Flashbacks and Nightmares - Ork Painboy and Squig

While searching for some missing paintbrushes earlier I came across one of my favorite old GW minis from back in the day. It's been something of a bust on the hobby and painting front today so for now I'd just like to share a few photographs of that old miniature, a rather archaic Ork Painboy. I'm not exactly sure when he was in production but I'd guess it was around twenty or so years ago. Likewise I don't know how old I was when I painted this one but evidently I was still rather new to techniques such as highlighting and even thinning one's paints. Thus he is a prime candidate for another edition of Flashbacks and Nightmares, in which I take a nostalgic look at examples of my painting past, both for a sense of perspective but perhaps more importantly for some simple facepalm-inducing fun.

So this Ork Painboy has for some reason always seemed really cool to me in that goofy old school Ork sort of way. I also remember well how much fun I had painting him and displayed him proudly for many years on my bookshelf. Even considering the more simplistic style of sculpting back then compared to what we have become accustomed, I think this model still has a lot of neat little details to enjoy. Looking at his gruesome range of doctoring implements, it's easy to see why this caste of Orks became known as Painboyz. The bone saw is great, as are his many knives, cleavers, and clamps. My favorite part of the miniature however is the doctor's head mirror that he wears. It has always amused me that an Ork doctor would be concerned about something as trivial as proper lighting.

As was the case with many Ork personality blister packs, also included with the Painboy was a randomly selected squigly beast. Over the years squigs have become essentially standardized in their shape and appearance, but in olden times there was a very wide assortment of squigs which took on many different forms. Some were pretty nasty looking and may have even seemed like the dangerous little monsters that they were supposed to be. Others, however, appeared rather less ferocious....

Now that's just weird. This particular squiggly beast could be one of the most bizarre and pointless miniatures Games Workshop has ever produced. It should be no wonder then that I am so fond of it. Due to it's standout nature, this squig has been a central focus for numerous homebrew scenarios and has served as an objective marker countless other times. Indeed it's possible that this horribly ridiculous squig has been used in more of my games of 40k than perhaps any other miniature. Not quite up to the usual Grim Dark standard, is he?

Hmm... it seems that I've run out of steam this evening and need to wrap this up. It's been a long day and I'm beat, although I've really enjoyed looking back on this classic GW Ork miniature and his less-than-classic companion squig. I find it quite interesting to see how things have developed and changed over the years. If there are any old minis that you remember fondly for whatever reason, please feel free to leave a comment telling me which ones were your favorites. Otherwise I hope everyone had a great weekend filled with plenty of gaming glory.

Goodnight!

Flashbacks and Nightmares: Stone Trolls

Since the new Orcs and Goblins book was just released this weekend, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at one of my old O&G units, a mob of Stone Trolls. I don't remember exactly when I painted these but suspect it was around the mid to late 1990s. Along with being influenced by the more colorful period of Games Workshop's stylistic history, apparently I was also in a rather experimental mood when painting them. I wanted to do something different from the norm for Stone Trolls, which I'd say I achieved handily, though whether the results were worth it or not I leave for you to judge. While I am fond of these miniatures in a nostalgic way, my assessment of them leans more toward hideous....

Now for a closer look at the individual trolls... yikes! I do however like those bases right down to the classic Goblin Green edges.

This mob of Stone Trolls is lead by an Orc Big Boss but I'm not sure if that would still be allowed by today's rules. I admit to really liking this miniature and think it's a good example of the outright silliness that used to be fairly common in GW designs at the time.

So that's it for this look at some of my old miniatures, I hope you enjoyed it. I really admire creative and innovative color schemes but there is a certain risk when straying from the tried and tested. Not every experiment can be a success, after all. Nonetheless I do like these trolls but if I had to paint them over again I would likely go with a more conventional approach. I would not, however, change a thing on the Big Boss as I especially like the brightly colored skulls on his wrist and orange belt buckle. The sides of his bracelet which you can't see in these pictures have a green skull facing to the right and a red one looking back. Taste the rainbow!

As evidenced by these pictures, this was my first attempt at using a lightbox photo studio thing. Along with getting some brighter lights there's obviously still much for me to learn regarding miniatures photography. It is my good fortune then that just earlier today I saw Nesbet of Nesbet Miniatures has posted what looks to be a very helpful tutorial on this exact subject. Part 1 of the tutorial even has instructions for making your own portable lightbox and photo studio. Awesome! Part 2 looks at correcting common mistakes made when photographing miniatures, and Part 3 is about photo editing. Good stuff if you're interested in that sort of thing... thanks, Nesbet!

With Malice Aforethought - Choosing Dark Elves

I checked in on the website for AdeptiCon earlier tonight and saw that it kicks off only 77 days from now. Allowing for travel time that leaves me with right around ten weeks to prepare for the events in which I'm registered to participate. The first morning of the con I'm playing in the 1000 point, four round Warhammer Fantasy: It's How You Use It tournament for which I plan on assembling and painting a new Dark Elf army. This is one of the events I'm most looking forward to and has sparked a renewed enthusiasm for the game that I haven't felt in quite a long time. Therefore tonight I want to begin the chronicle of my experiences with this army by discussing how I came to choose the Dark Elves and what it is about collecting them that appeals to me.

Some of you may remember when 8th edition was released last summer that I was very excited about returning to the fantasy game after an absence from it of several years. I'd drifted away from the game and, despite several attempt at getting involved again with various armies, ended up sitting on the sidelines through the entire duration of the previous edition of WHFB. With the game set to undergo what promised to be a thorough overhaul, the launch of 8th edition seemed like an ideal time to start playing again. At that point I wanted to collect a Bretonnian army but struggled with the army book and decided it was just not a good fit for me. Thus ended my brief allegiance to Bretonnia and with it my hopes for a triumphant return to Warhammer Fantasy, at least for the time being.

