minis painted for others... skaven for hakomike!

Continuing the painting point train and also bringing my total for miniatures painted for others this year up to 5 is this skaven model I painted for hakomike. Most of my regular readers will recall the absolutely stunning harlequin that Mike painted for my Necromunda spire brats gang - truly one of my favourite miniatures and a totally gorgeous paint job. I knew my own contribution to him wouldn't be anything like that, but to his eternal credit Mike cares more about the thought and care than the actual results.

This has been a long slog - mostly due to my own painting and other changes in real life getting in the way, but also a lack of fur meant my plans for lots of staining/washes had to take a backseat.  Well almost 2 years later he is finally done!  I am also really happy to hear from Mike that he matches the rest of his skaven army pretty well - so job's a good 'un!

warplock engineer I think??

I originally was jazzed to use a staining method for this guys fur, but he ended up having so little of it, I don't think it has as big an impact (of looking very natural) as I'd hoped for - in the end I am more happy with his weapons' blades & the "warpstone ball" on his backpack, which was simply P3 coal black with mithril silver edging, then a purple wash and then another smaller round of edging and another layer of wash.  It gives it a nice evil looking sheen.  I need to fix up the lenses because I screwed up where the little dot of white goes, but other than that, he is finished and I will be shipping him off to Mike in the new year.

Old Stuff Day pt2: GWpertinent Forces!

Part 2 of my old stuff day posts is a bit of a cop-out.  Technically these posts are my "oldest" because way before blogger offered the option to create actual "pages", I wanted to use the blog to track everything about my armies, gangs, teams and warbands.  I found a little hack where I limit everyone from seeing any posts prior to 2008 so they wouldn't show up in my archive list and I then set about creating "post-pages" for the various forces I have as of January 1st 2007.  Not all forces have a "post-page" created for them yet, but eventually they all will.  I've also included a "current state" percentage towards being painted/based - broken out by colour coding to describe who's done the painting (green; all me, yellow; some of my stuff came partially painted from my brother, or I received assistance in building/painting, or red; for some of the forces which I commissioned out)

Within these "post-pages" I try to incorporate as much varied info as I can.  Everything from why I started collecting them, the background and history to the force (including any fluff I have developed/written up), game records (ie. win/draw/loss), awards won, composition & development notes, pictures, etc.

I guess these are my posts that I think receive less traffic than they deserve.  There's lots of cool info in there, but they rarely get any comments.  Any suggestions you may have to get people to visit them more often, please let me know.  Maybe it's the face it's not obvious they are links?  I recently did a large update to my Novamarines page, and two of my blood bowl teams (orcs and undead) are similarly fully fledged.  My Spyrers page definitely needs an update since it only has half the gang in the photos, while I should really get my act together and get some games in with my Pit Slaves since their page is looking rather bare.

Well I hope this prompts you to take a look at any of my force pages that interest you.  Please feel free to comment as I'm always looking for feedback.

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. WINNER: Fajalheretic

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

Good luck!

WHFB escalation league @ HSG - week 6

Yesterday was another round in Heavy Support Games' WHFB escalation league. I missed last week so this was my only chance at 1,250 points. I took two units of 20 night goblin archers with fanatics (one led by black orc big boss, the other by a night goblin shaman), a unit of 20 orcs with choppas/shields, two units of wolf riders (one had a big boss with a 1 hit wonda), a unit of 3 trolls and 2 spear chukkas.

I was a little delayed finishing up painting my wargs, so I got the buy for the first round.

The second round I played against Shawn with his dwarves. It started quite well with my fanatics ripping through his clansmen unit and my wolf riders getting into position to charge his war machines when animosity got the better of me (I should've waaaagh'd) and finishing them off just took too long. Meanwhile his bolt thrower was regularly destroying guys as did my own fanatics. His longbeards worked their way around the woods and eventually was able to charge my squabbling orc unit. It took him a couple turns but they destroyed the orcs and overran into one of the spear chukkas. Unfortunately for me he saved his thane and standard bearer from the fanatic decimated unit so I didn't get many victory points. His hatred also helped him to ensure he routed anyone who got into combat with his longbeards. A loss for me.

