Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Yay - I finished something!

Finished these last night, except for the weathering powder and the Rhulic script. Got those done today, and they have been sealed, so I guess I have to call them done now. The pics aren't the best, but if they are needed for the gallery, that's fine.

This was my first attempt to use the weathering powders on something like a miniature. I have used them for a model train layout, but that stuff gets a lot less handling than your average gaming piece. I had some problems with them at first - I actually blasted some off when I started sealing them, but that's probably for the best, since I had accidentally been a bit heavy-handed with them.



I cheated and used a technical pen for the script. Much easier than trying to paint it.



I needed some way to tell my Gunbunnies apart, and I will probably get another Basher later this year, so I might as well mark it now.





I was going for something similar to Tonka yellow, and wanted to have the 'jacks with some battle damage. The yellow gave me a lot more problems than it should have - I picked up the figs used, and they had been primed black. I should have spent the time stripping them, but I tried to just push through it. In real life, the colors are a bit better than they are in the pics, but I'm not super-happy with it. (Not annoyed with it enough to thinking about stripping them anytime soon, although I probably will at some point, if I ever start clearing off my backlog of figs.)

So, Basher (7 pts) + Gunner (3pts) = 10 pts for January. Not great, but I'll take it. If nothing else, it stops me using my "Get Out of Painting Free" card in the 2012 challenge.

Now - on to February. The Journeyman league is almost over, so I can play whatever I want next month. According to my iBodger log, the only two factions for which nothing is finished are Retribution and Menoth. Several other factions have only one or two models actually completed, so it's not a huge difference - I mean, going from 0% to .8% is not huge jump, right? Maybe I will paint some Skorne for this month - I could finish some Immortals and an Ancestral Guardian fairly easily, and then try to get some base colors down on some other models.

Or I could paint Circle. I have a couple lists that I would like to try, although I am a few models short. (How did I manage to have pBaldur all this time, and never pick up Megalith?) I could knock out some Legion beasts fairly easily, although I may save those for later on in the year, when time is short, and I need easy projects. Or when I want to paint 30-50 points in a month.

Maybe I should just finish up my Khador battle engine. It's started, but not too far along, and I think I have a lot of spare time in the next couple of weeks. I might work on odd projects until the weekend, and decide Saturday night. I'll still probably stick to one faction this month - I just don't know which one, as of yet.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

At last, an update!

Just some random proof that I have been doing some actual "painting" this month. (Okay, I call it painting, other people may not. I won't win awards, but that's fine by me. I just want to get this stuff beyond bare metal or primer. )

Anyway, back at the beginning of the month, I said that I would be concentrating on Mercs, mainly my Rhulic, and I took a pic to show how little I had done with them at that point in time. And indeed, some of it was black primed (I got them that way, and given all the troubles with the yellow, I should have taken the time to strip them and reprime them), but more were little more than bare metal.


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But, I am happy to say that progress has been made. As proof, I offer the following:






The Basher (and the Gunner next to it) are getting close to being done. I need to add some details, and finish some of the panels, but the end is in sight. (Good thing, too - the end of the month is coming up, and I need to paint at least 5 points for the challenge.)



The Immortals are low-hanging fruit. I really should finish them. It would not take too long, it would add considerably to my painted total, and I could focus on something new.

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And yes, my painting area is still fairly clean, which comes as a major shocker, frankly.


And yes, I know the pics aren't very good. I wasn't trying to take good pics, simply pics.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Still no update. . .

I know, I know. I'm slacking. I did do some painting last night, but not much, since it was a Cub Scout night. And, the new computer is up and running, but I still have to transfer a bunch of pics and programs from the old one. (The portable hard drive is being filled as I type, but I probably won't have access to the pics until tomorrow, and I have spent the afternoon reinstalling programs.)

I hope to have the Basher finished by the end of the weekend, and possibly a couple of the gunbunnies as well. Good thing, too - the end of the month is fast approaching, and I signed up for the "Tale of Warmahordes 2012" The basic idea is that you commit to painting 5 points of miniatures per month, with two months where you can slack off without penalty. Warnouns count for nothing, so you can do those at any point, although you get no credit for them, other than bragging rights.

Anyway, it will, if nothing else, compel me to finish off some of the almost-finished-but-not-quite projects that have been gathering dust. After all, if the month is half over, and I still don't have anything done, I can always finish off my unit of Immortals, or a couple of Retribution 'jacks. But, I also intend to focus on one faction per month - this month was Rhulic. Any suggestions for next month?

