J.Wappel's GK Land Raiders, etc.

Well it's good to be back everyone, sorry about that unanticipated absence. The past couple of weeks RealLife has overrun my defenses and collapsed the entire hobby front, leaving me with no progress to report whatsoever. Things have been so hectic lately I haven't even had time to keep up with my beloved blogosphere [Gasp!] or post up any of my usual blather. After reading this over at Musings of a Smurf and reflecting on it a bit more, rather than feel down about the lack of hobby time I'm instead thankful to have accomplished a lot that needed to be done along with spending lots of time with my family. Thanks for helping to refresh my perspective, MoaS!

Enough rambling for now, let's get to it. All the recent excitement over the imminent return of the Grey Knights reminded me that I never got around to posting all the pictures I had of an amazing pair of Grey Knight Land Raider Redeemers painted by James Wappel of WindyCity Miniatures. I'm fairly certain I remember RealGenuis of BoLS fame showed off pictures of these last spring at that website and maybe also at The Painting Corps. Even so they're such brilliant models it's worth taking another look. Right then, check out these lovely Land Raiders...

While on the subject of WindyCity Miniatures, the next two photos are of miniatures painted by Cathy Wappel. These were also brought to last's years Adepticon and available in the Wappels' seminars for us to see as examples of their work and to admire. Also the Bretonnian was referenced specifically in the class on painting free hand designs to show how their techniques for painting tattoos can be applied in other situations. I know I've posted these here before but why not post 'em again? They're simply awesome!

(I'm not positive but I think that's RealGenius in the background taking photos.)

Alright, I've run out of time for now and need to wrap it up. If you ever get a chance to meet the Wappels, do so as they are some of the sweetest, nicest people I've encountered in this hobby. Great people with great talent... dig it!

Knights of Bal Timorea, the Finale!

I just returned home from staying out at the beach for the last several days with my family so I'm now catching up on all the exciting hobby goings-on I missed while disconnected. Right away I am delighted to learn that Alex of One Inch Warrior has won the drawing for the Knights of Bal Timorea project. Congratulations, Alex... hooray! Along with the big announcement last Thursday SC John of Santa Cruz Warhammer also posted some awesome pictures of all the entries to the contest. Seeing them together is really cool indeed. I'm grateful to all the other participants and had a fantastic time working on my knightly submission, this was easily one of my favorite hobby projects from last year.

I hope there are more opportunities to participate in community projects like this in future, this was a lot of fun and also a nice little diversion from the usual routine. Thanks again to everyone involved and to Santa Cruz Warhammer guys for issuing the call to arms. Woo-hoo!

Sir Cumference rides again! Only now he has joined company with a glory-hungry band of knights... happy questing, fellas!

Knights of Bal Timorea, Part 4

I am happy to report Sir Cumference has finally begun his long journey to the land of California. Safe travels, friend! I finished painting him a couple of nights ago but was not able to get him in the mail until earlier today so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he arrives on time. Seems my original confidence that I'd finish with plenty of time to spare was rather unwarranted. I'll never learn, will I?

From beginning to end this project was a blast and I'm really happy I decided to participate in The Knights of Bal Timorea. Despite the misgivings I had along the way about the color scheme and concept I had chosen, I'm now quite pleased with my contribution to the group. There are certainly things I wish I could have done better but there are as well some parts of the mini that turned out much better than I had hoped. Also I learned at least a few new techniques that should be helpful in the future so I'd say this was a success. Hooray!

I mentioned back in Part 1 of this series that my inspiration for Sir Cumference was the villainous black knight of the same name seen in the 1946 cartoon, A Knight for a Day. This is the reason why I went with a predominantly black color scheme. I knew right away that I wanted his heraldry to be the letter pi but there were a number of variants that I had considered. Ultimately I decided to keep it as simple as possible knowing even that would be challenge enough for me. My aim with the green background for this heraldry was to be reminiscent of a chalkboard in math class upon which the symbol has been written. I hoped the black would reinforce this Old School Chalkboard feeling and compliment the simple aesthetic I had in mind for the miniature.

