Catchup: Orion Cup 2014 - result = 4th/10*

Whew - that was a long posting hiatus (finally posted 3/15/2015) going to try to at least update my blood bowl games/tournaments so I can keep that page up to date, although they are gonna be short and after a while I am going to update the date to push them back into the past where they belong!

On May 10th I participated in a one day blood bowl tournament, the Orion Cup 2014.  There were 10 players and I brought my Jawbreakers Slann team. It says 4th place but note the asterisk (explained below)

Game 1 vs. BrockGT 3-1 loss

Game 1

Brock was an American visiting family in Toronto, who only just found out about the tournament and brought his lizardmen (talk about travelling prepared!) - he was a really fun opponent and ended up winning Best Painted.  As mentioned I don't recall much of the games, though I have an inkling I tried something very high risk/reward early on and it failed.

Game 2 vs. turfchewer 2-1 win

Game 2

I've played Dave before but only in the old XTBBF league that I can recall for sure, not sure about any tournament games before now.  I remember this game my slann were not in the leaping mood and it was a very very jammy second touchdown I scored very late in the game with no rerolls to take the win.

Game 3 vs. wapcaplets 5-1 win

Game 3

I've played Chris several times, in both league and tournament play.  For this tournament he wanted to play goblins to scratch them off the list of teams he has played at tournaments (in his words "one and done") funny for the guy who runs the blingtoofs' gitbash goblin themed tournament but anyways. He at last against a tier 3 team my slann finally played like they can and ended up scoring 5 touchdowns. Chris managed a thrown goblin touchdown too which is always fun.

All in all a fun day - annoyingly though the T.O. still (even as of 3/16/2015) hasn't posted the actual tournament results so all I know is I am tied on points with doomington and BrockGT and don't know what the tiebreakers are - I've run it through Score to get an idea, and think I'm going to award myself 4th place - doomington had much better TD +/- and Brock beat me in head to head which are two common tiebreakers.

Icemen Ogres blood bowl team v2

Just a quick one. As a thank you for doing the casting I have put together the blue tinted icemen as a second ogres team for my buddy Dave. Simple blue wash and pick out the eyes and mouth. I did the bases a bit differently, these are still made of washers, but I painted brown and then flocked them green before I did the water effects + baking soda snow. A total of +10 painting points for all the bases and the bit of work on the icemen.

I had rushed these guys finished because I was expecting to see him at the Orion Cup blood bowl tournament tomorrow, but unfortunately other commitments have caused him to pull out. In the end I have decided to bring my Jawbreakers slann team out for this one. Not really feeling trying a new team out with no warm up and the team build is not unkind to the slann. I got 3 more linefrogs built tonight too but no painting points for those guys lol!

playing with the FOLDIO & green background (green screen)

Just for fun I tried setting up a "green screen" type shoot with a few figures. I used the FOLDIOs green background and just poured extra flock that matched the bases all over the figures. Then I used photoshop to remove the background and just googled some images to put as the new background. Not that pleased but being my first attempt I'm not overly fussed. The horizon is clearly off as are the colours comparing the two layers.

first attempt

Things I figured out are 1) the FOLDIO material both the box and the background are made out of have a natural attraction for flock and the like, so they will need some quick cleaning before being used again. 2) Finding the correct angle to get the "horizon" right but still show off the miniatures is tough. 3) I probably need to use some kind of filter tool in photoshop to get the colours to look right.

Any tips or good websites to check out?

new necromunda photos + deadzone rebs proxies

I've been updating my GWpertinent forces pages with new pics. I am still working on a large album for my Novamarines as I want them well documented before I sell or trade them off. Other than that I have mostly focused on necromunda stuff since they have low model count and usually I don't have many gang pictures.

I've also recently been trying to figure out what I can use to proxy a Rebs faction in deadzone until I get the actual figures assembled.

Here's the limited edition Bonnie Annerson bounty hunter...  a few shots so you can see the mask. Not sure what made me paint the mask that way, and I definitely wish I hadn't done so many funky colours on her pistol, but I do still love the base with it's sewing pin mushrooms and green ooze. She could easily stand in for the Rebs leader.

I recently updated my Spyrers page with a slew of new pics. I can easily use the Yelds as Kraaw warriors and was thinking the Orrus would be suitable as Grogans - would probably need to pick one weapon type per game to not be confusing.

I've also updated my Escher gang page with some photos. Gangers with basic rifle weapons can easily be human rebs. I can't imagine using that many humans that these six gangers wouldn't be enough.

Finally I've got some spore mines I painted up a while ago to use along with some expanded Wyrd rules by Anthony Case as Lashoaters - I could see these counting as drones pretty easily.