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I paint, but. . .

not for long, and I took no pics. That is because the hard drive on the desktop has begun making sounds of impending DOOM, and I spent a fair chunk of time last night looking into options for a new computer.

And, of course, I was reminded that, not only do we have a small selection of gaming and comic stores in my little corner of Michigan, we also have very few choices when it comes to buying a smart word box for tell monkey hard brain hurty things.

Fortunately, I can take "before" pics tonight, which is basically the same thing as taking "after" pics last night.

Monday, January 23, 2012

No pics, but progress

I will be taking pics before I paint tonight, but I wanted to note that I have indeed been making some progress on my Rhulic models. The yellows are being problematic, but I confess to being really adamant on making my color scheme work.

I managed another win Saturday (yay!), but forgot to take along a camera (boo!). Same Rhulic list as before, with the addition of the High Shield UA and a Basher (marshalled by Thor). The legion list was basically battlebox plus Typhon.

Typhon, quite frankly, scares me. In fact, that entire legion list had me worried. The only reason I won, I suspect, is because he did not run straight for my line and force the engagement. The longer you dance around a Rhulic gun line, the more you lose. It would have been even worse for him if I had remembered my High Shields mini-feat, but I forgot.

I'm rather glad that I did not get the chance to play the Skorne list. Battlebox plus full Cetrati and beast handlers made for a list that will get in my Rhulic face and tear me apart. I think he wants a match, however, so I think I have a loss coming in the near future.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Slacker.

Yeah, I was a real slacker tonight. Didn't paint, watched a movie instead. I'll paint extra tomorrow, and I might even take the camera with me on Saturday and take some game pics as well.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

This is why I say I have a problem. . .

OKay, aside from the fact that the pics for the Minuteman were released today, and of course, I want a couple of them (for a Kraye list, of course), tonight was yet another piece of evidence that I have some pretty strong faction ADD.

Remember how, just a couple of weeks ago, I suggested that I might benefit from a structured approach to my painting? So far, I have been doing alright by it - I have done virtually no painting on non-Mercenary, and even non-Rhulic, models. Of course, that did not stop me from working on assembling models from other factions. In my defense, I was actually waiting for the paint to dry on a couple of armor sections so that I could add the next layer, and I worked on getting some long-WIP models ready for priming.

I was going to try and get my High Shields together, but somehow I lost the left arms to 4 of them. They'll sit in that state for another month or two, although I do intend to have them assembled and primed at least before the first of June. (No, they are not likely to be my GenCon army. . . but I do like them enough to think of them as a decent backup choice.)

Monday, January 16, 2012

The other reason for lack of painting

Aside from Pinewood Derby (and no, I don't have the pics for that up yet, sorry), I haven't been doing a whole lot of painting for another reason.

See, this is my current workspace:



Now, be honest. Doesn't that seem like a cozy little disaster waiting to happen? I actually knew where pretty much everything was, but it is crowded, messy, and it definitely could interrupt my groove and cause problems in a long painting session. Yes, it got cleaned up every couple of months, but the ground state of my painting table has long resembled this.

I decided that it was time for that to change. I might be confined to the basement for my hobbies, but I can indulge in a better painting layout. So, when I saw an ad for a workbench at one of the big box hardware stores, I decided to check it out. The demo one in the store looked pretty nice, and so Wednesday night, after the Cub Scout meeting, I went and picked one up.

Thursday night, I started putting it together. It actually went together pretty nicely.





But, I had only the one drill, and I had to keep drilling pilot holes, then switching to put the screws in, etc, etc. I ended up the night with the workbench looking like this:



Naturally enough, I remembered that my wife had bought me a cordless drill several months previous, mainly for Scout stuff and the odd household repair, and I had set it aside and never used it. So, I charged it up, and Friday afternoon, I quickly got the rest of the table assembled.



What is not apparent from the pics is that one of the boards on the top was a bit warped, and I did not like that. I also did not want to chance some small part falling down and getting stuck in between the 2x6s. So, yesterday, I went looking for a top - anything that was 2' x 6' would do, as long as it was sturdy and would have a decent side when cut. The big box store was out of anything useful that could be cut to size, but they did have a 2' x 6' panel that would work.



Once it was finished, I could start loading it down with my painting stuff again. This time, I intend to keep it neat. Well, neatish, anyway.