I decided to go with red for the helmet's dragon crest because I thought the extra bit of color would be nice since the rest of the model is quite dark overall. Also at one point my goal was to have Sir Cumference finished by Christmas so the red and green helmet seemed at the time appropriately festive. My final reason for choosing to paint the dragon red is that amongst the knickknacks on my painting desk is this little fellow seen to the left whom I picked up decades ago during a family vacation. I thought it would be neat to pay respect to him as one of my longtime painting buddies and to incorporate a little more of myself into the project.

Like I said I'm really happy with how my miniature turned out and look forward to seeing him ranked up with the rest of the entries. That being said I am now a little sad to let him go, though I know I must as it is his destiny. It is the journey for which he was born.

And so with that Sir Cumference and his faithful steed, the warhorse Diameter, set off for distant lands in search of glory. Happy questing, brave knight. Farewell!

Knights of Bal Timorea, Part 3

After taking the weekend off from painting I am back at it tonight trying to wrap things up on Sir Cumference, my entry for the Knights of Bal Timorea. I had hoped to already have him in the mail today so I now really need to finish pronto in order to make the Jan. 1st deadline. With that in mind I simply marked out a few dots onto the shield spaces to serve as a guide and then went for it, at last making my attempt at painting the heraldry. I'm not crazy about how they turned out but oh well, so much for consistency or quality. But more importantly, they're done... and yes, the design is supposed to be the letter pi. [cue the sad trombone] Whaa-whaa.

There are a few things left for me to touch up as well as some details still unpainted. The dragon on top of the knight's helmet has only received its initial coat, likewise the stones on the miniature's base. Oh and the horse needs some more attention but otherwise I suppose there's not that much left to paint after all. I went ahead and gave the cloth areas another wash of Badab Black to take away more of the blue tone and am now satisfied with the color. I'd like to finish painting the model tonight and then send him off on his way to California tomorrow afternoon. If not I'll try to find some time during the day to paint whatever remains undone. Looks like it could be a buzzer-beater... :)

My motivation to paint fizzled away since my previous update, the days having been spent with family enjoying Christmas. I nonetheless had several opportunities when I could have picked up a brush but just didn't have the enthusiasm needed to do so. My grandfather had been quite sick for the past couple of weeks and was in bad shape over the weekend before finally passing away late last night. I therefore found myself in a melancholy mood at times and not much inclined to paint. I don't want to dwell upon it now but I did feel moved to at least mention this as it has been weighing upon me.

It's been a sad day for my family but I believe it was cathartic and healthy. With my wife's consent of course, this evening I indulged in some perfectly timed escapism with my first viewing of Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie. In a day or so I'll likely throw together the obligatory review of the movie which every blogger is apparently required to write. I will say for now that it was just what I needed to get me out of my gloomy mood. Who can't smile when chainswords are chopping heads? After that it was very nice to sit down and begin painting again, my hobby mojo restored. I expect to be done with Sir Cumference by 5pm tomorrow at the latest and will then be ready to return to my regularly scheduled hobby projects.

Alright, that's all now... happy painting and gaming, everyone!

Knights of Bal Timorea, Part 2

Once again I've demonstrated my inability to predict how long it will take for me to finish a project. A week of distractions and pre-holiday cheer has passed and Sir Cumference is still not yet complete. I am however feeling much better about the project than I had been as expressed in my previous post concerning The Knights of Bal Timorea. Painting the areas of black cloth on the warhorse and knight helped immensely and I'm now happy with how the model is turning out. I'd like to have him mailed out on Monday so that does not leave much wiggle room if my entry is to be in California on time.

The picture above shows the miniature after the areas of black cloth received a single application of Badab Black. This can be compared to the first picture of this post which was taken just prior to this step. I'm probably going to add Badab Black one more time once everything else is finished as it's still too blue for my liking and I would like to further darken its appearance. Really though from a couple feet away the "black" looks fine, but I think it needs to be darker. Here's another look at the areas I'm talking about, both before and after washing.

before

after

There's not much left to do on this miniature with the only big challenge left to tackle being the heraldry. I have an idea of what I want the design to be and have started to work out how I will go about painting it. My goal is to simplify the process enough for me to be able to replicate the heraldry with some modicum of consistency. I'll have to paint it five or six times on this Bretonnian knight so hopefully it's an easy enough design that I've chosen. Freehand painting has never been a strength of mine so no doubt this is going to be lots of fun. :)

Alright, time to get at it. I hope life is treating all of you very well, take care!

