A long-overdue update

So, the painting is continuing, which is good, because AdeptiCon is 69 days away.  I think I need to finish about 3 models per day, on average, in order to make it.  And no, I will not finish 3 models today.  That's not going to happen.  So, where do I stand?

The Warmahordes model is running a bit behind.  I have the main colors done, and now am doing detail work.  He will be done and mailed on Tuesday, but I will not make tomorrow's post.

The Orc army for Kings of War - all of the axe and great axe minis are assembled.  The boars are put together, but need some hot water and green stuff to get them to work.  Haven't even started on the riders yet.  All foot troops are primed, and I should have skin tones on about 40 of them done today, and move on to armor and fabrics.  Another 20 or so are currently primed black, and I will start on their skin tonight or tomorrow.  Or possibly Sunday - I really could use a couple days where figures really start to look like I am making progress.

SAGA army #1 - Anglo Danes.  I have started on a couple of guys, but it was mainly an excuse to fire up the airbrush and get it working again.  I plan on spending some quality time with these guys in the next week or so, and moving them away from primer white.

SAGA army #2 - Milites Christi.  I haven't done anything with these guys, and that needs to change.  So, again, sometime this weekend, I plan on spending an hour or two putting some paint on them.

Arena Rex - still primed, and they won't be changing for a while.  It is not an AdeptiCon event, so they are kind of low on my priority list.

Guild Ball - I have three teams (though two of them are just starter boxes with an extra model or two), but I am hoping to start block out some paint on the Brewers next weekend or so.

Dystopian Wars - I chose a fleet, and I think I have a paint scheme.  Now, I need to build some armies and start painting.  Fortunately, 1/1200 naval (or whatever the scale is) paint fairly quickly, at least to the 3-color, tabletop standard required by AdeptiCon.

So, my painted models for the year right now is 0 models, and 0 pts for the WM 365 challenge.  With the year already 3% done, and nothing to show for it, I would be worried, except that I think some models will start wrapping up in the next 4-5 days, and then things can really get moving.  And, I haven't actually purchased any models this year, aside from some pre-painted Star Wars X-Wing models.  And those don't count.

That's a lot of plastic

No pics, because this is a quick post, but I have started working on the Abyssals.  So far, I have a whopping 4 of them assembled, although that number should climb to 15 or 20 by the end of the day. I plan on priming some of them tomorrow, and then I can start some color testing.  It's awfully cliche, but I think the Abyssals will be mainly red and black, and I will use cork to make lava bases.  I hope to have the first of them actually coming off the line, or nearly painted, by the end of next week, and things should really start to pick up after that.

It does mean that my Vikings are a bit on hold at the moment, but only until I get the Abyssals assembled.  Again, hopefully no later than the end of next week, although with 130 plus models to assemble, it might take a bit longer than that.  No too much longer though, since I am on a bit of a schedule here.

AdeptiCon painting list

I've been really, really busy the last few weeks, so blogging fell by the wayside.  But, this is basically a public admission/declaration/whatever - I am putting together my army list(s) for AdeptiCon.  It looks like I need to have about 300 models painted.

That's the bad news.  The good news is that is Convergence, Minions, and Cephalyx for Warmachine/Hordes, plus Black Diamond for Relic Knights and Terrans for Firestorm Armada.  And, as another bit of good news, some of that 300 is already painted.  And, as a last bit of good news - almost all of it is assembled and primed, with most being somewhere between primed and final touchups/basing.  With any luck, and a lot of work, it's all doable.

Of course, the depressing part is that I know some people who would look at it and say "Pshaw, I can have that done before Christmas."  I try not to think about that too much.

So I am crazy

I'm doing a bunch of shifts for Privateer Press at AdeptiCon this year.  Last year, I think I did a couple of shifts, but this year, I am doing more.  Yes, it cuts into my con time, yes it means I do less events, yes, it means that I may miss out on a lot.  On the other hand, I do love the game, and really enjoy watching new players pick it up and get excited about it.

As an added bonus - the fewer games I am playing, the better I feel about how few of my models would actually be done in time for AC this year.