Unfortunately for me, I haven't collected a lot of alien type figures so my rebs gang would be pretty bland - currently I'd look at a LOTR troll as a Teraton but not sure I can bring myself to do that! Anyways would be enough to have a game and get a feel for their battle cards deck and some missions at least.

Got my FOLDIO!

Well it took a bit longer due to shipping to Canada being slower through USPS - but finally it has arrived and I love it! A very cool portable lightbox that folds together and uses magnets to hold it's shape and a thin LED strip to provide the light. It has multiple background colours too!

Here are just a couple teaser pics. I have begun taking some nicer photos of my figures and updating old posts using them. Check out the links below for some updated piccys!

My spyrers page and the eversor model I might use counts as with them :)
http://gwpertinent.blogspot.com/2007/01/spyrers.html
http://gwpertinent.blogspot.com/2009/09/eversor-1pp.html

The warhammer quest characters page and specifically the warrior priest post.
http://gwpertinent.blogspot.com/2007/01/warhammer-quest.html
http://gwpertinent.blogspot.com/2009/07/warhammer-quest-character-2.html

Some earlier posts from this year have some additional piccys.
http://gwpertinent.blogspot.com/2014/01/novamarines-terminators.html
http://gwpertinent.blogspot.com/2014/04/whq-baddies.html

deadzone "rainmaker" ripper suit

Finally got back into the groove on this guy. Missing the shoulder gun during assembly really annoyed me about the whole thing. There is lots of fiddly details but I kept it pretty tabletop so left a lot of that detail to "come out in the wash" (hahaha).

view from right

I used the nihilakh oxide technical paint to give the tin weapons a verdigris look,which I particularly like on these hulking monstrosities. I combined that with the same coal black + drybrush silver for his weapons. I stole the red/yellow/green power bar for his laser weapon from someone I saw online.

view from left

I also decided to spread around the resin scenery that comes with the plague stage 2As. Why are they the only one's to get some? It definitely will tie in with my scenery.

WHQ baddies

In between other projects I've been getting some models fixed up that I got from various trades as warhammer quest bad guys. Here are a couple shamans I've done recently. They were both already painted when I received them - I did some minor touch ups where the pewter had shown through.

You can't really tell but I also had a go at some special bases that are similar to the one's I've always used, but I mixed some Agrellan Earth technical paints and painted some lightning effects under the base so it would seem like they are using some magical power and it's cracking the earth open.

04/24/2014 EDIT
Some FOLDIO lightbox pics

Antarctic Abominable Projectile Penguins

While having some thoughts about casting some resin pieces, I started finding really cool ice cube trays on amazon that would work for figures. I picked up a couple, one was just for a certain piece for a team that is still in the planning stage, but the other I found that was interesting was THIS ONE. Six completely different abominable snowmen poses. So I added it to the cart and I got a buddy to cast them up using clear resin. He also tried a blue tint which didn't come out as nice as we hoped.

Yes flash is bad, but it made the icemen look cooler.

So of course this inspired a snowmen themed ogre blood bowl team! I took my inspiration from this old flash game that was big when flash games first started to be big called Pengu Throw. So I found some cheap little penguin toys (couldn't find any suitable affordable penguin miniatures, there was always just like 1 or 2 in a huge expensive set of animals and my goal was a cheap team!) that will count as snotlings.

Took this pic so you can see how the clear resin looks with something behind it.

I mentioned to Axt when I picked up a set of his recent NABBO Tea Cup tournament dice & dugout that I needed them for a project I was working on. I think it suits this team very well! I will have to keep it packed in whatever transport I devise for this team. I also need to sort out numbers - my brother gave me a great suggestion for the penguins - add a tag onto their wings as if they'd been marked for tracking purposes (I will probably use 4 colours of tags as well) but I don't know what to do for the icemen, thoughts?

I will probably just use extra penguins for counters.

The most work involved was making the bases. I made them using washers to give (especially the penguins) some weight to them. Then glued on some sand, painted it grey, drybrushed with a lighter grey and added a black wash. I made snow by combining baking soda with water effects and found that I really really like the results. The icemen needed a quick sand and a wash then I picked out their eyes and mouth. I'm giving myself a painting point each for the icemen and 1 point per 4 penguin bases for a total of 10 painting points for this team.

Canadian Open 2014 Results

Sorry for the massive delay on this post - unfortunately being away on vacation the week leading up to the event meant that all my preparation was for running it and not blogging/tweeting/etc.