Tonight, I should be able to head down there, put an old movie into the DVD player, and happily paint (or pretend to) for a couple of hours, and maybe even accomplish something.

And, as an added bonus - my son wants me to build him a larger layout for his trains. I learned some stuff in building this workbench, so when I rebuild my gaming table, and build him a new layout, they should both benefit from this experience.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Battle report from Saturday

OKay, I haven't done any sort of documentation on my battles before. And, I did not bother to take along a camera to record what I was certain would be another couple of losses - albeit fun ones. So, no pics, sorry. These battles were all under the Journeyman league rules.

Game #1

I got in a straight-up battlebox game - Gorten v. pKreoss. The board was basically symmetrical, with a small hill in the middle, two houses on opposite corners, and walls on the other two. First turn, we both advance - he starts casting Defender's Ward, and I put up Strength of Granite and Solid Ground.

I score the first damage, when the gunbunnies open up on his two light jacks, but neither is crippled by the exchange. He counters by setting one of the gunbunnies on fire, which winds up burning for the rest of the game, but never doing any damage. I feat, move his jacks around, and the driller destroyers the Crusader, while the gunbunnies finish off the Repenter. He uses the arc node on his Revenger to light another gunbunny with Immolation, but doing little else to it. For reasons of time (other players had arrived, and he wanted to play them too), he decided to call it - pKreoss and a badly damaged revenger against three gunbunnies and a driller, with my turn coming up, and in a mangled metal game, meant that I needed to roll really badly not to win the game as soon as I went.

Game #2

Same terrain set up as before. This time, it was a 15-pt Gorten versus a 15-pt Legion list. He was running the Legion battlepack, plus the Strider Deathstalker. With 15 pts, I was able to take the Gorten battlebox, plus Thor, and a minimum unit of the High Shield Gun Corps. (Gotta love the fact that the Gorten box is only 8 pts.)

Again, we both advance, and I always seem to forget how fast some of the Legion stuff can be. He did forget to use the advance deploy on the Deathstalker, fortunately for me. I use the same spells as before, although in retrospect, I probably could have dropped the Solid Ground.

First blood went to me, as the gunbunnies took out two of the shredders. Unfortunately, I did not put up Rock Wall, and on the next turn, pLylyth feats, putting Parasite on the Driller, and putting some hurt on Gorten. The remaining Shredders take to chewing up my High Shields (who, foolishly, forgot to use Shield Wall), and putting the stop to the gunbunnies. A Carnivean comes out of nowhere, and it's helly and good-bye, Mr. Driller. The Deathstalker comes up the flank, and Thor is dead, with more damage on Gorten.

It's not looking good for my stunty little caster at this point. Looking at the board, if I cannot win on my next turn, I am dead, because a Carnivean is going to eat Gorten (which is how my last game against Legion ended, actually.) I keep all the focus on myself, move up, and feat, dragging everything toward my table edge. Unfortunately, while this moves the Carnivean past me (and facing the wrong way, so I at least won't eat a charge next turn), it does not bring pLylyth into base with me. But she is in range of the gun, so I boost to hit and damage, but not quite killing her. Close, so close. But one gunbunny is not in melee with anything, so I take the aiming bonus, and score a lucky hit, killing her. Luck had a lot to do with the victory there - it was a "go big, or go home" moment, and, if the dice had not gone my way, I probably would have lost on my next turn.

Game #3

Different table, with the houses being replaced with stone columns, and a large hill with some obstructing terrain on it in the center. I was running the same list as before; hew was running the Skorne battlepack, plus a minimum unit of Beast Handlers and a Void Spirit. Now, think back to my list, and think about how few offensive spells and magic weapons I have. If you think that Void Spirit is going to be a problem for me, you have that right.

Both of us spent the first couple of turns moving up, with me casting my upkeeps and him sweeping around with that pesky Void Spirit. I scored first blood, putting some hurt on one of the Cyclops, but nothing that could not be healed. And, in exchange for the small amount of damage I put on the Cyclops, I wound up with a Void Spirit in the middle of the High Shield Corps, where it killed one outright, and another with Eruption of Ash. The Cyclops shut down the gunbunnies, and the Gladiator pretty much crushes one, and finishes off another.

I feat, move some things around, and try to kill stuff in return, but without much luck, thanks to pMorghul's feat. Thor manages to kill the Void Spirit, mainly by firing his spray into melee, and frankly, killing one of my own High Shield is worth the Void Spirit. But the turn ends with me well down on forces, and pMorghul mostly unhurt.