Knights of Bal Timorea, Part 1

I just got home a couple of hours ago from a quick trip with the family to NC looking for our future place to live. It was a good time and we saw a bunch of nice potential residences. Last weekend before leaving town I did, however, begin the review of my current projects and realized quickly what had to be my top hobby priority. The revised deadline for The Knights of Bal Timorea is Jan. 1st, at which time my entry must be in the hands of the folks at Santa Cruz Warhammer in order to participate in the project's finale. Since my knight will be competing with all the other late holiday season mailings, that means I need to send him out ASAP.

I have had more than three months to paint just this one miniature so of course I only get around to it now a week or so before it needs to be finished. Fortunately I have a pretty clear idea of what I want my contribution to this open group project to be so I'm not worried about completing the model in time. I had a couple hours to work on it Sunday night and made some decent progress. In all honesty though I'm really not happy with how it looks at this point and I considered scrapping my initial plan and going in a different direction. The thing is I'm working from a rather specific source of inspiration and so far am not satisfied with the way that idea is translating to my Bretonnian nobleman. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to post a picture because of my reservations over this but since I feel like pressing on with it, I might as well present my potential BIP (Blunder In Progress). Why not, right? Here he is pictured as I left him after that first painting session:

The color scheme is primarily green and black as seen above but I am yet to begin on the black which is the part that has been bothering me the most. I therefore hope once I work on the areas of black cloth I'll start to like it more and that's why I've decided to just continue as planned. If the scheme looks wrong in the end, oh well. This miniature is likely destined for someone else's figure case so I therefore probably won't mind nearly as much sending him off to his new home. And besides, it does seem like it would be a fittingly bizarre, ill-conceived representation of my efforts here at diceRolla. I say this because the whole idea is based on both a cartoon and a tired, horribly lame joke. Let me explain.

A couple of months back I saw a really old Disney cartoon called A Knight for a Day that I remember watching as a kid probably 25 or more years ago. It's a weird cartoon with a very weak hero, "Cedric," whom I never liked so that even as a little one I cheered for the bad guy to win. The black clad, cigar smoking villain in this tale is a true brute and spends most of the story bashing on the hapless good guy, driving him through castle walls and such. But for no apparent reason the writers chose to insert a completely inappropriate joke by naming this badass black knight, "Sir Cumference," a name which from that point on is not worked at all into either the story or any other more interesting jokes. It's used as just a dumb, throwaway math pun of all things. Why? I don't know... like I said, it's a weird cartoon.

And that was it for me. I realized then for SC John's project I wanted to make a tribute to this pitiful moment in animation humor. All the better that I would get to sneak in an admittedly awful joke into an otherwise very cool community effort. Now that's the diceRolla way! Having said that I might now be justifiably disqualified from participating in which case I will find my own suitably shameful way in which to display Sir Cumference, the Black Knight of Bal Timorea. At this time I don't know what that might be but I'll come up with something if I must.

Okay, that's it for now. My plan is to finish this mini off in a couple of days and then get back to those Raptors marines. Happy gaming, everyone!

Breaking Fealty

I haven't mentioned Warhammer Fantasy since 8th edition was released when I decided to start a new Bretonnian army. I've been quiet about this undertaking since then because I have not made any progress that seemed positive or worth discussing. The past couple of months have seen me become increasingly frustrated with my choice of army as I've struggled with list after list to make an army that lives up to my early enthusiasm for the chivalrous blue bloods and their filth-encrusted peasantry. I simply cannot find a force hiding in the Bretonnian army book that I like.