Canadian Open 2014 participants

I am very happy to announce we increased our turnout to 22 coaches. It could have been 24 without some last minute family & work related cancellations (which would have been 10 more than last year - so close to double digit increase!) This year I added a bunch of prizes and raffles to motivate people to bring out new blood bowl coaches - either completely new NAF members or someone who is NAF registered but never played in a tournament. It was very successful with FOUR newcomers and a fifth returning NAF member. If you are interested in NAF tournaments in Canada, please check out our new portal site NAFCanada.ca for all kinds of details, registration info, photos, results, etc. for all the Canadian tournaments.

Having the new portal also reduced my rush to get anything posted on the blog here, so apologies for that, but here are links to;

• Canadian Open 2014 Results, Trophy Winners and Full Standings.
• Canadian Open 2014 photos.

I will still post some relevant photos of the trophy winners here, but there are many more photos to look at including pics of the various teams up for the Best Team trophy at the link above.

1st Place - L3athalK

Leathan played Lizardmen and is also on quite the roll.  He won the CCKO (Ottawa) in January, the Daggerbowl (Ottawa) in February and now the Canadian Open in March.

2nd Place - wapcaplets

Chris played Wood Elves and improved upon his 3rd place finish last year by taking second. Next year he hopes to become the champion!

3rd Place - apartment42

Alex was my Odd Man Out and ended up taking home 3rd place using a skaven roster he wrote that morning!

Stunty Champion - Dwarfrunner

Mark picked up the Stunty Champion trophy with his Epic Iron Chefs halfling team.

Most TDs - grant85

As last year, Grant picked up the Most Touchdowns trophy with his Wood Elves.

Most CAS - Talons

Rob ended up needing some stand-ins (including myself for game 3) on day one due to work commitments, but his Khemri still came out with the Most Casualties trophy.

Wooden Spoon - hakomike

Some of you may know Mike from his blog - Constantly Risking Obscurity. Mike traveled up from Michigan to participate in his first ever blood bowl tournament and ended up taking home the Wooden Spoon with his Dwarf team.

Best Team - kikurasis

Matt took home the Best Team trophy with 10 out of 21 votes for his Slann team which also won at last years Chaos Cup.

Canuck Attitude - Purple_Nurple

Austin won the Canuck Attitude or "best sport" trophy on tie breakers - he had the most "5 star" sportsmanship ratings from his opponents - and that while he still ended up placing 8th with his Chaos team.

I also managed to raise $150 to go towards updating the Legacy trophy (you can see Leathan holding it in the group picture above) it needs a proper plaque with name plates instead of the wood with stickers around it, so look forward to an improved and updated Legacy trophy next year.

more deadzone terrain acccessories

Just a quick one today - finished the painting part on the last set of deadzone terrain accessories. Technically they still need weathering powders but those take so long I'm going to save up a bunch of terrain to do all at once.

Started by priming with cheap krylon spray "ruddy brown", then an extremely light drybrush with P3 pig iron, followed by a thinned devlan mud wash. Then I applied the decals which I think I took from an old epic titans decal sheet. Finally I used a bit of foam to sponge apply some damage with vallejo tin.

deadzone miniatures review - part 2

Quick part two review of the deadzone figures. Assembling the second batch of marauders I've come upon a few more issues. The first is this guy - the captain. I'm not sure exactly what's the matter, but if the ammo box he's standing on is flat, then his right foot is way up in the air. I think I read about some other folks having this problem but I can't find it and thus can't note their solution. His whole body is one piece so warming it up and bending it probably won't do much. I will state that the body was very good for mold lines, but I am probably gonna have to use a little piece of something under his right foot.

Second issue was I think a casting one. I had done some minor converting to this guy to swap heads with the other duplicated commando figure to add a bit of variety. Then as I was clipping off his base, his entire right leg just popped off. There must have been some bubble or casting inconsistency as I didn't do anything different to the other figures I removed the base from.  In the third pic down you can see how clean the snap is and how there appears some colour striations which makes me think it wasn't as solid as usual.

Thankfully I found the leg so hopefully a bit of epoxy and liquid green stuff will fix this guy up.

If I place the two pieces together they don't match perfectly - further supporting my thoughts.

So once again these are not the best miniatures in the world, but for the price which was not Reaper Bones cheap but pretty close I'd say they are still a good step above. Still frustrating to deal with but at least they come out with decent detail.

deadzone mawbeast

Sorry for the crappy pics - I just can't be arsed to spend any time getting nicer photos when I know how easy it will be once my FOLDIO shows up. I've finished up the first mawbeast, taking the advice of my man Axtlinge from Merry Mayhem News & NABBO league fame - and mimicking a "paroedura bastardi" gecko pattern on his fur using the same camouflage colours as the other marauders. I tried building a little "stamping tool" using some pluck foam bits. Unfortunately it was just too big to use on the mawbeasts fur as you can see below.