Feeling somewhat stung by this I didn't think much more about WHFB until preregistration for AdeptiCon 2011 began last October. Described as being particularly suitable for new players, the 1000 point Warhammer tournament seemed perfect for me and as a half-day event would still leave plenty of time for hobby seminars. Wunderbar! As I had hoped it would, signing up to play in this little tournament has given me the motivation I needed to revisit my choice in army and have another go at adding WHFB back to my hobby rotation.

Before finally choosing to play Dark Elves, I had narrowed the finalists down to either them, Orcs and Goblins, a skink-themed Lizardmen army, or my old standby, the Dwarfs. I read through the background sections for each army book and dutifully ogled all the pretty miniatures, but unlike when I selected the Bretonnians, this time to help decide which army to collect I set about making list after list for each of the contenders. I wanted to be sure that whichever army I chose would be one that offers a wide variety of styles of play, a quality that I felt was lacking from my experience working with the Bretonnian army book. Although my short term goal is to have 1000 points ready in time for AdeptiCon, ideally what I'm looking for is an army to which I can commit for the long haul.

Orcs & Goblins were eliminated because I expect to be pressed as it is getting the initial 1000 point army painted in time and thus picking a horde type of army seemed like an obvious bad call for me. Plus it's possible there will be a new O&G book coming out soon and this introduces more uncertainty than I'm presently willing to accept given the circumstances. Next I considered Dwarfs because building an updated army to replace my old collection of beards wearing armor has been on my hobby to-do list for a scandalously long time. Also my familiarity with Dwarfs seemed like it could simplify some of the learning process I will face with 8th edition and would allow me to start off already within a comfort zone of sorts. I decided against them however largely due to this familiarity. I feel like I'm starting WHFB fresh all over again and want to try out new approaches to the game than what I've done before. Therefore going right back to one of my primary armies from the past ceased to interest me once I thought about this and I moved on.

That means it came down to Dark Elves vs. the Lizardmen. The latter of the two offers so much of what I'm looking for in an army that it was a very close decision choosing between them. The strongest lure I felt for the Lizardmen came from what I consider to be one of the greatest Games Workshop kits of all time, the mighty Stegadon! This beautiful chunk of plastic is by itself ample reason to start a Lizardmen army and was likely the main cause of my prolonged indecision. Eventually I decided the skink-based army that I wanted to play, focused on skirmishing light troops backed by Salamanders, Terradon Riders and a Stegadon, would not be a good choice for me as an army with which to learn the game. It seems like it would be too tricksy for me to handle while still coming to grips with the basic mechanics and fundamental strategies of the game. Also I do not know if I would want to expand the army beyond its core emphasis on skinks so I thought it best to save this one for a later, more frivolous project.

And so that left the Dark Elves as the victors of my army search. Although it may seem as if this was just through surviving the process of elimination, there was in fact a lot going in their favor from the beginning and only increased their lead the more I thought about it. For starters I think their range of miniatures is, with just a few exceptions, one of the nicest available. Over the past few years I've purchased a modest selection of Dark Elf models just because they looked neat and seemed like they'd be fun to paint, chief among them the much ballyhooed and likewise bemoaned War Hydra. That's not to say the other army choices I considered do not also have their own awesome models. But unlike the others, I have essentially no prior experience painting Dark Elf miniatures which adds to the whole newness vibe that I'm grooving on. I've painted my share of Dwarfs, Orcs, Goblins, and even Lizardmen in the past, but I have previously painted at most perhaps only a half dozen or so Dark Elf models.

A fire breathing, regenerating, terror causing monster with Thunderstomp... YES PLEASE!

Cool miniatures alone are not enough to sway me however because Games Workshop has us spoiled for choice on that account. Therefore I believe the time I spent working on army lists at a range of point levels was particularly helpful. I quickly came to appreciate the variety of units available to Dark Elf armies and am confident I could add to my collection for a long time to come before exhausting my interest in them. I think it's an impressive mix of heroes and units, including: both cheap and elite infantry, skirmishers, missile troops, fast cavalry, heavy cavalry and chariots, competent magic users, a quality warmachine, and perhaps best of all, a big ugly monster worthy of being the centerpiece for my army. That's pretty much everything I could want and more.

Lastly, I noticed something unusual about the Dark Elves. Although I've at least dabbled in close to every army available at some point or other, it appears as though I've managed to avoid almost entirely the Dark Elves. Not only have I painted just a meager few of their miniatures, but I also have read and absorbed precious little of their fluff and background material prior to this undertaking. Other than the fluff contained in previous versions of their army book I cannot recall having read anything else concerning Dark Elves and their place in the world of Warhammer. As much as I liked the miniatures and their style, the concept for mean elves obsessed with revenge had virtually no appeal for me.

Something clicked though as I was reading through their current army book a couple of months ago when I started this army evaluation process. This time around I was totally hooked by the story of the Druchii and found their history and social dynamics fascinating. It was therefore something of a special bonus when I realized that I have the Malus Darkblade and Malekith novels available to read as I work on my Dark Elf raiders. I don't know if I've ever had the pleasure of reading a Black Library book while at the same time working on the main army featured in the novel. That makes this sort of a unique treat for me and sealed my choice in favor of the Dark Elves once I realized how well this had worked out.

Having gone through all of this and really having taken my time with my decision, I feel confident that the Dark Elves are indeed the right choice for me. I like the painting and collecting opportunities, there seems to be a strong variety of units and army styles with which I can experiment, and the fluff offers for me a new and previously unexplored perspective on the Warhammer world with more than 1800 pages of fiction to read related to my choice of army. Like I suggested before, it's all I had hoped for and more.

So that's the story of how I came to be a Dark Elf player, I do apologize for letting this turn into such a lengthy saga. In my defense however this did cover the past three months of Warhammer Fantasy contemplation in which I've indulged. Now that I'm caught up to the present with my account, I doubt there will be further reason to write at such length anytime soon. I ended up not having much time to begin work on the army this past week so I'm looking forward to diving in this weekend. In the coming days I will discuss things like potential themes for my collection, developing army lists, assembly and painting notes, and so on. For now though I feel exhausted and am quite ready to stop writing.

Therefore goodnight and happy gaming!