When I chose to go with the Bretonnians I was somewhat aware of the challenges this would bring, though not entirely so. It would seem my "careful" consideration was not as carefully considered as I had thought. I was not foolish enough, however, to believe I would be able to come up with a super-tough list capable of competing against strong opponents. All I really wanted was an army to use in some fun games against friends, thus allowing me to return Warhammer Fantasy to my gaming rotation after my interest in it had waned over the lifespan of the previous edition. Yet even with these modest goals in mind I have not been able to put anything together that excites me enough to begin investing the time and money needed for a new army.

So what's a fella to do? For now at least I'm stepping back from my pledge of loyalty to Bretonnia and the Lady of the Lake. While it may cause my Dwarf army to label me as an oath-breaker and refuse to ever fight for me again, I think this is my best option. I don't want to fall into the trap of forcing myself to work on an army I'm not excited about as there are numerous other projects I'm eager to tackle. As a finicky and easily distracted hobbyist, I finally learned that it's almost impossible for me to get very far with an army when I'm less than fully enthused about it. Despite the frustrations necessary to bring me to this point, I am at least grateful to have recognized my issues with the army before putting forth any significant effort.

Eventually I'd like to get back to these Bretonnians though I have no idea when that will be. It feels to me as if the army currently lacks in variety, a problem which is exacerbated by the fact that several characterful units I'd like to include are not well represented in the range of Bretonnian miniatures. For example, weren't there at some point more than five Questing Knight sculptures? Two rank-and-file variants just seems to me woefully inadequate for a unit that should have lots of individual personality. In this particular case I could set about trying to convert or kit-bash some models of my own but that sounds like a lot more than I'm willing to do at this point. Therefore, confronted with an army book that doesn't particularly captivate me and a range of miniatures that leaves me wanting, I think it would be best to set aside the spurs and lance until Bretonnia receives its update for the new edition.

While I'm content to hold off on the Bretonnians, there's still the fantasy itch that needs to be scratched. I started to look again at what other armies I might want to collect but so far nothing has jumped out at me. I thought it would be fun to work on a new army to coincide with the latest edition of the game but it's certainly not necessary. I still have a couple of functional armies which I can use in friendly games of Warhammer, but they've become sort of stale feeling to me over the years. Nonetheless I would like to work on something of a more fantastical sort so as to satisfy that part of my gamer soul not currently fulfilled by chainswords and plasma guns. Hmm, what to do?

Oh yeah, there was that other game that had captivated my attention last winter... Hordes. Or more properly, HORDES!!!! (PP's penchant for capitalization still cracks me up.) The game offers lots of cool monsters, crazy warlocks and spells, and some really bizarre factions to choose from, all of which sounds to me like a winning combination. Plus every model I worked on before was a blast to paint and I doubt I could ever tire of painting monsters. The more I think about, the more convinced I am that this is where I need to look to get my fix of fantasy gaming.

In fact the last miniature I painted before my unanticipated five month break from the brushes was a Lord of the Feast for my Circle Orboros gang. I already have 20ish points of Circle Orboros painted and another 15 points or so worth in boxes, as well as 35 to 40 points worth of Skorne models waiting around in their original packaging. Therefore my plan going forward is to cease worrying about doing something new for Warhammer Fantasy and will instead turn to Hordes for my swords-and-sorcery gaming enjoyment.

Best of all, this is the perfect time for me to return to Hordes as the faction of my dreams is just now being rolled out, the Blindwater Congregation:

Crazy voodoo alligators... I think I may have just fallen in love.

Hey, Win Some Stuff

Sorry I haven't posted anything here in quite a long time. For the last several weeks I've not been able to get any time for hobby stuff other than reading the occasional game book, most notably the Malifaux rulebook and the Bretonnian army book. (Malifaux was interesting and looks like fun, and while the Bretonnia book is certainly nice, I think it's showing its age a bit.) Not being able to paint has been frustrating but I'm hopeful that I'll soon be back at. All the home remodeling projects are finally complete and my Father's Day gift from my wife was a yet-to-be-picked-out hobby desk. For more than two years now I've kept all my gaming and painting junk portable and packed up when not in use due to life being something of a whirlwind. Therefore the prospect of having somewhere I can safely leave my projects overnight is very exciting for me. Even if my painting does not improve, I'm pretty sure my productivity will as I've managed to set a rather low baseline for myself these past few months.