I don't recall the exact sequence of events for the next couple of turns, but the end result was that the driller was wounded, but not gone, and the gladiator had slammed Gorten out of the killbox, but naturally followed up. So Gorten starts out in base with the gladiator, and out of the killbox. Thor tunes up the Driller, and it kills off the one Cyclops that pMorghul can use for transfers. Gorten moves around the Gladiator, and back into the killbox, triggering a free strike, but putting him in a position where he can take two shots at pMorghul. Both are boosted, both hit, both damage rolls are boosted, and with no beast that can take damage, pMorghul dies.

It should be noted that the Skorne player, by all rights, should have been able to crush Gorten with the gladiator. Too many 3d6 damage rolls that failed to break 7, and I think there was at least one triple 1's for damage. On average rolls from my opponent, I would have lost. And, without some lucky rolls on my part, he would have won.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

The streak is broken!

Huzzah and at last. We got some games in for the league today, and Gorten is doing much better. I'll see if I can cobble together some battle reports, but my Rhulic forces did well today, although one game was only won because my opponents dice completely crapped out on him, and a gladiator that, by all rights should have killed my poor little stunty, did not even scratch him.

FWIW - even if I had lost, I had a lot of fun playing today. Everyone got in a couple of games, and it sounded like everyone had a good time, which is the important thing. Now to start planning for next week - those extra 10 points will be put to good use, I am sure.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

I know, I know. . . .

it's been a couple of days since I posted anything. I have barely painted, but that's because this week has been prepping for my son's pinewood derby race, and so, while I am technically working on a miniature, it's (1) a car; (2) not for gaming; and (3) my son is the one doing the work, more or less, just under my supervision.

I have done some assembly on my hamerfall high shield corps, and hope to have them ready for priming in a few days. Before Saturday, anyway. It depends on whether or not I get to work on them tonight and tomorrow. I'll probably take another WIP pic sometime this weekend, and everyone can laugh at my lack of progress.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Belated pic, as promised

So, I did take a pic, like I promised the other day. I hadn't really worked on any of the Rhulic stuff so far at that point, and , sadly and shamefully enough, it hasn't changed much from the picture below.


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(Obviously, I did not care too much about the quality of the pic. The stuff is barely primed, for pete's sake. Detailed pics are kind of pointless.)

I have more mercs, but not many. Not pictured are pMagnus and his jacks, Boomhowler and Co, a Nomad, and maybe a solo or three. I am probably going to ignore them for the month, however, and concentrate on my Rhulic forces. I have enough that I have options for the rest of the journeyman league, although I might look into getting Herne and Jonne, and maybe Brun and Lug. They may have to wait a bit, of course.

Too many models, not enough time, and I really want to play around with getting my painted log caught up properly in iBodger. With any luck, tonight I will get some time to paint, although it means a break from cleaning out the basement - a project which is only tangentially related to gaming, and has been put off for far too long.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Hooray for consistency!

So,. our Journeyman league started today, and I had a couple of players show up, which is always a good thing. Everyone got in at least two games, and the other guys managed to get in three. I, naturally, maintained my streak, and lost both of my games.

I did not take a camera, but the first game was my Gorten battlebox against Legion. The Legion player realized that standing back from a gunbunny gunline was a bad idea, and he attempted an assassination run. He came within a single point of killing Gorten, which I must confess caused me more than a bit of distress, and then it was my turn. Upkept Strength of Granite on the driller, popped feat to move Lylyth into range, charged with the driller, and missed. Managed to connect only once before I ran out of focus, and it wasn't enough. On his next turn, the Carnivean walked over and pretty much ate Gorten in a single hit.

The game against Skorne went little better. Managed to do okay, popped feat to move things back out of melee range, but when push came to shove, my poor driller went up against a gladiator, and left him with a single point remaining. Next turn, the gladiator was healed enough to be fully capable, and he crushed the poor driller. No driller and with battered gunbunnies stuck in melee meant that the game was over quickly, and not in my favor.

Still, had fun, of course, and I handed out some free copies of the quick start rules to some interested bystanders. Hopefully we gain some more players over the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately, my plans to attend the local con are not going to happen - family stuff is going to intervene, so I am looking into some other options for drumming up new players.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

A structured approach, perhaps?