Bad Commerce: Stat Card Piracy

This weekend I bought a Mercenaries MkII Faction Deck only to discover that it is missing all the particular stat cards for which I made this purchase. In place of the expected Talion Charter cards there is instead a surplus of Rhulic duplicates. I assume someone bought two decks and swapped out the unwanted dwarves to gain an extra set of pirate cards, then returned the tampered deck for a refund. Sneaky git.

I try not to be cynical but this seems unlikely to have been due to faulty packaging or a manufacturing error. I didn't realize until much later that the box was closed with two pieces of clear tape which should have tipped me off that something was amiss. I had been in a hurry to get out of there, however, as the store gives me the creeps and therefore I did not look closely at what I had picked out. It was only when I went to open the deck the next day that I first noticed anything wrong. Caveat emptor, indeed.

Despite being on the wrong end of these shenanigans, I am kind of amused that the apparent targets of this scam were the pirate themed stat cards. It seems fitting at least. This experience isn't even that surprising based on the store's history of unmitigated disappointment. Really this just strengthens my resolve to henceforth patronize it as little as possible. The store is more than an hour's drive from home, offers no discount (but sometimes even charges above the MSRP!), and leaves me with an overall icky feeling. So much for buying locally, I'll shop online.

Now I don't want this post to be entirely negative so for some balance I also want to briefly report on some recent positive shopping experiences. First up are these great pith-helmet head swaps from Secret Weapon Miniatures that I received in the mail today. Seeing them in person gives me a whole new appreciation for the awesome sculpting job done by Col.Gravis of Col.Gravis' Praetorian Imperial Guard. I ordered enough heads to make a minimum sized Praetorian platoon but I currently don't have any plans on going beyond that. I just thought it'd be a fun side project to tinker with and add to the painting wait list. Also I think it's great that more people are entering the market sculpting and casting add-on and parts-swap bits like these heads. The world needs more bits, so I really do like supporting commercial endeavors like this. Good work guys!

The other thing I'm happy to report about is the swift arrival of a batch of miniatures ordered from Privateer Press. No surprises here, I simply appreciate being able to purchase bits and individual models otherwise only available in their box sets. I wish Games Workshop had not eliminated their own bits service and continue to hope that someday it will return. Does anyone remember an official GW explanation for why they discontinued bits sales? No matter, I suppose. It doesn't seem to have affected their success too adversely.

Alright, enough of this. Sorry about all the whining and the rather dismal photos. I've been getting in a little hobby time here and there so I should have better things to talk about soon. Also I'm gathering together the last elements needed for the next diceRolla giveaway so I'll have details on that posted soon. Bye!

My Return to Painting

I painted something! Yippee, it's a Chaos Spawn.

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I previously had anything newly painted to show here. Hopefully this will be the last warm-up miniature that I have to paint for a long time. This particular model has been waiting for something like five years for me to get to it, one of the last few unpainted minis for my Beasts of Annihilation chaos warband leftover from when I was last working on them. I came across him earlier this summer and decided I would save it a little longer until I was about to starting painting again in earnest and would be in need of something on which I could practice.

Since updating the Beasts of Annihilation is one of my current projects I thought working on the Spawn would be a good way of getting back into my painting groove. Having just finished I am very satisfied with the experience. It was fun to paint, I got to have freedom with the colors and techniques used, and I added a cheap throw-away unit to one of my armies. Cool. The best thing for me though is knowing that I have this mini out of the way and now feel comfortable setting into the models that I'm more excited about painting.

May my brushes henceforth stay rust free.

As for the actual painting, I wanted to keep this Spawn related to the Beasts but with a little extra touch of color as befitting its warped natured. The bulk of the creature's body was painted to resemble as closely as I could the army's unit of Plague Bearers. I don't think I was terribly successful in achieving the same effect but I'm happy with the results nonetheless. It was a joy painting the rest of the miniature as I worked with the vibrant colors and experimented with an approach to highlighting and color progression different from my usual habits. I love models like these as you can just be free and try out new things.

One new technique I tried out which can be seen in the picture above was using slightly off-shade variants of white and black to paint the model's eyes. This was described by Brent of Strictly Average not long ago and I tried my best to follow his instructions. I didn't get the shape quite right but otherwise I really like the way they turned out. I think the eyes look appropriately vacant considering this fellow's circumstances and I'm going to look for opportunities to paint more eyes in such a manner. In this case I used P3 paints, going with a 1:1 mix of Thamar Black and Coal Black followed by Underbelly Blue for the off-white center of the eyes. Even with a wobbly looking right eye I am overall very pleased with the results.

I'm considering applying some gloss to the eyes or mouth but otherwise I think he's done. It's truly such a relief to finally get some paint on a miniature and I feel much better already. Thanks, weird Spawn guy!

Entering the Killzone

Let me start by saying that the mystery of the Simpsons dice has been solved. Very special thanks go to Sons of Taurus! As a result of his generosity and good will, I'm sure these fantastic dice are loaded with positive mojo and as such I expect great things from them. Thank you so much, you embiggen our hobby with your kindness. This has been for me a truly cromulent experience!

Now as it so happens, Sons of Taurus has recently become formally involved in a project that I am really excited about and he has been working to develop it further. Since returning home from vacation I have been eagerly catching up on all the latest developments with Big Jim's 40k skirmish undertaking, Special Operations: Killzone. I think he's hit gaming-gold with this one and I'm thrilled to see such a cool fan-driven project come together like this. I never understood why Games Workshop kept Necromunda locked up in the Hive, endlessly fighting fairly mundane gang conflicts when there was so much potential for expansion with the inclusion of xenos, Chaos, and the various Imperial military types. I believe Killzone will do an excellent job filling this vacancy in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and I can hardly wait to see what Big Jim and his dedicated Rules Committee do next.

It seems like there's been a lot going on with Killzone recently and that it has generated significant interest with fellow gamers. The updated ruleset is due to be released soon, Big Jim has hit the podcast waves to promote and discuss his creation over at Imperial Vox Cast, and now b.smoove of A Gentleman's Ones reports that he is cooking up some sort of Killzone event extravaganza for Adepticon 2011. Awesome, right?