The third round I played against George again - who is always great fun to play and possibly my favourite opponent from the escalation league. He kept his hydra hidden from my spear chukkas and used his two dark rider units to suck out my fanatics early. Those units were quickly decimated and it hemmed my army into my half of the board for the early parts of the game (which might have actually helped me). My wolf riders routed one unit of his crossbowmen, and my spear chukkas panicked the other. It took a few turns of dancing around but he finally decided to charge my trolls with his hydra. Unfortunately for him I managed to regenerate every wound his hydra and beastmasters managed to cause, and after a few turns of him passing his break tests I finally broke the hydra and it was destroyed. Meanwhile my orcs and a unit of wolf riders were keeping his executioners and two sorceresses busy. He managed to get off a couple black horrors which decimated those units but crucially he couldn't finish off the orcs. At the end of the game I'd destroyed a lot of his army (2 dark rider units, 2 crossbow units, and his hydra) and had two table quarters, to his one table quarter and one destroyed wolf rider unit, one reduced wolf rider unit, one reduced orc unit and a reduced night goblin unit. My first official win of the league - hurrah!!

Week 6: Tristan - LOTR Wargs (warhammer) painted

A quick post. I had to focus on getting my wargs painted as they've been sitting here primed for two weeks. I've actually painted 30 of them, you can see more details on my blog. Not sure how many this should count but I definitely need them to count as week 6. Some of you (aka Karl) have seen my washes only goblins before. This is more of the same.
Edit: Wow no comments eh? I guess it's not very impressive seeing three models. Maybe this will be more impressive. (< 6 hours total painting time from primed to finished for all 30).

I've given myself 15 points for these guys, as they are essentially all 1/2 a model until I get the riders done.

30 wargs painted in just under 6 hours (356 minutes) +30PP

Well, I've talked a lot of talk about these guys, now I've pulled it off and my estimate of 6 hours was correct for total painting time (not including assembly, green stuff, basing, priming)

Here's a close up of three
and here's all thirty of them

Here's the list of steps for anyone interested.

(# of mins) step

1. (6) white drybrush on 6 wargs
2. (4) black drybrush on 6 wargs
3. (14) paint grey stripe on backs
4. (63) paint mouths black
5. (38) gryphonne sepia wash
6. (32) gryphonne sepia wash
7. (35) gryphonne sepia wash
8. (16) paint eyes yellow
9. (28) paint teeth dheneb stone
10. (14) paint accessible claws dheneb stone
11. (10) paint tongues skorne red
12. (25) paint hard to reach claws dheneb stone
13. (10) paint grass catachan green
14. (25) fix bases grey
15. (10) black wash base and teeth
16. (26) drybrush base bleached bone
    

Request: Orc & Goblin list advice

OK, here's the situation. I'm currently painting up 30 LOTR wargs (hope to have them done in the next day or two) they are the plastics and will all have riders (since I'm using for WHFB).

Now the conundrum is that I just got an older box of metal warg riders. It includes 3 with spear (all same sculpt) and 2 different archer sculpts. I was thinking to use them as champion models, and then had the epiphany of using a couple spear armed guys to convert some standard bearers, like this example I found online (though I will probably just convert the spear into a standard)
My question is - what would you recommend? Considering I have 30 wolf riders - how many standard bearers do you think I should convert? IMO musicians are more important to fast cavalry, so would a couple standards be sufficient and should I convert some into musicians? champions? I figure the archers could pretty easily be converted to horn blowing musicians (using their bows and green stuff)
What number of each would you break down the 5 models - champions/standards/musicians?

ps. Planning to get a Sharku to act as a big boss.

WHFB escalation league @ HSG - week 4

I altered up my army a bit for this past Sunday's WHFB escalation league @ Heavy Support Games. I removed all the fluff from the night goblin archers unit and used a black orc big boss to lead them (simply a fanatic delivery system). I also mixed up my wolf riders, using two units of 12 both with bows and spears.

First game was against Nathaniel and his High Elves. He's using the new Mantic Games elves and they look great. He had a unit of seaguard, 2 bolt throwers and a mage on dragon. He forgot about my fanatics, so mistakenly moved his dragon too close. Between them and my spear chukkas his mage & dragon were dead by turn 2. Even with this great lead my army managed to fail me miserably, squabbling at the wrong time and failing fear tests to charge elves. I realized later that because my spear chukkas have 4 crew it might be possible for them to claim table quarters (which would have turned the loss into a draw) but a fun game regardless. Well done to Nathaniel for hanging in there.

Second game I got the buy, meaning I get full score as there was an odd number of opponents. Only thing to say about this was I'm upset I forgot I brought paints and I just sat around watching games.