It's a feeling of accomplishment

And not a little horror.  I'm still not done with cataloging everything, but I made more progress today.  The kids had a half day of school, so I lost some serious painting and counting time.  Here are the counts, as of a few minutes ago:

Cryx -111
Cygnar -39
Khador -36
Protectorate -18
Retribution -94
Convergence - 89
Mercenaries -57
Circle -28
Legion -22
Skorne -54
Trollbloods -74
Minions  -92

So, we're up to 714.  I think I only have a couple hundred still to go.  I'm a little unsure at this point - I'm marking and setting the tallied ones aside, so it's not that, it's simply that I have several half-filled cases, whose contents are currently a mystery.  I'll see about clearing some of that up tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to get in a few games of WWX tomorrow.  Need to start playing so that I can get a good handle on the rules between now and AdeptiCon.

The race is on.

Both Ogre and Wild West Exodus are shipping.  Which one will get to my door first?  Which one will get played first? 

Those are real questions, actually.  I'm not sure which will get to me first, but hopefully both will be here by this time next week.*  For practical reasons, it may be Ogre that I get to play first, simply because I can teach Ogre to my son a lot faster than I can teach him how to play WWX.  And if WWX arrives during the week, while I have clearance to go deliver my friends split of the order, I'm not sure I have clearance for the amount of time it takes for me to win a game.  Or lose one.  (Either one is good - it sets us up for a grudge match the next week.)

I'm starting to look for Wild West terrain.  I need to have a good chunk of it for WWX, because shooting is deadly, and terrain is your friend.  And much of what I have for WM is themed incorrectly - either bright green, grassy hills, steampunky buildings, destroyed wrecks, etc.  I think I need some cacti too, and I know that I do not have any of those.

In the meantime, registration for AdeptiCon opens tomorrow.  I still don't know what events I will try and do, precisely, but I plan on getting at least Iron Arena and Malifaux Gaslight tickets, and playing in both of them.  I'd like to do at least one WM tourney as well.

* And, in the "shipping in the next week" category, Relic Knights should finally begin shipping, and Rivet Wars should start as well.  Lots of gaming goodness on the way.

AdeptiCon, part III - the car ride home

Driving out of Chicago was much better than the drive in.  For starters, while I was sleep-deprived, the rain was not coming down in buckets - and I had an ample supply of caffeine.  But it is a fair drive, some three hours or so, and rather than listen to the radio, we talked about the weekend, Warmachine, etc.

The first, and most important, thing, is that we all decided to come back to AdeptiCon next year.  We had lots of fun, and played a lot of games.  Next year, however, we plan on staying on-site - the half-mile drive was just long enough to be annoying, and we'd like to avoid that.  Plus, we'll be bringing some fermented grain products of our own.

Second, we talked about the possibility of entering the team tourney.  We have another player who may be coming next year, which would give us possibly two teams, and so we had a discussion on the possible display boards, the team composition, why we should have custom made shirts - the whole nine yards.  (Among them - a Cryx/Legion team board could be a ghost pirate ship towing either a dead whale, with Legion beasts feasting on it, or a blighted whale, with spikes and carapace growths.  Either sound fun.)

Lastly, we talked about why I lose so often.  Part of it is dice - people who have watched me stare in awe (or horror) at successive strings of snake-eyes, or events where my average 2d6 roll is 5.  I know that it is a poor craftsman who blames his tools, so while dice is indeed a part of it, I rarely plan my turns on the basis of anything beyond "I need 5s to hit, and do dice minus 4, so I should be able to kill this solo with 3 attacks."  I presume that I will have sub-average dice, and try to plan accordingly.

No, the real problem, I think, it is that somehow, when I took the black and became a press ganger, I decided that I was supposed to lose.  Not just at demos, but pretty much every game.  I know my units reasonably well, but I seem to avoid doing some of the synergies that move my game from meh to decent..  I don't practice a list, or play nearly as many games as I need to, and I tend to flit from army to army, ostensibly to give people practice playing against as many different things as possible.  In other words, I am trying to help make my meta better, but it means that I lose a lot, and in such a way that it does not actually make me a better player.  I need to stop taking a back seat on the open play days, and allowing others to play (when there is an odd number) instead of claiming a table for myself.