This has all been too much for me to resist and it appears that I have now fully caught the Killzone fire. It's therefore a fine time to start thinking about a Special Ops team of my own. While I hope to begin trying out the Killzone rules using miniatures already in my collection, what really has gotten me excited is the prospect of putting together a small force specifically for this new skirmish system. Painting the Blisstonian 9th is still my priority but I believe this will be a really fun side project to work on alongside the main army as it presents the opportunity to model and paint a unique batch of characterful individuals. Here then is my idea for my first Killzone team, The Baker's Dozen:

Blisstonian 9th - Special Operations Group, "Baker's Dozen"

Concept: For my first SOG team I want to do something inspired by the "rag-tag bunch of misfits" type of ensemble cast that was a staple of so many classic war movies (the most obvious example of which being The Dirty Dozen). Every model should be unique in terms of overall classification, weaponry, equipment, et cetera. There should be no duplicates, each member of the team must be an individual and a specialist of some sort, and movie cliches are encouraged. The team must be generally related to my current Simpsons army project, the Blisstonian 9th, but separate enough to have its own identity. I do not want to just repurpose models previously assembled but to instead take advantage of this chance to do something new.

Background: SOG "Baker's Dozen" is comprised of those members of the Blisstonian 9th who have been assigned to the most hazardous duties available at Sector 7G. Having each earned Plant Manager Burns' displeasure for a variety of probably minor offenses, these men have been pulled together to deal with the worst that Imperial industry of the 41st millennium has to offer. They're the guys who fill and handle the toxic waste barrels, who risk their lives and sanity in maintaining the Sector's haunted steam tunnel labyrinths, and who are called upon to clear out Burns' corpse-hatch when it becomes clogged. The soldiers who survive these traumatic ordeals become strong and are toughened by the harshness of their daily existence. Out of necessity they develop survival and combat skills not found amongst the other members of their regiment tasked with serving 7G. These factors, as well as their expendable nature due to having unwisely angered Burns in the past, make this group ideal candidates for whatever commando raids and suicide missions are required for the defense of Sector 7G.

Modeling: I'm sticking with the Imperial Guard for this team and want it to be visually connected to my Blisstonian 9th army project, but nonetheless distinct as befitting such a specialized unit. My standard Blisstonians are built using Cadian Shock models with Pig Iron Kolony Militia heads, so to change up my approach a little I plan on building the Baker's Dozen special ops team using the more muscular parts found in the various Catachan kits and then topped off with Pig Iron Kolony Rebel heads. Thus they will be similarly gas-masked as the other Blisstonians and should still be recognizable as Imperial Guardsmen, but otherwise will hopefully look more like the collection of specialized action heroes that I envision.

Points Level: To determine the size of my Killzone SOG team, the range suggested in the current set of rules goes from 175 up to 250 points maximum. My team will therefore be built for the high-end of that scale but it should be simple enough to adapt for smaller games by simply removing team members in excess of the agreed points total. Obviously in such cases Baker's Dozen has taken some casualties on the way in to their objective and thus not everyone has survived for the big, exciting finale. Oh well, at least they'll still get shown posthumously in the tearful closing montage.

Theme upgrade: NA, none purchased

SOG List, "Baker's Dozen"- 250 total points:

Veteran Sergeant (Team Leader): plasma pistol, power fist, frag and krak grenades, Refractor field - 47 points

Veteran: lasgun, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades, Vox caster - 12 points

Veteran: lasgun, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades, Medipack - 15 points

Veteran: lasgun, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades, Commando - 17 points

Veteran: shotgun, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades, Brawler - 10 points

Veteran: lasgun, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades, Blade Master - 15 points

Veteran: lasgun, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades, Resilient - 10 points

Veteran: lasgun, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades, Targeter - 10 points

Veteran: sniper rifle, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades - 12 points

Veteran: meltagun, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades - 17 points

Veteran: plasma gun, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades - 22 points

Veteran: heavy flamer, close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades - 27 points

Scout Sentinel: multi-laser, Searchlight - 36 points

Questions and Assumptions: While working out the details for my SOG, I encountered a few things which I was unsure how to handle per the current set of Killzone rules. I could have been sensible and just waited a few more days for the next ruleset and its accompanying codex-specific errata to be released, but where's the fun in that? In putting together my list for the team, I have therefore made a number of assumptions and guesses based on what I hope will soon be clarified. My two main questions concern the points value of my team leader and the inclusion of some items of equipment available in the IG Codex but so far not mentioned in the Killzone documents. I'd love to hear from any members of the Rules Committee should you happen to take note of this.

Specifically, if individual IG Veterans cost 7 points apiece (starting cost for a basic unit of Veterans is 70 points and consists of ten models), would the Veteran Sergeant cost the same in a Killzone team or do I need to pay a premium for him due to his improved stat-line? For this initial list making attempt I assumed a starting cost of only 7 points as I could not find any further guidance regarding this question. The other big assumption I made concerns the points cost of equipment available to those units from which I've selected my SOG but which are not covered in any of the Killzone rules. I have no idea if these items (the squad's vox caster and the Sentinel's searchlight) will ever make it into the rules, and if they do get included in the future, I certainly don't know if they will be costed the same as they are in the Codex. As this is only my first team and Killzone is still in playtesting, I felt it would be okay to go ahead and include them in my list paying the cost given in the Guard book. I don't see this being a major problem as I can just ignore the items if need be and accept the slight penalty in wasted points. I do hope, however, that more pieces of specialized gear will eventually find their way into Killzone as I think that would be a neat way of further personalizing our teams.

Okay, that it's for my initial thoughts on Special Operations: Killzone. I'd appreciate any feedback in general, but I'm especially interested in hearing about those possibly incorrect assumptions I made in putting together my team. Of course if I missed any other areas in which I did not properly select my team or calculate its cost, please let me know what I need to do to be in compliance with the rules. I'm excited about getting to try out Killzone and I'm very grateful to Big Jim for initiating and orchestrating this project, as well as to those of you distinguished gamers volunteering your efforts as part of the Rules Committee. Thank you for enriching my hobby experience.