What I ended up doing instead is making a couple much smaller individual stamps and just doing the pattern manually. I used a dark grey instead of black but the red I kept the same. I used the same coal black I painted the commandos rifles for his nose and used iyanden darksun for his mane & tail. Any metallics are the same as well. A couple watered down coats of devlan mud followed and I am pretty happy with the result.

Did a quick "gem" job on his cybernetic eye and the usual clear acrylic base. When trying to glue him on the first time I accidentally spread the two part epoxy all over and was quite annoyed as I thought I'd ruined the base. However I found out that if you are quick enough and it hasn't set - it is quite easy to wipe the base completely clean with nothing but a paper towel. So a second try later and I had him glued to the same base. Score!

Next up is the first ripper suit. I have been delayed painting this guy because without any assembly instructions I ended up missing a gun piece that is supposed to mount on his backpack. In doing so I put a little accessory right in the way so I've had to do some cutting and chopping to get it to fit and that part isn't primed. Still I intend to get started on him - what are peoples thoughts for his scheme? Should I follow the same simple camo scheme on the marauders or maybe use the bigger stamping tool I couldn't use on the mawbeast? This is what the suit looks like - he is plenty big and will be the first to go on a 40mm clear acrylic base.

deadzone accessories painted

Another quick little snap of some deadzone progress. There is one more batch of little accessories to do, but I don't have a suitable different colour spray to use. I had definitely planned to use the yellow spray on the containers with the hazard symbol, and I picked up some cheap krylon sprays recently and the olive green works well for the boxier crates.

To mix it up a bit I used two different colours on the hazard symbol and applied some decals to the green crates - then I used a bit of sponge to apply some damage/weathering in a metallic colour. The last set of accessories are gas can looking and I hope to find some red or brownish colour to spray them.

* oops that just reminded me I need to add some weathering powders onto these pieces - will probably keep it simple with one colour each, not sure about any washes.

second marauder commando

Just a quick one today to show off the second marauder I've finished. That's half of the first four figures I've put together. I hope this camo scheme works well on the ripper suit. Tried to keep the palette very limited.

I would also love some suggestions for paint scheme for the mawbeast I've assembled in this post. I decided instead of using some green stuff to cover up the miscast bomb, I cut the bomb part off anyways since they haven't made a bomb-less mawbeast yet.

first deadzone figure finished - marauder commando

This guy is from the "Marauder Extra 1" bag and is the only piece it contains. I think somehow I ended up with an extra of these guys, though it's hard to tell. I have another commando pose with most of the basecoats done and that should be my next completed deadzone fig. I chose a very "GW 40K Blood Axe Ork" scheme using grey's and a bit of camo. The battle gear these guys have along with all the packs and pouches reminded me very much of the blood axes.

base? what base?

Tested out a couple "tricks" on this figure. One is the manner in which I highlighted his flesh. Everyone knows yellow is a hard colour to get good coverage with, so for a test I tried highlighting his flesh with yellow straight from the pot (it was a P3 yellow, but quite bright) meaning a thin coat did a great job of lightening the goblin green colour and it was much quicker than having to mix a highlight tone. It may be hard to tell from these photos but I was very happy with the result. If anyone cares I can try to take some in progress pics.

on table

on scenery

Trick number two was attempting to use a dip/stain to handle shading.  I mixed up a tiny bit of wood stain with a bunch of water in a paint pot and tried applying it with a piece of foam. It ended up being way to dark and I'm not sure why.  I used the same stain as on my Pit Slaves and just dabbed it on. Perhaps the base colours just don't work as well or maybe I just did not use enough water in the mix. I will have to check out the army painter dips at some point but I managed to clean most of it off with water and a toothbrush. There are bits left which actually just look like dirt & grime so I will probably use a touch of it on every fig in opportune places.

on table

on scenery

The final trick is obviously the clear acrylic base from litko bases (picked up on boxing day sale from the FLGS meeplemart's online shop) It's an interesting concept to avoid the need to paint any bases and pretty much just match whatever scenery you are playing on. At first I was very "gung-ho" to put all the deadzone figures on these bases - but I think I may backtrack from that a bit. While cool when on the scenery it does detract a bit from the figure when just on the table. The plague faction will definitely get them since they have scenery bits as part of the figures and I intend to paint them the same as my terrain. Having second thoughts for the enforcer and rebs factions though. Might use them for a necromunda gang in the future and definitely will be using them for a blood bowl team. Hope everyone likes the "edited & effects" photo at the top of the post - I used some control points in google+ image editor to fade out the base as much as possible, then used some visual effects similar to the space hulk photos I posted earlier this year. It's a bit obvious from the fading but I thought it was fun.