Now, being aware of the problem and fixing it are two different matters.  I'm going to goof off for the next couple of months, painting whatever I feel like (for the 5-pt/month challenge), and playing whatever I feel like.  And then, once I have the Convergence book in my hands, I am going to look at it, and at all the armies, and settle on something.  I have to play some eMorghoul games for that challenge, but I am going to pick something in July and concentrate on it until AdeptiCon next year.  I won't get in 10,000 hours, but I plan on doing a lot better next year than I did this year.

AdeptiCon, part II

Next up, Blood, Sweat & Tiers.  I wish I had taken better notes, because for the life of me, I can't recall what I lost to in the first round.  But lose I did, and I wound up heading into the second round, and looking across the table at an eGaspy list. 

I don't recall the entire list, but I recall bane knights and thralls, the cankerworm, withershadow, and a boneripper.  I tried to run my Mortenebra list, but neither she nor Terminus would have been a good match for it.  I died via assassination, and, IIRC, it was to a seether made by the withershadow from one of my jacks.

Third round, I would up playing Wargamer Girl.  She was running an eSorscha list, with winterguard death star, a mortar, widowmakers, and couple of jacks.  I spent too long trying to tear apart the winterguard, and she wore me down and killed poor Terminus.  It was a good game, and I think I would have done a lot better if my Blackbane's had gone right through the winterguard and gone after ole Kovnik Joe.  Oh well, you live, you get curbstomped, and you learn.

The last round, my poor opponent was obviously tipsy.  And he was running pStryker, and a Stormwall.  He moved forward, spent some time trying to take down the objectives for the control points, and left pStryker exposed, and within 9" of Terminus, and 8" of Deathjack.  I won that game, which at least ended the evening on a happy note.

On Saturday, I played a couple of games in the Iron Arena, enough to get my the points to earn a Magnus art print, and then spent some time playing demos of Firestorm Armada and Wreck Age.  I got owned on both.  Wreck Age looks like a fairly decent game - it's a story-driven skirmish game, sort of a post-Apocalyptic setting for Necromunda.  The figs aren't bad, and any faction that has explosive-laden pigs and a remote detonator can't be all bad, right?  One of my friends picked up a copy of Wreck Age, so I'll be picking up a faction for it at some point.

As an added bonus - I managed to score a free Firestorm Armada fleet - the Aquans might not be my first choice, but free is a hard price to beat.  I also stopped by and talked with Romeo, the guy in charge of Wild West Exodus, and hopefully made contact with some people in the Grand Rapids area who might be picking it up.

I also spent some serious time looking at the terrain from Burn In Designs.  It's really nice stuff , and they have a good deal for a western town.

I probably should have stopped gaming at this point, but I wound up getting sucked into a 50-pt pick-up game of Warmachine. I made some mistakes, played badly, and wound up losing.  The aggravating part was that I tried to concede - I did not see the fury tokens on Grim Angus, went in for the assassination, and realized that I could not kill him, since he had plenty of transfer targets.  I wanted to concede the game, and he really wanted to play it out.  I was hungry, and frankly, kind of tired of losing, and did not see the point of suffering through making the attacks and failing to kill Grim, and then getting killed by the EBDT that was right next to him.  Meh.  Went out to dinner afterward, and that made things better.

Sunday, I had to do some demos, and that pretty much took up the entire day.  Drove back, and I'll discuss that in another post down the road.

AdeptiCon, part I

I have to go through the pics and what not. I did not take as many as I had thought, but I still want to put them into some kind of order.  With that in mind, let's start at the beginning.

Thursday morning, I got up and drove to AdeptiCon, stopping along the way to pick up my two co-conspirators.  We got to the con around noon - later than I had wanted, but we were delayed by the contents of Lake Michigan being dumped (as rain) onto the tri-state tollway.  Apparently, not only did part of 294 get closed down, but a sinkhole in the Chicago area swallowed three cars.  Fun times.

At the con, we snagged a parking spot, and went in to get our bags.  I had made the first 1k bags, but the other two did not.  I wound up with a Cygnar starter, a Con miniature, a FoW tank, an anthropomorphic animal of some sort, and some other random things.  I traded off my BF coupon for the WWExodus fig that one of the other guys got.  I didn't plan on picking up any Battlefoam products, but I wanted that fig.