KABOOM!!

I received in the mail today my Imperial Guard Manticore/Deathstrike kit and got it glued together this evening. This is the first of the new style of Guard tank kits that I've worked on and I am very impressed with the improvements made to the old chimera chassis. I'm especially happy with the redesigned track assemblies as I used to always end up with a little too much tread on my tanks. Kudos to GW for the excellent plastic, well done indeed. Also the giant missile looks much better in person than I had initially expected and I've already had lots of fun making rocket noises as it pretend launches. : )

So, what's up with the Deathstrike? Although I'm not actively doing anything with Guard right now, I just really love this tank and couldn't resist ordering one once I saw pictures of it on the web. I understand the Manticore is probably the more popular of the two artillery systems but the Deathstrike offers so very much potential for narrative based games. I mean, it's a freaking doomsday weapon! To me that's inarguably cool and therefore of course I'm going to want one of those in my collection. But after putting this one together tonight, I am now considering purchasing another box so that I can write scenarios involving a pair of the brutes for even more fun.

Weather allowing, I'll prime it tomorrow in anticipation of getting some hobby time this weekend for painting.

Flashbacks and Nightmares: Plaguebearers

While messing around with my Chaos Marines yesterday I took some extra pictures of my unit of Plaguebearers that I painted probably about seven years ago. I'm not sure exactly when these miniatures came out but it seems like it has been a long time now and I think they've stood the test of time nicely. This group of ten daemons is still one of my favorite units that I've ever painted and they always make me smile. Also, since the models are basically just a blob of gross on legs and a sword, I remember them being super easy to paint as well. There's no denying it, Nurgle is fun.

I painted these Plaguebearers having been inspired by two of my med school classes, anatomy lab and pathology, and wanted them to resemble the cadavers from class rather than going for the more classic, sort of fantastic style of daemons. It might be macabre but I thought this would be an appropriate way to differentiate my monsters somewhat and still represent the Nurgle aesthetic. I started by painting them like tanned skin and then proceeded to bruise and disease the hell out of them with numerous washes and glazes. One of my goals was to avoid the wet, slimy look and instead intended them to have more of a putrefying flesh vibe going on. I wanted this to be true even for the areas of exposed organs which I tried to make look like rotten fatty tissue streaked with a some blood and pus but without going overboard on this.

The challenge therefore was to use the thinned pigments, maybe even some inks but on that my memory is hazy, without letting too much shine build up. I am happy with the results and I feel like these guys do a good job conveying the cadaverous plague-corpse look that I had envisioned. Green is my favorite color to paint so I was also glad that there were a few nurglings scattered around to get my hue of preference involved. Per my usual style of photography, all these pictures turned out rather dark and shadowy so it's hard to make out the loathsome runts. I just wanted to note them as they were also one of my favorite elements of these miniatures to paint and are really characterful and quite expressive.

It's been fun taking another look at these guys and remembering all the vile times I've had with them over the years. These little abominations have been a staple of my Chaos Marine armies ever since I finished painting them and have been as satisfying to use in games as they were to paint. So thank you for indulging me once again in another trip down Psychosis Lane. Ciao!

(These are the seven I would normally use when feeling fluffy, or when short on points....)

Photo Woes, Et Cetera

My internet is messing with me and I'm having a lot of trouble uploading pictures right now. I don't really know what's going on or how to fix the situation, it just seems like I can't get anything more added. I still haven't figured out if I can do a gallery section on this blog so I was just going to do a separate entry for each finished miniature. Since that does not appear to be a viable solution, I am going to rethink this and hopefully come up with something else. For now though the only photo I could get to load is the one above which is pretty similar to one I posted quite some time ago. You can see in this new shot, however, that I went a little heavy on the varnish and therefore he's now a little bit shiny. Oh well... live and learn.

We've had a lot of wet weather in my area of the country and I haven't done any painting in about a week now. I'm pretty disappointed about that but I had nothing primed so what could I do? After finishing the Scout squad last week we had several days of rain and so I moved on to assembling my Circle Orboros Warpack. Fortunately my experience with them went much smoother than those Scouts, which surprises me because I've gotten used to plastics being so easy to work with compared to metal. I think I may have even been unconsciously avoiding larger metal kits because of all the hassle they've caused me in the past. I'm pretty sure the last big metal kits I worked on were the Ork Dreadnought and Killer Kans which were nearly impossible for me to assemble. I feel better having learned that those particular miniatures were notorious ill fitting and difficult to work with... apparently I'm not the only one to have experienced genuine pain trying to get them to hold together. I'm happy those guys in particular are finally getting released as plastic kits because the metal versions probably did more than anything else to drive me away from the hobby for two years.

With all that still seeming fresh in my mind, my introduction to Hordes miniatures was really a joy as I was expecting it to be so much more difficult than it proved to be. There were a couple of tricky things to contend with but overall nothing that made me get frustrated or mad. I even made my first successful attempt at pinning heavy components! The spine things jutting out of the Warpwolf's shoulders didn't fit perfectly and were a bit fiddly, and there were also some minor gaps that needed filling with greenstuff. All things considered though I am very happy with these miniatures, they are beautifully sculpted and look fantastic. I really want to get painting them right away but am conflicted because of all those Dark Angels that need to be painted as well. So what should I do? Do I listen to my head and turn my attentions to those Scouts, or should I go with my heart and start painting my monsters for Hordes?

Dances With Aliens

I don't know where my camera is so I've decided to post a final WIP of the Dreadnought taken with my mobile phone. All I did after taking this photo was to add a little more grass along the right side of the base and then touch up a couple of areas of highlighting. Finally I varnished and then glossed the lenses. And in the meanwhile I'm going to continue my search for my wayward camera. I apologize for falling behind on the visuals lately, it should pick up soon.