Third game was against George with his Dark Elves; dark riders, cold one riders, 2 crossbow units, a bolt thrower and a mage. Started well, using my waaagh to get just close enough to release my fanatics at his cold one riders - pretty well decimating the unit. The tides swung back and forth all game, both our mages miscast (his twice, killing his mage), my wolf riders fleeing from charges and then just running off the board, my spear chukkas did well again this game. In the end he had more victory points, but not by enough to secure a win. My second draw!

I will soldier on and get that win! Next week is 1,250 points. Got some list making to do.

WHFB escalation league @ HSG - week 3

I missed week 2 of the WHFB escalation league up at my parents cottage last week. Everyone else showed up so I couldn't make up any games. This week I still seemed behind the list curve with my Orcs & Goblins compared to the other lists there. My list included night goblin shaman and archers with nets (which I forgot to use) and fanatics, a unit of big un's with magic standard, two units of wolf riders (one has a 1 hit Wonda big boss), 3 trolls led by a goblin big boss with horn of urgok (too situational) and two spear chukkas.
After getting spanked by magic last time, I brought a banner to give me bonus dispel dice. I had no problems with people's magic, but this week it was monsters who were carrying the day - there was a dragon, 2 armies with hydra's, a stegadon, a skaven abomination, etc. I had 3 trolls now that we could select a rare choice.

First game was against a kid with Vampire Counts. Honestly if he'd dared to do anything with his blood knights he would've killed me, my army wasn't too bad on the animosity/stupidity tests this game - only my trolls failed to do any damage to his Grave Guard when they charged and we got stuck in a combat that took all game. It ended in a draw.

Second game against Michael's Dark Elves. I thought I had this game in the bag after my fanatics killed four dark riders and then four cold one riders, and I had his hydra in fleeing in charge range of both my general + trolls and my wolf riders with 1 hit Wonda big boss. Well the trolls failed their stupidity roll (I forgot about moving up 3" but I think they were outta range anyways) and then my Wonda big boss hit 3 times (at S10) and I rolled triple 1's to wound. Turning point of the game and Mike's last couple cold one riders wiped out nearly the rest of my army while his Hydra took out the trolls and wolf riders.

Third game against Dave's Skaven. Dave had the abomination, and my army pretty much just failed to do what I needed at the right time (animosity, yay!). Had a very fun game against Dave, I think I had the most laughs from my armies ridiculous-ness out of any WHFB game I've had there yet. My spear chukkas were stars, one shooting a spear that pierced every rank of his clanrat unit (5 ranks!). Fanatics failed to do much and animosity struck with the Wonda big boss led wolf rider unit yet again (they squabbled at least 6 or 7 times that day - obviously the rest of the mob knew that big boss wrn't nuthin' spesul)

So.. a draw and two losses. Back to the drawing board with the list, since it's escalation and your armies are supposed to be painted (or at least progressing) I plan to stick with my foolhardy Orcs & Goblins and I'll get a win with them yet!

30 wargs, ready to paint.

I've been threatening to get started on these for a while now, with the new WHFB escalation league at Heavy Support Games, I've finally been motivated to hunker down.

30 wargs - cleaned, assembled, green stuff'd, glued to washer base, sand glued to base, primed.

I took 2 from each group and gave them light mists of both white & black primer.
I will take a further 2 from each group and give them drybrushes with which & black.
That will leave 2 grey for each group - hopefully removing some of the uniformity of the models.

glued to bases
sand glued to base
primed & misted
Two posts in a day :O Well I had a long hobby day yesterday so it's not unjustified.

WHFB escalation league @ HSG - week 1

Heavy Support Games started up their WHFB escalation league today. Started at 750 points, I brought my Orcs & Goblins, a large unit of night goblin archers, a large unit of orc big un's and a couple spear chukkas led by a night goblin shaman.

Got completely smoked!! First game was against a tzeentch daemon army, 30 flamers & 2 heralds. Game over by turn 3, and regardless it probably would've been over anyways, I failed every animosity test so my army stood there and got wasted. Second game was against Ogres. My fanatics caused some major damange, but I screwed up a rule and chose not to charge, pulling defeat from the jaws of a draw. Game three was against a lizardman army, a stegadon and a ton of skirmishing skinks. My shaman killed a ton of skinks, but then his regiment fled off the board, I even killed his stegadon, but his last unit of skinks kept circling and double-tapping my big un's.

On the plus side with all the spare time I had I finished up a couple handgunners for my mordheim talebheim warband. +2 painting points... woot!

goblin characters

I got the finishing touches done on my two goblin characters tonight. To try and make them stand out from the crowd a bit, I gave them purple armour/robes (still using wash only technique) and decided that wasn't enough - so I used an actual paint on a single piece for each model (green dragon helm for lord, red skull spikes for shaman) - much better.