We went to our hotel (about half a mile away), and killed time until late afternoon.  Jake took the time to paint some of Kenny's Legion stuff, and I dozed for a bit.  Mainly, we were just marking time until the stuff we wanted to do started in earnest.

About 5, we headed over to the con to hit the Iron Arena, only to find that the room was not ready yet.  Some of the pressgangers got pressganged into helping set up the room.  Or we volunteered, whichever version you prefer.  As a bonus, we got to see the new Convergence figs, and 3Lylyth and the Mammoth, without the glass in the way.  I took a couple of pics, and yes, I will post them, although by now everyone should have seen them.

We all played in some Iron Arena games that night.  I was trying to remember how to play my list, and it was not going well.  Had fun anyway, earned some skulls, and we made it an early night, since (1) I had Hardcore Friday morning; and (2) I had the car keys.

Friday morning - after a quick run and breakfast, we all headed back to the con.  I checked in for Hardcore, and the other two started playing Iron Arena.  The less said about Hardcore, the better.  I was running a Terminus list, and, for various and sundry reasons (known as lack of models and lack of practice), it was tier, but I had a Kraken in it.  I scored a bye on the first round, got dropped by an Archidon at the top of turn 2 in the second round.  I could claim ignorance of the Archidon and eMakeda, but the fact is that I was playing poorly, and left a nice hole for it to drop into.  A couple of lucky rolls, and it was game.

Round 3 was better, but I died to a Gorax (IIRC) that got moved via stones into a space cleared for him.  I did a better job protecting my caster, but I forgot the cardinal rule of dealing with stones - kill one.  One unit may have the UA who grants stealth, but the second might have been in range of the Kraken's long gun.  My bad.

Round 4 actually went to dice down, but I lost to Tony Faber, running a Cyngar list.  I want to say it was eHaley, but I would not swear to it.  I was getting a little demoralized at that point - it was a good game, but it had been a disappointing morning, to say the least.

Still - I know full well that I need to play more events, more hardcore, more tourneys.  And lose at them.  If I keep it up, and actually play more often, I should get better.  So, now I have a goal to beat for next year, right?

Back from AdeptiCon

Back from AdeptiCon.  I'll be posting some pics and what not in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, the short report is that I got pwned in lots of games, generally had fun, and plan on going back next year.

It feels very strange not to have a bunch of "I need to paint this now" guilt hanging over my head.  I might not paint for a couple of days. . . . though I got a lot done in the days leading up to AdeptiCon, and I have to admit, I kind of liked the feeling of putting a fully painted army on the board.

Late night update, and a PSA

First up, the PSA.  When you pick up a paint bottle to shake it, it's probably a good idea to ensure that the bottle is actually completely closed before shaking it.  Doh!  Fortunately, it all landed on me, and not on the miniatures.

So, the Kraken is based.  I'm hoping that it dries enough for me to paint it tomorrow, but otherwise, it gets a quick coat on Thursday at some point.  Rengrave is not done, and I have four of the revenant crew still waiting to be finished.  I have a seether that might get done as well, and the withershadow did get moved along a bit.

I also started doing base markings.  I know that all of the blackbane's are done, as well as the bile thralls.  The ripjaws got done, as did the slayers, the sirens, and most of the scrap thralls.I'd be working on them now, but (1) I'm hungry; and (2) I've done a lot of painting today, so I am calling it a day before I do something stupid and mistake black primer for the clear coat or something.

Belated update.

Yeah, I was going to post pics yesterday.  Went down to the basement with the camera, turned on the TV for background noise for while I was painting, and yeah. . . .

So, here are the pics.  I have done a little bit of painting since my last pic update.  First up, the least important stuff: my Malifaux crew.  I don't plan on playing many games of Malifaux at AdeptiCon, but I did pay the cost for the league, and want to play at least a few games, to help increase my familiarity with the system.  I have enough for it, so I might as well play.

I had two of the metal gamin and the rail golem painted at the beginning of the month.  Now, the rail crew starter, the rail golem, the metal gamin, and Willie are all painted and based.  Reasonably happy with them, too.

But, on to the Warmachine stuff.  I've been planning on playing Cryx for several months now - I had more painted for it than any other faction, although that is not saying much.  These guys were done (earlier this year, Feb maybe?), but never based.  I had to take care of that, of course.