Tonight I finished assembling the Space Marine Scouts and I gotta say it, I am not impressed with this kit. I had already passed on using Scouts with bolters/heavy bolter because I think those minis are some of the worst in that range. The dudes with sniper rifles looked marginally better to me so I worked out my list to include them instead and I was looking forward to having them in the army as I really like the background for scouts. Plus I've always had a soft spot for them since their first plastics were released as part of the game Advanced Space Crusade... man, that takes me back... can hardly believe that was twenty years ago. Wow. Alright, now I'm getting nostalgic. Sorry.

Okay, back to the sniper Scouts. I don't like 'em. I had a surprising amount of trouble getting them put together, and while I'm no expert I'm also by no means an inexperienced modeler. I'm really not satisfied with how the heads fit on any expect the sergeant, as well as having numerous problems with the missile launcher guy. Once I had all of the torsos glued to the legs, I realized that the legs for the one with the squad's heavy weapon had cords across his holster that would only make sense if he were armed instead with a sniper rifle. Oh well, serves me right for trying to follow GW's lousy instruction sheet. I ended up gluing a grenade and pouch at the end of the cords to hopefully disguise somewhat the incongruence. I'm actually now considering going back to the squad of Scouts with bolters because at least then I get the fun of using a unit more like those over which I was just getting all nostalgic and weepy. On the other hand, the ones with sniper rifles are assembled and ready to be primed, so I should probably just push on and make the best of it. AdeptiCon is just 64 days away!

I know I'm pretty to late to game on this last thing, but I did really enjoy Avatar despite many of concerns about it being strongly confirmed. I thought as a sci-fi movie it was great and I was blown away by the visuals and the whole experience of the IMAX 3D presentation. I doubt I've ever been so engrossed and drawn into a movie before, and of course I loved all of the amazingly cool military hardware... that stuff was sweet. What drove me nuts though was that the obvious plot was more ham-fisted and sermonizing than even I expected. I can understand why people are freaking out about it because it is a good movie, but I would have preferred a more subtle approach to the themes and less cliched characters. My ideal would have been just a straight up action sci-fi like Aliens, but I'll take Dances with Aliens if it means getting to see some utterly insane 3D battles.

Lost In The Warp

My copy of Codex: Tyranids did not arrive today so I'm a bit disappointed right now. I've never been let down before by the Advance Order service offered by Games Workshop which is why I was so sure that my book would be delivered on the day of its release. In fact I have become accustomed to actually getting things a day or so before the official release date. I am optimistic therefore that this is just some fluke and not indicative of how they will operate in the future. It seems like I wasn't the only one to not receive my order on the promised date, therefore perhaps there was some sort of systemic failure that screwed up their shipping. On the GW website it says my order was dispatched but I have a feeling it's been listed that way for at least a week now. It looks like I just need to exercise some patience and everything will be okay. Even though I know I would have enjoyed playing around with the new book and reading through the updated fluff, ultimately I think I am grateful to have gotten another night of painting done instead. I feel like there's so much painting to be done that any extra time that I spend with brush in hand is a small victory for me.

On the subject of painting, I'm now very close to finishing the Dreadnought whom I have decided to name Abraxos. I hope to have pictures of the completed model soon, assuming of course that I find the camera which I appear to have lost again. (Hmm, maybe it got sucked into the Warp along with my Codex: Nids.) Tonight I am particularly happy with the lenses that I painted, attempting for the first time to represent the effects of light reflecting off of the optics. I think they turned out well and will look really nice when I add some gloss varnish to make them shine. I'm confident that I will have wrapped up the painting by this time tomorrow night. Other than going a little crazy from painting green lines I have thoroughly enjoyed working on Brother Abraxos, Dreadnought of the Dark Angels Sixth Company. I think it's going to be a lot of fun seeing him purge the heretics... flame on!

Dreadnought WIP

I've gotten a few more nights of painting complete and I feel like I've been making good progress on the Dreadnought. The arms have slowed me a bit as I've gone back a couple of times to repaint some areas which I couldn't decide whether I wanted them colored metallic or else green. I think I've got it mostly figured out now, although I will feel more comfortable once I look again at the example Dreadnoughts pictured in Codex: Dark Angels. I started using my set of the new Games Workshop paint brushes and have been really happy with them. I don't know what it is about these brushes but it feels like the paint goes on smoother than their previous generation of brushes. Also I appreciate their increased weight and the grippy texture as it feels like I have more control when using them. I'm hoping to have the painting finished by Friday so that I can get the next unit assembled over the weekend, either Scouts or Tactical marines.

The Future Is Now

Hello, 2010! That's right, we are no longer living in the present but have officially moved into the future tense. Even though we still don't have the anticipated space colonies, jet packs, and whatever other cool futuristic things we all dreamed of as kids, we do have plastic toy soldiers to have fun with until our flying cars arrive. I might not be able to visit another planet, but I can invade one with horrible alien monsters, with the help of my minis and some imagination of course, and that's not bad!

Like probably every other blogger on Earth, I've been kicking around ideas for some New Year's Resolutions to share should anyone have interest. The main reason I've decided to do this, however, is so that I can check back on myself next year. I've never been big into the whole resolution-making thing and normally don't bother making any. The times that I have made them, however, have been invariably futile as I quickly forget whatever it was I had resolved to do. So hopefully having this record will potentially help me follow through on my goals this year as there are numerous things which I would like to accomplish. What follows then are my 10 resolutions for the year 2010. Some of them are be pretty ambitious for me, but why do this if I do not aspire to great things?

1. Paint for at least 4 hours per week, on average.

2. Complete 1000 points of Dark Angels in time for AdeptiCon.

3. Paint at least two 1500 point armies for Warhammer 40k.

4. Prepare a complete collection of terrain and scenery, consisting of the following elements: Realm of Battle Gameboard, 3 Woods, Gaming Hill, Arcane Ruins, 2 Imperial Bastions, Skyshield Landing Pad, 3 Aegis Defense Line sets, 2 Moonscape/Crater sets, Battlescape, Fortress of Redemption, and a Crashed Imperial Aquila Lander.

