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.

getting ready for Daggerbowl VII

In the first couple months of the year, the NAF tournaments in the Ontario/Quebec region are both held in Ottawa. I have been to the CCKO three years running (reports: 2011, 2012, 2013) doing pretty well in 2012. This years plans for the CCKO came together a bit late and being the first weekend after my wife and son came back from a visit out West I didn't want to miss that time with them. I haven't seen most of my blood bowl buddies since Lakeside Cup in August last year so I have been itching to get to a tournament.

Usually I have taken a pass on Daggerbowl.  Ottawa is a pretty long drive for a one day tournament, but this year I've decided to make the trek since I'm not sure when I will have time to make another tournament for a while (since I run the next tournament that's coming up - I won't get a chance to play). Daggerbowl is pretty interesting that big guys are half price and get the Pro skill for free. Chaos Pact seems to be a popular team choice as are halflings.  I convinced the tournament organizer that if halflings can get the Deeproot Strongbranch star player - then goblins should be able to get Ripper.

willy miniatures troll

(Part of me was also thinking this would be the only time I get to Daggerbowl, so bringing the goblins and getting best painted would be a smart move. Unfortunately being a one day, there is no best painted prize - but I had already used the motivation to get my Ripper model painted up so I will continue with the goblins anyways!)

The model I picked up for Ripper is one of the willy miniatures trolls. I felt it would be a good choice because willy figures are pretty large and that would make a good ST6 model. I swapped gryphonne sepia for ogryn flesh and ogryn flesh for devlan mud on this figure to make him look a bit darker & stronger than the other two trolls. That combined with his size will make him quite obviously Ripper.

In "insane goblin posse" terms I am calling him Esham - who was a rapper who wore clown makeup in an album cover that inspired ICP. So the face-paint details I have followed that album cover. He is not 100% complete, but I just need to touch up the face-paint and then glue him to his base - and my FOLDIO lightbox will not be shipping until early march so a quick photo is all I'm going to do for now anyways.

first deadzone terrain piece finished

Well the first piece is finished. Over the last week I've applied a bunch of weathering powders, some decals and glued on some little "posters" I've printed out. I've tried some different methods of using the powders mixed with washes which worked fairly well. I also have been using 3 different tones of the rust series. I do have to say that it is quite time consuming and I should maybe save these (or even sell them off) for very particular effects and that after seeing the results Anton achieved using modelmates rust spray, it definitely seems a better way to go for large pieces like this.  Perhaps a combination though I am not unhappy with the powder results.

a decal by the door plus powders & washes

The print outs didn't actually print that well - I cheated and just used some old photo paper in the inkjet at work, and some of them faded or misprinted. To be honest, many of them are still usable since they will match the aged/weathered look of the tiles.

fuel storage sign, covered with washes and powders

I am debating whether I should actually glue some fuel tanks to the side of the building or not, I am still leaning towards not, since they will be more useful loose to be placed wherever you need (they could go on the roof too.

warning sign posted and powders & powders/washes

Using the grid on the top I felt it looked really smart to have the rusty wash pool along the grid lines. I tried to use a marauder boot with some paint to leave boot prints but it didn't work very well. Instead I just ended up cleaning (not really the right word) up the boot print with some freehand. It looks OK, but not as nice as I'd hoped.

small decal - sorry for blurry photo

I am really happy with the deadzone terrain - I've mentioned to some friends it's right in between the necromunda bulkheads (which require some card) and the platformer/hexagon stuff (which are more complex to assemble, but can provide much more complex buildings). Looking forward to getting more put together - I hope to get some games in soon.