Full Biles and a Scarlock do not an army make.  I had a couple of chicken jacks done, but I needed more.  So, I painted a few.

That's two slayers, a reaper, a stalker, two ripjaws,a harrower, a leviathan, and deathjack.  That will do, right?


But I need more than that.  I should have some support models and solos as well.

Five scrap thralls, two warwitch sirens, and Mortenebra and her special little friend.  But wait, there's more!  They're not pictured here, but right now, pGaspy, pThags, and a necrotech are basically sitting in their basing materials.  The second nectrotech is almost ready for basing.  Terminus is based, and, while he is not done, he is completed to the 3-color standard required by AdeptiCon.  The Kraken is now at the 3-color standard, but I need to pick up something tonight at the store to finish up his base.

The sticking point is the Revenant crew and Rengrave.  More than half of the revenant crew are almost ready for basing, and would be done to the 3-color minimum.  Rengrave and four of the crew are a little farther back.  With any luck, I will get the crew mostly done tonight.  If I can get them mostly done, tomorrow won't be bad, and I might even get the Withershadow combine based and to 3-color standard.

I do need to carve out some time tomorrow to put arc markings on the bases, but that should take no more than an hour, and it is something I can do while paint dries.  I might even start on that tonight, since I have Blackbanes and some other things that need arc markings.

So, what gone done today?

Short answer, nothing.  I did not finish a single miniature today.

This could be bad.  After all, I have only 8 days, and a few measly hours until AdeptiCon. And, in a previous post, I had 39 figures to finish.  That's almost 5 figures per day, so I'm in trouble, right?

Not entirely.  I have a real problem working on only one miniature at a time.  So, today, I worked on the following:

Terminus
Mortenbra
Deryliss
2 Ripjaws
Harrower
Leviathan
Reaper
x2 Slayers
Deathjack
Kraken

Willie
2 Rail workers
Emberling
Kang

That's almost everything.  It's missing only the undead pirates and the solos, more or less.  Some of the  jacks are almost done - I think one of the slayers needs some minor touch-ups and detail work, and then basing.  The ripjaws are mostly done.  Willie is almost done.  The kraken is almost ready to be placed on its base, which means that I am almost down to detail work on it.

One of these days, I'm going to post a "What got done today?" and it will list a bunch of figs.  And then it will be on to the infantry - but as jacks get cleared off, I will be adding the infantry to the painting queue, so they will start to get finished quickly as well.

(Lack of) progress

Not much has gotten done since Friday.  And by not much, I mean the only thing that has gotten finished is the stalker.  But Mortenebra is primed, and well into base colors.  The base for the Kraken is coming along, and I am almost ready to put it on the base and begin the final detailing on it.  The two crabjacks are also almost ready for basing and final details.  The ripjaws are here, assembled, primed, base colors, and almost done.

With any luck, tomorrow and Wednesday should see a good chunk of figs get actually finished.  I need to get a lot of stuff done, obviously, I'm feeling fairly optimistic at this point, however.

Morning report

The title makes me think that I should sing this or something:

But no, I'll just write it out instead.

Willie and Deryliss have both been primed.  Mortenebra is about 50% assembled - I still need to add the second row of spider legs and her arms.

The depressing thing is that I did a quick model count.  Here is what I really hope to get done before AdeptiCon:

Warmachine

Terminus
Mortenbra
Deryliss
2 Ripjaws
Stalker
Harrower
Leviathan
Reaper
x2 Slayers
Deathjack
Kraken
Rengrave
10 Revenant Crew
2 Warwitch Sirens
2 Necrotech
4 Scrap thralls

ETA - pThagrosh.  He needs painting too.

Malifaux

Willie
2 Rail workers
Mei Fang
Emberling
Kang

I don't think that I am forgetting anything here.  Now, if all of these were bare metal, I would weep with despair, and then look for a source of pep pills. Fortunately, most of these are pretty far along - only a couple of things are bare metal, and most are anywhere from 50-80% done.  I missed my painting challenge for March, but I am pretty sure that I will paint more than 5 points in April.

Anyway, I'll take a pic later (I have to for something else anyway), but I'm off to try and finish assembling that annoying master necrotech.