5. Drink more water.

6. Learn how to play either Warmachine, Hordes, or Flames of War.

7. Spend no more than $100 per month on wargaming purchases.

8. Lose 52 pounds (approximately 3.7 stone).

9. Play at least one game a month of 40k.

10. Be super sweet to my wonderful wife and baby!

Alright, so that's it for now... Happy New Year!

Closing In

I'm very close to finishing my Dark Angels Librarian and should probably be able to complete him today. Subtracting out the days missed due to the family holiday season, I estimate the painting time will end up being right around two weeks. I'm really pleased with how he's turning out and is certainly one of the best single miniatures that I've ever painted. Even though he's taken me a lot longer to paint than I had initially hoped, I believe the time has been well spent and that the results will show the care that I have taken with him. It's funny that when I decided to switch to the Dark Angels, one of the motivating reasons was that I thought I would be more likely to rush through them and get them painted quickly. Oh well, so much for that! After working on this one, I'm starting to worry a little about the AdeptiCon deadline which is still 97 days away.

I do not expect, however, to spend nearly as much time painting the rank and file of this army as I did on the Librarian, a dynamic and detail-laden character model. The amount of detail that was sculpted onto him made for a pretty daunting return to the so-called Heroic Scale of Games Workshop figures and I know that this will not be the case as I turn to the plastic elements of my army. Also for the first time ever I did much of my painting with the main figure only partly assembled, having left unglued his backpack and left arm so that I could paint them separately. I have not made up my mind as to whether or not I will do this for more of the guys, though I should have some time to consider it as I am not going directly on to more power-armoured folks. Instead, next up is going to be either a magnetized Dreadnought or a Scout Squad. Exciting times, no?

Librarian WIP

Since starting work on my Marine Librarian last Wednesday night, I have gotten in another three nights of painting with each session lasting several hours. I'm quite happy to be making progress and to finally be painting again, I am surprised again at how much detail is sculpted onto Games Workshop's metal characters. So far I'd say I'm about half done though I really have no idea how much longer it will take me to complete him. (By the way, the above photo was taken a few days ago and does not show some of the latest progress I've made.) I've got his face and the inner portions of his psychic hood totally done, and even painted the eyes. Fortunately they turned out well or I might have quit and gone back to historicals had I botched his face with some googly eyes, as seemed all too common in the old days.

At this point I also have at least a first coat of paint applied everywhere, plus I've inked the armour itself to give some shading. I think my next step will be highlighting the power armour although I am a little nervous about this stage. Power armour in the past has given me trouble as I would tend to make my highlight stages much too subtle so that the miniature, when viewed from a normal distance and height, ends up looking flat and uninteresting.

It's fun to be back into 40k, I'm enjoying myself immensely. I've started listening to 40k Radio and have even had a couple of chances to paint with it playing for an hour or so during the day while my daughter was napping. Considering that I also have AdeptiCon to look forward to only 109 days from now, it feels like I've entered into a new personal golden age of 40k. Of course before proclaiming this I should wait to see if I can get some armies painted and play some games for once, but where's the fun in being cautious? This is the internet, after all....

Bringing Back the Pack

The return of the Space Wolves is almost upon us, due to be released in only a matter of days now. From what I've seen they look to be an interesting army and I'm sure the new Codex will serve the Viking Pups quite well. I'm trying not to give in to the knee-jerk reflex of suspecting every new army of being dangerously over-powered compared to the other armies available. I'm therefore going to hold off on making any comments regarding their actual rules within the game until I have gotten a chance to read through the Codex myself. What I will say though, having seen the new miniature for Canis Wolfborn, is that the idea of Space Marines riding around on big wolves, even 'monstrous' ones, is a bit silly. Even if the wolf's spine were not crushed under the weight of the Marine's power armour, I just cannot imagine it being able to move about in such a way as to be at all useful in anything remotely approaching combat in the 41st millenium. Maybe just as a unique special character such a thing would not bother me so much, but apparently Space Wolves will be able to field complete units of these bizarre cavalry which to me pushes the limits of absurdity. Can you imagine what Games Workshop would come up with were they to do a full Codex for the Space Sharks?

Space Hulk

My copy of Games Workshop's sort-of-new Space Hulk arrived yesterday but I did not get around to looking at it until today. Wow, that box is heavy! It's really weird for me to buy the 20th anniversary version of a game when I still own the original and remember it quite well. What's particularly unusual is that both of these editions of the game apparently use essentially the same rules system and mechanics. So even though the components are all new, I don't think I am as excited as I would be for a totally new product, although I am certainly still quite jazzed about it... I in fact even pre-ordered two copies of the game!

The new miniatures for Space Hulk look amazing and are easily the best snap-together models I've ever seen. My complaint about them is that they're not really designed to be used in regular games of 40k and I would very much have appreciated that extra interchangability between systems. I know for sure there will be those who either just stick the minis onto normal 40k bases and not care about how well they fit, or alternatively at least do some conversion work to make them fit a little better. I assume that making the Termies and Stealers this way was done to protect the sales of the existing 40k models of those types, and this strikes me as another example of GW's sometimes seemingly uncaring regard toward their customers.

Hopefully sometime soon I'll actually get a chance to play Space Hulk and I'll be sure to report on it. But for now, keep watching the skies!

A Realm of My Own

This past Christmas I was given by a very generous relative a Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboard. In the past for my playing area I've used all manner of surfaces and materials, but I have never been satisfied with the results and in particular with the compromises I felt forced to make in order to have something portable enough that it wouldn't completely consume my living or storage space. Hence my tables have always looked flat and plain. For years I looked with envy at the beautifully sculpted gaming tables featured in White Dwarf magazine, hoping for the day when I could have one like that as well. I am therefore very happy and grateful that GW has produced its own plastic modular gameboard as the Realm of Battle is both light weight and doesn't take up that much space, while still looking really good and being a functional gaming surface. The cost is no doubt prohibitive to many but for the value I think it is well worth its price. Considering how many gamers are able to collect multiple armies I do not think the current price is truly the outrage that has been portrayed in many online forums.