So, while painting in the basement tonight (that's right - I said painting), it struck me. There are 11 factions (more or less), and 12 months of the year. It's not a perfect matchup, but maybe instead of my hit or miss (mostly miss) approach to painting, I should spend this year with a little more structure.

So, for this month, I am going to concentrate on Mercenaries. I figure I will primarily work on my Rhulic stuff, for a Searforge list, although I might try and get some base colors on my old Magnus battlebox. I don't know what I will do for next month, but for this month, if they don't fight for pay, I won't be painting them.

Tomorrow, before I start work, I think I need to take a "before" pic. I haven't done too much so far this month, but a before and after pic should show some progress over the next four weeks. I also need to finish up some terrain projects, so I can work on picking up some Talion figs, in order to get going on my goal of having a 50 point list for everything by the end of 2012.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Hah! I accomplished something!

Okay, it wasn't much, but in addition to unpacking all the stuff I had taken with me when I was out of town, I managed to get the Wardog assembled and primed, primed the HRT (which, since I bought used, was thoughtfully preassembled) and fixed Durgen and Thor for my Rhulic. My goal for the week (and weekend) is to do some cleaning in the basement, and take a "beginning of year" shot of each faction, pact or contract. I'll try to take another one sometime in the summer, and then another about the end of the year. With any luck, there will be some progress, beyond adding more models.

Journeyman league announcement

I don't think any of my reader(s) are in the Kalamazoo area, but just in case:

It's been posted at the store for a bit, but just in case anyone is in the area, and did not know about it:

On Jan 7, 2012, we will be starting a Journeyman slow grow league at:

L & J Hobbies
8675 Portage Rd # 1
Portage, MI

We will be using the rules from the Slow Grow .pdf (available at http://privateerpress.com/files/CompleteJourneyman.pdf ), but the basics are below:

Week 1 Battlegroup box set only - Mangled Metal/Tooth & Claw scenario
Week 2 15 points: Battlegroup box set contents required - Kill Box Scenario
Week 3 25 points: Battlegroup box set contents required - Kill Box Scenario
Week 4 25 points: Battlegroup box set contents required (’caster swap allowed) - Kill Box Scenario
Week 5 35 points: Battlegroup box set contents not required ('caster swap allowed) - Kill Box or Killing Fields Scenarios
Week 6 35 points: no restrictions - Kill Box or Killing Fields Scenarios

Players will also be earning points for painting models in their chosen faction.

This event is geared for those wanting to start a new warcaster/warlock for their Faction, and for new players. Veterans and new-comers are both welcome.

A new year, a recycled beginning

I'm recycling a post I made elsewhere, but there is some (not much) new content:

My resolutions/goals for 2012 are, in no particular order:

  • Lose less. I don't mind losing, but I do it so often, it's becoming a bad habit. Or, put another way . . .
  • Play more. The more I play, the better I should do, if I actually stick to a faction for a while.
  • Get to GenCon. It's been a couple of years, but this year, there should be no family obligations which keep me from attending.
  • Paint more - again, I should. I need to set an example, and painting can be very zen.
  • Get everything assembled. This only applies to Warmachine/Hordes. If I tried to apply it to everything, I don't think I would do anything else.
  • Run stuff as PG - I'm still a new PG, but the more I can run at my FLGS, the easier it should be to grow the game there.
  • Grow my collection, such that I can run a decent 50-pt list for every faction, contract and pact. It's a pretty easy goal, actually, but it is a goal. The hard goal would be painting 50 pts for everything. Or, even painting 50 pts.
  • Post some battle reports, and other pictures.
  • Blog more. I won't be a post per day blogger, but I should do better than twice a week. If I round out 2012 with 175 posts or so, I will be happy.

Some of these are easier than others. The bar for painting is so low that it might as well be a line on the floor - painting an average of one miniature per fortnight will put me over 20111, I think. GenCon is pretty much a done deal, and my collection will pretty much grow on its own, even if I don't do anything about it. (Seriously - I think my figs come alive, a la Toy Story, and order more friends. Honest.)

On the non-gaming side, I intend to continue my daily running streak, run a couple of marathons and ultras, and possibly even a 50-miler. I want to launch more model rockets with my son and daughter, and keep working with my sons Cub Scout pack. I'll probably do NaNoWriMo next year as well. I hope to start my own business next year, although I expect it will only pay for my hobbies, which is fine with me.