Progress, part II

No pics, but I just need to do the bases for a metal gamin and a rail crew for Malifaux.  Willie has been mostly assembled, and can be primed tomorrow.  On the Warmachine side, I got a lot of the base colors down on a Leviathan and a Harrower, and some of the Revenant crew.  Deryliss is assembled, and I have started on Morty.  I hope to prime both tomorrow.  If I get them early enough, I should get the Ripjaws assembled and primed as well.

Considering everything else I did today, it wound up being fairly productive, painting-wise.  Hopefully I get some things done tomorrow and Saturday.

Progress

I finished these yesterday.  Yeah, yeah, I know - not the main system that I am playing at AdeptiCon.  My Cryx are advancing, but I don't foresee anything Cryx being finished before Sunday.  (And then hopefully a bunch of things will finish in short order - lots of things are getting close.)

Anyway, these guys are done and based, and a couple of the rail crew are almost done as well.

I'll try to post something finished tomorrow.  Guess that means that I actually have finish something, huh?

Good heavens, but I have been delinquent.

Or something like that.  I haven't posted in quite some time, and there really hasn't been a good reason not to do so.  I have been playing, and losing, but I think my AdeptiCon list is just about locked in.  I may modify it a bit, but I think the main goal now needs to be losing as many games as possible.  Playing, I mean.  Playing as many games as possible.

Painting continues along the front.  I have to report that I am not nearly satisfied with the amount of painting that has been finished, and I only have 4 weeks or so to go.  I can finish, and should do so, but I really may be squeaking in under the wire. 

Fortunately for me, none of the miniature-based Kickstarters that I have backed are likely to deliver to me before AC.  I might see my Reaper Bones stuff come by mid-April, but they are shipping the plain vanilla Vampire-level orders first, and then shipping all of us who added extra things.  I'm fine with the wait; heck, I welcome the extra time.  Otherwise, all those figs will sit there like a big present, waiting for Christmas. . . or for my willpower to falter.  And once those are open, I could lose a days worth of painting.

Thinking of Kickstarters, I teamed up with someone for a pledge for Wild West Exodus.  I may have to up my pledge a little; they added a lawman starter at the 11th hour, and it looks pretty nice.  I don't want this to be another game that sits on my shelf and collects dust; I want to play this one outside of cons.  Too many games, too little time.

Enough for now - I need to go paint base colors on some undead pirates.

Back to painting

So, the demo is done, the table got built, and AdeptiCon is only 50 days away.  (I think it is 51 and some odd-hours, but I'm truncating here.)  And I still have a lot of painting to do.  From a pure numbers stand-point, I am far behind.  I have only one unit and a couple of jacks ready for my Warmachine list possiblities, and only one minion done for Malifaux. 

But at the moment, I remain optimistic, since I have multiple Maifaux and Warmachine models that are actually getting fairly close to being done.  Enough, in fact, that by this time next week, I might jump from having only 14 models done between the two systems to having more than 35 done, with more getting close to the finish.

On the collecting front, I picked up Zerkova over the weekend, which brings the Who's the Boss list a little closer to completion, and the Covenant.

At some point, I will get around to painting the book - and, having seen some kewl ones floating around, I want to paint mine with a firm tongue in cheek as well.  I want something that inspires loathing and not a little fear - perhaps something like this:

Any progress yet?

AdeptiCon is now two days closer.  What have I gotten done so far?  Well, it turns out that not everything for Malifaux was assembled.  I have a Willie the demolitionist model that is still sitting in his box. I need to get him put together.  I have managed a test scheme on two of the metal gamin - I hope to have at least one of them finished later today, and possibly even based, if I can find some base elements that I bought some months ago for another project.

Not much has been done for Warmachine.  I had to strip a bunch of the models, and had to get them and onto their new bases.  It does mean that I will have to buy a new pack or two of blank bases, since I pretty much destroyed the old ones in the process.  They are almost stripped, and I hope to be reassembling and priming them later today or tomorrow, so that I can really get to work on them.

Drew some more concept sketches for the display board as well.  Need to finish my army lists and what not before I actually build too much of it, in order to make it look nice.  Hope to start on it before Christmas though, so I actually have a lot of time.