Total actual hours for this army should be record low! As for painting points, I've slipped a little behind - 82% done points for 86% of the year done. I really need to get those warg riders painted, as alltogether that'll be 60 painting points, more than enough to complete my goal.
They shouldn't take very long to paint either. I figure about 6 hours to paint 30 wargs and another 6 for the riders. The problem is getting their bases ready/adding magnets/filing gaps.

Goblin Hero/Lord
Goblin Shaman

O&G update - spear chukkas

Well I failed in my plan to get all my wargs assembled for priming this weekend. I didn't want to let the hobby room booking go to waste so I varnished all my orcs & goblins, and I also primed my two "spear chukkas" (aka mordor siege bows) and my two goblin characters (shaman & hero).

I still have the shaman and hero on the painting table (sorting out some of the colours for them is a little more complex) but I've completed the two spear chukkas and crew. Painted like all the other models from this army - nearly nothing but washes. I think it worked really well on the war machine itself, I used white and darker grey before starting the wash treatment to look like colour variations in the wood.

STUFF... available

Just wanted to throw a couple things on here I haven't been able to get rid of elsewhere.
First is the last high elf from my very first WHFB army. It's the old hero on pegasus and I even have an extra torso to throw in (could convert an infantry model in case pegasus dies?)

Also I've thought about keeping this for a while, but can't see myself using it anytime soon. NIB Bronzino's Galloper Gun.

Finally it turns out I have two copies of RAVENOR. I would love to trade one for any other book in the Ravenor series. I also have an old wanted post, and can always use more Space Marine bits.

Lo2G final and Necromunda @ 2HD - Day 3

Stopped by 2HD today to finish up the Lo2G and ended up playing some Necromunda. Unfortunately the guys who are playing in the campaign were busy with their role-playing, so I ended up buying some primer, some brushes and a couple paints to start on the Spyrers I'm using in the Necromunda campaign to spend my time.

We've ended Lo2G early as there's only Philip and I left, and the Grey Knight program is closed - although both Philip and I are going to try to continue painting 150 points a month. The recent painting points I scored are from the orcs I painted.

Month 3 scoring;
3 Tristan - fully painted
4 Philip - fully painted, best painted
0 Ken

For reference (Grey Knight)
0 Karl

Final standings;
13 Tristan - fully paintedx3, best painted, 3 games, 1 win
14 Philip - fully paintedx3, best paintedx2, 2 games, 2 wins
4 Ken - fully painted, 1 game

For reference (Grey Knight)
3 Karl - fully painted

Congratulations to Philip. I think the plan is we split the third place prize. He'll get over $100 in GW loot and I'll get somewhere around $75.

Then I got a couple games of Necromunda in. First due to the massive rating difference I got to pick the scenario and picked hit & run. With my speed I was sure I would be able to quickly get a guy off safely. Ended up doing just that as Philip did a good job ensuring I couldn't get some easy kills before ending it. Yeld off on turn 3.

Hit & run is a great scenario for Spyrers. I can at most be missing one gang member, and every raider gets +10xp if you win. All my guys got some advances (even forgetting the bonus xp for having a lower gang rating)

Then we did a gang fight with three gangs. I only got a single wound in, and bottled on the third turn after Karl took down my Malcadon (getting blinded in one eye - HA who cares). But upon realizing not getting any bonus xp for gang rating - and complaining all day I couldn't roll a power boost - finally on my last roll my Orrus scores a power boost and I get a sustained fire dice for my bolt launchers.. /insert heavenly choir sound here

Legend of 2HD Gamers pt2 + BFG

We all got a little delayed first week of the month, so we met up the next Friday to play some games and let the GK judge our painting for the Lo2G competition at Two Headed Dragon. We all had a busy April so no more games were really played. I'm in bold. Also due to the GK program being canceled we are going to end this competition a month early due to loss of competitors. Looks like it's down to whoever gets best painted next month, or whoever wins the game between Philip and I. We could still end up tying, and if that happens will probably split the pot evenly.

