use something like skill rings to represent actual armour plates in game terms.  
 For the amount of effort I put into these minis, they look great.  Dip + Dullcote = Win.  I got excited, built all the models, painted on a base coat, dipped and then some basing and touch ups.  I'm really happy with the "piece of crap" tone they have, obviously being cobbled together from spare junk.
Finally - I will also have no problem playing these guys as servitors in my Space Marine armies.  I've tried to make the bases very busy so they will kinda blend in with whichever marines I'm using.  Also why I've kept the rims black.  They should be right at home with my marines - guess I should get that thunderfire cannon built!

Pit Slaves 99% complete!

I've practically finished up my necromunda pit slave gang.  Gave them a light dip and left to dry.  Then I did the bases by gluing some techy bits down, painting them and adding a mixture of various sand/rock flock - the rest of the base was painting black. A spray of dullcote followed by a few touch ups to cover up some dipping accidents (some blood on a few arms and the barrels of guns) leaves just a thin layer of mud to finish up the base.  I left the mud until last because I'd like it to keep a bit of a gloss (impossible with dullcote)
I can't wait to get a game in with these guys.  I'm currently sealing my recently reacquired escher gang, so I hope to get some nice pictures from the next couple battles using completely painting gangs. I'm planning on using Anthony Cases updated rules.  I'm already collecting bits to make some more arms.  Since I've actually glued armour bits onto all of the plastic models, I'll probably use something like skill rings to represent actual armour plates in game terms.
 For the amount of effort I put into these minis, they look great.  Dip + Dullcote = Win.  I got excited, built all the models, painted on a base coat, dipped and then some basing and touch ups.  I'm really happy with the "piece of crap" tone they have, obviously being cobbled together from spare junk.
Finally - I will also have no problem playing these guys as servitors in my Space Marine armies.  I've tried to make the bases very busy so they will kinda blend in with whichever marines I'm using.  Also why I've kept the rims black.  They should be right at home with my marines - guess I should get that thunderfire cannon built!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Warpstone Cup 2010 - Result = middle of the pack

Went to Niagara Falls this weekend with some buddies for a blood bowl tournament.  We drove up Friday night and we stayed at some cheap cabins on a campground.  The tournament is a ressurection style, two team tournament, you pick a TV100 and TV110 team and they are randomly drawn into two pools.  You get 1 skill roll before first game (applied to random player), and 3 before the next two games.  You also roll to see if you win a warpstone token (3d6 - need a 13) which can be used (with varying results) as a reroll, bribe or bloodweiser babe (one off). There are a bunch of videos from the tournament to be found here.

Day 1 (aka day of "le woot")

Game 1 vs. Eric
Finally a chance at revenge!  It was Eric's poor play that won me the wooden spoon at the Canadian Open - it was time to prove he's the true spoon gatherer of our group!  It was my Undead vs his Humans, both at 100TV.  One of my mummies had gotten guard and one of his linemen block.  Eric chose to receive and I decided to just try to hammer his catchers.  I only ended up causing two casualties - but first half I got the ball off him and scored and second half I stomped down the field.  Decided against stall ball as I was up 3 players (my undead roster had 12 players) and the last few turns fizzled out.  First time I've won my first match at a tournament - woo hoo!!

Game 2 vs. Tom
Time to get Rummery'd!  Good old Tom (aka 3 time burger buddy award winner) was my opponent for the second game.  We've played once before and tied so I was hoping to continue undefeated.  This game was my Dark Elves (TV110) vs his Chaos Dwarves (TV100).  Tom took a reroll as an inducement.  I gave sure hands to a lineelf and I think he gave guard to a blocker.  He also had a warpstone token (that he never wanted to use since they are so unstable).  He won the coin toss and opted to receive.  I racked up my first and only casualty of the game pretty quickly (a blocker at that - woot!).  I also used my witch elves to full advantage pushing a couple of his guys into the crowd.  I managed to stop him from scoring on his drive, get the ball and scored once in the first half.  In the second half he kicked to me and I started working my way upfield.  Then came his blunder where he forgot one of my star players was a runner.  He gathered a bunch of assists to throw his blitz when I got to use my dump off skill and passed it successfully to another player before getting smashed.  I managed to run the ball upfield and score again - leaving Tom with only a couple turns left.  He ended up having to try his luck with the warpstone token on a failed pass(? i think, or maybe the catch) but it fizzled and had no effect.  Two wins out of two!  Best start to a tournament yet!

Game 3 vs. Greg (TO)
By this time I'm playing on the top table.  Greg was one of the tournament organizers and they each played one team for three games to give us an even number of players.  This game was my Undead vs. his Orcs.  I don't remember his skills but my other mummy got guard and one ghoul got sure hands and another ghoul got block. A very tight game with low casualties ended as a 1-1 tie.  I don't remember a lot of this game - I think because it was fairly un-spectacular.  It was basically two grinding halves, with each team taking a turn and leaving too few turns for the other to score in the remainder of the half.  Actually I do remember one other thing about this game.  Both halves, first two turns my first block was a double-skull and Greg had stuff screw up early so neither of us ended up with rerolls beyond turn three of either half.

Game 4 vs. Charlie
Last game of day one.  It was my Dark Elves vs his Orcs.  He had three blitzers with guard and a black orc with block.  I gave a witch elf block, a blitzer dodge and another blitzer kick.  By this time everyone was making mistakes.  Our game had a fair few - including me not remembering his first touchdown!  How much did that suck when I thought I had the game in the bag when he scored on turn seven of the second half only to find out we tied!!  To be fair Charlie played really well - focused on what was important and clawed himself back into this game.  Next time I'm definitely having a coffee mid day though as I made a really boneheaded mistake (confusing my blitzer with kick with my lineman with sure hands) and I should have just copped to using a proper reroll.  Charlie was a proper sport during the whole match and all smiles all the time.  A great game vs. a great opponent and regardless of what my brain thought - he deserved a draw.