Now that I have my board I really want to start using it soon. But how do I want to paint it? Most of the gameboards I've used in the past have been fairly standard looking green-grass type of plains or steppes. Although it offers the convenience of being suitable for games of both Warhammer Fantasy and 40k, I'm a little tired of this style and am thus interested in trying out something of a different nature. Although using flock is great for blending the transition between the gameboard and any additional terrain pieces, it would also add a lot of extra time and work to the project as well, not to mention the added hassle cleaning up. I'm pretty sure then that it's time to leave behind the grassy farmlands for some new territory.

Thinking of it as being specifically for 40k opens up a myriad of options for the paint scheme, in fact a whole universe of options. A claustrophobic urban warzone or the spoiled Ash Wastes would be very thematic for 40k, or perhaps a blasted lunar surface or a menacing jungle Death World would offer a compelling environment for games. With each of these, as well as most of the others that I considered, I either didn’t like the color scheme or else it seemed like they would require more terrain than I want to put together or terrain that would be beyond my modeling skills. So with much consideration I am now leaning strongly towards painting my Realm of Battle as a Desert World.

It is for me very evocative backdrop with its wind swept hills and valleys, ghostly remains of human settlements, hazardous mining operations, and bizarre alien artifacts emerging from the sands. This obviously has a lot of appeal for me as it offers a strong setting for many types of science fiction narratives and would complement the look of many of the 40k armies in which I am interested. Getting this board painted would be fairly straight forward as I would mainly use a variety of browns and drybrushing, and thus I expect to be able to complete it fairly quickly. It would also look good with a wide variety of terrain pieces although I think GW's modular and game hills do not look good on it. But for 40k I think the hill sections sculpted onto the board itself should suffice as additional tall terrain is easily added with ruined buildings and the new Imperial Bastion kit. Possibly most important though is that I don’t think I’ll need too many more areas of terrain before I can start playing. I already have a number of Fantasy terrain pieces that I think can be made to fit into a futuristic setting and so I might start with just an extra couple of ruined buildings to better fix the setting.

And that’s how yet another project begins.

The Fate of Luca Brasi

Curse you Games Workshop!! Ahhh! I feel like that dude in The Godfather, "Just when I think I'm out, they keep pulling me back in!" My goal was to sell most of my GW stuff but just like so many times before I find myself being drawn back once again. Damn. It was thinking about that blasted Stompa and reading up on the new 40k expansion, Planetstrike, that got my imagination drifting back to it. Also my brother has suggested a couple of times recently that we get a game of 40k together, something in the past I would have never snubbed. I therefore now have another GW mail-order shipment on the way and I haven't yet even posted one thing onto eBay.

I do still plan on selling pretty much everything I had mentioned before, I just haven't had the time to get the lots organized and pictures taken. In the meantime I have been dusting off my 40k codecies and looking through stacks of old issues of White Dwarf for the 40k articles that I had largely ignored. Qutie a few months ago I had finally said, "Enough! No more 40k ever!" I don't know how many times I've done this before, but this time I thought I really meant it. Maybe it will help being able to go back and forth between historical and Warhammer project so as to protect against getting burned out with either one. I'm not suggesting that I am burned out with my HYW: English, I just have some serious cleaning that I need to do before I can get back to painting. I am however thinking about having some Orks and Marines going at the same time... we'll see. At a very minimum I would like to paint the starter armies from Assault on Black Reach and then go from there. If I can eliminate much of the stuff I've been hanging onto for years and years, then I don't expect that I would mind so much having a few extra painting projects to compete for my attention so long as they are all one's that will be eventually be painted.

Warehouse Firesale

For quite a while now I've been expecting to sell off as much of my accumulated gaming stuff as possible. I've been hoarding wargaming supplies and miniatures for as long as I've been a gamer so I've therefore amassed a sizable collection of hobby items over the last couple of decades. Every time that I have moved I have tried to cull my pile at least a little bit but never to any significant degree, although the last time I did manage to throw out a decent amount. I am happy though to now have a source of hopefully easily liquidated assests as my wife and I are working to relaunch my business after a year and a half of poor investments.

Even though I have sworn off Games Workshop in the recent past, I am not entirely prepared to sell every GW product that I own. I'm pretty confident though that I will be able to find plenty to stock my future eBay store. As for unpainted minis, I plan on keeping my Orks and Imperial Guard collections should I ever get the WH40K bug again (I actually suspect 40k Orks could be a likely project at some point... I absolutely love the plastic Stompa kit!). With regards to Warhammer Fantasy, however, I am not so certain. I think I am going to sell off everything except my Wood Elves and Orcs & Goblins collections. We'll see though, I still am pretty sentimental about my Dwarfs even though I am not too crazy about either their miniatures or their rules in the game, both of which I find kind of boring. If I were however to keep all five of those armies, that would end up being a fairly large mass of unpainted plastic and metal. Hmmm, what to do? Regardless, there is a lot that I know I can sell without hesitation that I should be kept busy enough without having to worry about Dwarfs and Elves for some time.

Let's see what I can think of without having to peek in the warehouse to assist my memory:

40K Eldar 2000+ points
40K Tyrandis 2000+ points
40K Marines 1000ish points
40K Chaos Marines 1000ish points
40K Plague Marines 1000ish points
WFB Empire 2000+ points
WFB Chaos 2000+ points
WFB Skaven 1000ish points

That makes for at least 12,000 points of unassembled and unpainted miniatures, and most of them would still be considered New-In-The-Box as well. I have no idea how much I'll be able to get for all of this... it sucks to be having to do this in the midst of the economic recession. I'm also not sure if I should sell things in big lots or if I am better off trying to sell individual box-sets. I've also got many individual and loose figures that I could sell, including quite a few that are considered rare. Those I am more reluctant to sell as they really do not occupy that much space. There's a lot I can sell before I get around to those oldies.

I'm looking forward to being free of all this clutter. My hobby has been too encumbering for too long. It will be liberating to be rid of those things that I will never get around to painting. I don't need it and I tired of having to cart it all around with me. Libertas!