Month 2 scoring;
4 Tristan - fully painted, 1 game
6 Philip - fully painted, best painted, 1 game, 1 win
0 Ken

For reference (Grey Knight)
0 Karl

Current standings;
11 Tristan - fully paintedx2, best painted, 3 games, 1 win
11 Philip - fully paintedx2, best painted, 2 games, 2 wins
4 Ken - fully painted, 1 game

For reference (Grey Knight)
3 Karl - fully painted

I also got to play my first game of BFG today. We played a 3 way with a huge dust cloud in the middle. Quite a fun game, don't know why I always hesitated so much previously to give it a try.
Thinking about making a Tyranid fleet and finding some really cheap way to construct it. Any ideas?

finally updates... pt3

Ok I know I'm not supposed to use a flash but it's getting late and I couldn't get decent pics of the trolls without it. These guys are my April entry for the Lo2G @ Two Headed Dragon. At least this lets you see the colour scheme and details and not just a brownish blob. These guys were really quick as well. Here's my paint list.

1. black wash base
2. sepia wash on stomach and leading to arms
3. while wet, devlan wash around sepia
4. devlan wash rest of troll
5. repeat steps 2-4
6. ogryn wash entire body
7. thraka wash in 'healed' spots, followed by blue wash and another thraka wash
8. devlan wash scales
9. ogryn wash again
10. paint metal black, then boltgun metal, then black wash
    
11. loincloths are baal wash x2, leviathan wash, baal wash
12. teeth/fingernails/toenails are dheneb stone foundation followed by ogryn wash
13. eyes are blazing orange
14. fresh cuts are emerald green
15. leviathan wash on the nips
    
16. drybrush bash bleached bone

Converted hammer to sword (no idea what impact this has for LOTR, but looks dead cool)

Hammer

Spear (plastic)

Legend of 2HD gamers - pt1 B

The scores have been posted for the Lo2G competition at Two Headed Dragon. I expect these scores to increase as with the campaign (I'll keep posting about the campaign too) we can keep playing games (afaik) until the next deadline. I'm in bold.

Month 1 scoring / Current standings;
7 Tristan - fully painted, best painted, 2 games, 1 win
5 Philip - fully painted, 1 game, 1 win
4 Ken - fully painted, 1 game

For reference (Grey Knight)
3 Karl - fully painted

I know I alway say this, but I want to start getting pics of these events. Maybe even do up a batrep or two.

Force Pages

You may have noticed the little "GWpertinent forces" sidebar that's been up for a few weeks now. I just want to bring some attention to it now as with completing my undead blood bowl team I'm really aiming to keep an up to date page for each force I collect. Look to see new photos and updates on those pages, as well as maintaining a to-do list plus awards and background info. There's also the (% painted) to show you how far along I am to completion.

The new Torne Bane Flaming Ears force page is pretty much what I'm aiming for as a standard.

to-do updates;

• Player photos for Badlandz Deff Ramz (taken, need to be editted)
• Good pics for Novamarines
• Add photos to Space Sharks
• Create Orcs & Goblins (WHFB/LOTR) page
• Get photos and pages going for mordheim and necromunda.
  

Goblin Archers (+30pp)

I remembered not to throw out the list I made for painting these guys so here it is. I really only used washes on these guys, the only solid colours were the metallics, black and bleached bone. Using this method I managed to paint all 30 of these guys in probably just over 6 hours work (not including prep) which equals out to almost 5 guys an hour. I'd definitely recommend experimenting with a gray undercoat if you haven't tried.

Prep
1. tape over washer.
2. trim off tape with scissors.
3. cut off slot.
4. super glue to base.
5. white glue and dip in sand/rocks.
6. prime grey with Armory.

Paint
1. black wash base
2. paint eyes white
3. gryphonne sepia wash over eyes, flesh and hair
4. alternate splotches with other skin tones (colour group a)
5. skin tones on all flesh (colour group a)
6. paint body clothing twice (colour group b)
7. shade body clothing (colour group c)
8. paint body clothing (colour group b)
9. boltgun metal on front of boots, shoulderpads, quiver bottom
10. black wash boots, armbands, arrow feathers, shoulders twice
11. paint quiver twice (colour group c)
12. paint bows (colour group d)
13. paint eye pupils black
14. paint teeth bleached bone
15. drybrush base bleached bone

Colour groups
a) gryphonne sepia, ogryn flesh, baal red, thraka green
b) baal red, thraka green
c) devlan mud, ogryn flesh
d) gryphonne sepia, ogryn flesh, flesh wash, devlan mud


Here are some quick pics of the goblin archers I painted up for the Lo2G deadline. Sorry for the lower quality.

Couple shots of the whole unit


Closer pics of the archers, front & back with showing

Champion
Musician