Okay, enough of the non-update update. Now for the winning of things. I'm very grateful for those of you who have signed up as Followers of this blog and I appreciate your contributions to it. You've made this a much more enjoyable experience for me. So as a way of saying thanks I thought it would be cool to pass on to one of you an army project I know I'll never have time to work on myself. To celebrate the release of the new edition of Warhammer a little more than one week from now, I'd like to give away the selection of Warriors of Chaos boxed sets and blister packs pictured above. On Saturday, July 10th, I'll randomly select one of the Followers who have commented on this post (all you need to do is let me know you're interested in having a shot at the prize) and then I'll announce the winner that day at 8pm EST. Simple, right?

Here's a list of what the winner will receive:

WoC Battalion

Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount

Sorcerer of Chaos

Nurgle Chaos Sorcerer

Warriors of Chaos (boxed set with 12 guys)

Chaos Marauder Horsemen

Chaos Warriors (the one with 3 guys)

Chaos Knights

3 Chaos Trolls (one of each pose)

A long time ago I was gung-ho about cranking out this army and getting it on the table, but life intervened and this project kept getting shoved further and further down the priority list. Eventually the enthusiasm was gone and last summer I realized that I was no longer even interested in hanging on to them, but I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with the evil little bastards. With the new version of Warhammer only days away this seems like as good a time as any to find a new warlord to lead them, so hopefully at least one of you will want to give these savages a happy home and take them off my hands.

Thanks again for taking an interest in my quiet little niche of the interwebs. I'm confident that things will get (mildly?) more interesting around here soon.

Bretonnia for Eighth Edition

[Note to Google-searching readers: This does not contain any tactical, strategic, list building, or gaming related advice or discussion of any sort. Sorry if you are looking for help in those departments, it's not to be found here. Cheers! - Papa JJ, 12/17/2010]

With the new edition of Warhammer just a few weeks away from it's official release, I've been thinking a lot lately about starting a new army. For the past year or so I have been interested in getting back into the game and made a few faltering starts on different armies. None of them excited me all that much and it seemed as though I lacked the enthusiasm needed to see any of them to completion. I've enjoyed playing Warhammer for a very long time and it was kind of frustrating to just drift away from it without finding anything that would again capture my imagination. There are plenty of other games to play but not being active in such a classic as Warhammer Fantasy felt like it left a void in my hobby.

Hope was restored to me when I heard news of the impending arrival of an updated Warhammer. I think it's a great time for the game to get a new breath of life and with that I've found my interest in it revitalized as well. It's nice to be excited about Warhammer again. I haven't paid a lot of attention to the leaked details regarding all the changes introduced but it definitely sounds like eighth edition represents a significant overhaul of how the game works. This seems, therefore, like as good a time as any to start up with a new army so that I can learn both my chosen force and the game itself together.

To that end I have carefully reviewed my options and thought deeply about what type of army I would like to play. At long last I have chosen to walk the path of honor and valor, hereby pledging my fealty to the realm of Bretonnia. I put together a unit of Bretonnian knights years ago when they were included in the starter set with Lizardmen but was too intimidated by the prospect of heraldry that I never painted them. Otherwise I have no experience with the fnacy lads. I've always admired the look of a fully painted Bretonnian army and the quasi-medieval style of its range of miniatures. After Adepticon I was all fired up to do a Hundred Years War army for Warhammer Ancient Battles but my interest in this was quashed once I saw how expensive it would be. I think a Bretonnian army will be a nice alternative and also a more pragmatic one considering the slim likelihood of me finding someone who wants to play WAB.

I have no real expectations for this army other than for it to serve as a vehicle for learning the new edition of Warhammer. In a spirit of optimism I anticipate working on all of the requisite heraldry and barding will really challenge my painting abilities, hopefully pushing me to get better by trying new things. And even if they're not terribly effective units I still envision having some big blocks of peasant infantry which should offer a good change of pace from painting their mounted social betters. Right, then. It may not be much of a plan, but I think it's enough to get me started. I am looking forward to a summer of lances and longbows.