So end of the first day and I'm sitting on 3 points with 2 wins and 2 draws.  I knew I was in for a tough second day - so when our nighttime shenanigans got rained out and we hit the hay early, I wasn't too dissapointed (Definitely would have changed my tune if I knew what I was in store for on day two)

Day 2 (aka day of "le waaaaaaaa")
Based on what I knew of the results and the standings, I was hoping to draw Matt first and play his Humans with my Undead.  Then if that went well I expected to play Laurent (who won the tourney) with his Undead against my Dark Elves.  Didn't work out that way and Laurent played Matt first.

Game 5 vs. Solomon
My Undead vs Sol's Dark Elves.  Both my mummies got another skill and I chose stand firm for both.  My skeleton got a skill and I gave him tackle.  I won the coin toss and chose to receive.  I built up a nice cage and left the ball downfield turn one (worked out since I failed the pickup!)  Turn two I picked up the ball and got it to my ghoul with block and got him in the middle of my cage.  Here's where it all started to go wrong.  Sol's turn two he blitzes my wight and kills him outright!  I even failed the regen roll so I basically spent nearly the whole game at 10 players max (got worse later) In the next couple turns Sol proceeded to bust into my cage, blitz the ball carrier and killed my skeleton outright (failed regen again!) while he was at it.  Sol couldn't seem to roll worse than a KO, meanwhile I could not do more than stun an elf.  He actually played stall ball against me as he would just run his cage around so I wouldn't get more than one blitz a turn.  He scored a single touchdown in each half and just ran my Undead ragged.  Totally demoralizing as I felt I'd played really well and with a bit of luck might have evened the numbers a bit.  Wasn't to be, game ended with me having seven or eight guys on the pitch and he had ten.

Game 6 vs. Matt
Final game and I knew I was screwed - stuck playing Dwarves with my Dark Elves.  There wasn't much I could do - for my skills unfortunately both runners ended up with skills.  I gave one lineelf wrestle, I should have just given both runners wrestle too, but I thought a leader reroll would help and nerves of steel for maybe a sneaky play.  I tried an early rush to try to get the jump on him, but unfortunately my blitzer couldn't make a 4+ catch even on a reroll after my successful dump-off so he picked up the ball and stomped me on his way to scoring.  Matt caused so many injuries this game I lost count - and his chainsaw didn't even hurt me, it killed itself!  This game just kinda sucked because I had no way to fight him with numbers and with all the tackle I couldn't just dodge away all the time.  Next time I play Dark Elves I will definitely be taking Leap on a blitzer.  I just couldn't bust into cages at all, but ended up throwing a lot of two dice, opponent picks blocks. If I'm going to be doing that anyways, might as well be on the ball carrier.

Overall this was a super fun tournament - I loved the two team format, the random skills and the special warpstone rules (tokens and some changes to kick off table) all combined to make it every game exciting.  Next up - Deathbowl in October.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Necromunda Escher gang - commission received!

I just received delivery today of my necromunda Escher gang that I had farmed out to a local painter (My buddy  @ http://scipunk.webs.com - HIGHLY recommended.  Excellent value)  I was using them quite frequently unpainted, but necromunda had to take a backseat for a while as other things were afoot.  I figured it was a good time to have them painted.  I would rather farm out some little projects instead of just having tons of unpainted mini's sitting around.  I now have several options for playing necromunda, so I am thinking about what's on deck in the "farm out painting" queue.

I will get some better pictures in the near future, once I am setup to edit them.  Until then I just grabbed this quick group shot.  20 miniatures, a good mix of armaments - I don't think there's anything else to add to this gang.  I even converted a leader model to be carrying a meltagun in case I want to spend big on my initial gang (and just to make my opponents FEAR her - hehe).  This gives me three fully painted necromunda gangs, time to get playing again!
Row 1 (Juves): autopistol, stubgun/club, autopistol/maul, stubgun, stubgun/club.
Row 2 (Gangers - Ranged): shotgun, lasgun, autogun, lasgun, shotgun/autopistol
Row 3 (Specials): meltagun/laspistol, plasmagun, autogun/stubgun, boltgun/laspistol, heavy stubber
Row 4 (Gangers - CC): laspistol/sword, plasma pistol/maul, 2 swords, autopistol/chainsword, autopistol/sword

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Latest necro gang - Pit Slaves!!

Thought I would throw up a couple photos of my progress on the pit slave gang.  As I literally hacked these together from old junky bits (as evidenced by metal plates I just glued to their bodies) I just went for simple base coat with a very limited palette of skin, green, gray, silver, tin.  I did undercoat the metals, and alternated between brown and black.  I alternated the metal colour too to try and get four tones.
I added five more arms today (30 total), and now can legally arm each of the fourteen models.  Sorry about the photos, neither are great shots, as I still plan to give these guys a bit of a dip - I'll take some better photos later. I'm sure the dip will tie everything together well - a diluted version produced extremely good results for some earlier necromunda hired guns.  Then all that will be left to do is the bases.
I had been inspired to get this complete by my planning a large necromunda campaign.  I haven't seen the kind of response it will require so it might not be the right time.  Instead I think will start another small home based campaign.  I essentially have two Spyrer gangs, I'm getting my Escher back (painted, yippeeeeee!!!) on Saturday and now this gang is practically complete and easily tabletop worthy.
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