Project 365 : Day 99 - What's on the table

Just some shots of whats on the table:

Project 365: Day 91 - Kaldor Draigo - Grey Knight WIP

Jeff asked me to paint his Grey Knight character Kaldor Draigo. Seeing as this is a figure I haven't painted before I jumped on the opportunity.

From the message boards that I've visited, a lot of folks prefer to work with plastic rather than metals. Some people had very strong opinions about this and I found it a bit odd. I started out in the hobby working with Privateer Press metals  and aside from the usual bent shafts and pinning I really didn't see a lof of trouble with metals to warrant such a reaction from folks.

I then realized that it may be because these folks were exposed to GW metal figures instead.

The figure itself is very ornate and looks like a fun test of skill, albeit a bit cluttered and busy in parts

As i started cataloging the items I started noticing some of the things I'll have to fix as I go alone. here you'll notice the heavy pitting on the cloth. This will have to be milliput slurried smooth

Heavy pitting on the back cloth as well

A huge tab on the shield that will be very dangerous to cut with a craft knife. I wish I had a jeweler's saw...

Another huge tab. GW must charge for the weight of the metal...

Now this is what really ticked me off. I thought the top of the banner had a very tall decoration but as i looked at it more and compared it with the GW pic I noticed I was staring at another honking tab!

The tab was thicker than the actual part!

Aside from that I also noticed these huge vent spikes all over the fig... I have pictures of them in different places but after literally the 15th one, I decided to give up taking pictures of them. The sad part here is that there are probably a few others I've missed that will show up AFTER I prime the figure

This has to be the worst though. The tip of the sword was miscast. Now I've heard of good things from GW customer service and I could get this replaced but thats just way too much trouble and time on my part. I'm better off filing this thing to shape.

The mess of tabs and vents werent the worst of it though. GW metal is significantly harder than Privateer metals and as a result, drilling was a lot more tedious and carpal tunnel -inducing. I'm normally a careful driller (I still have small drillbits from about 2 years ago) and I snapped 3 of my good drillbits on this fig alone :p. Ick.

I did manage to assemble the sucker and I'll be posting on his progress over the next few days.

Stay tuned.

Project 365: Day 85 - Kaya Rebirth - WIP Part 4

Just a peek at what I've been working on:

Skin is a little bit rough. Thinking a wash should fix that.

Project 365: Day 84 - Miniatures Review Warwitch Deneghra 2010 Metal

Here's the 2010 Metal version of everyone's favorite evil twin sister.

She's poison for your heart

Again, no miscasts, warps and very faint moldlines on the model. Very nice details and good proportion all throughout. Details are tiny but sharp. I haven't glued her to her base yet because she deserves something prettier.

The witchbarbs will prove to be the most fragile parts here like any version of her model. The barbs are on thicker stems this time but pinning them in is still going to be a near impossible task. i guess this is where the plastic model have an advantage

The weapon and the body come in one piece which is interesting but may be a problem as the greater part of the spear shaft is molded with her skirt.

I made her chin tilt a bit downwards for a more aggressive pose

Some sloppy greenstuff work on her witchbarbs. They dont slot into anything and keeping them on using superglue was proving to be difficult. Ill smooth the greenstuff out later

Again, Escalation has the best character portrait of hers so far:

Image property of Privateer Press.

Can anyone tell me who the artist for these pages was? The artwork don't have the artist's signature.

I cant wait to get her painted up.

Project 365: Day 83 - Miniature Review - Kommander Sorscha 2010 Metal

I'm not shy about admitting this. I have a crush on Sorscha. I've always liked her looks and her fluff. I guess I like women that could kill with their looks!

Out of all the artwork out there, her Escalation rendition is my favorite:

Image owned by Privateer Press

 It was a real shame though that for the longest time, Sorscha didn't have a mini that did her any justice. Her earlier figs had a very mannish look to them and it was difficult to make her look pretty. Add that to my abysmal painting skills and, well...you get the idea.

I traded in my Khador army for cash and never regretted the decision. I do however still like the character very much. Imagine my glee when I spotted the Kommander Sorscha resculpt in the MKII Prime book.

I later found out that the model would be plastic and would be part of the new plastic battle boxes. I promised myself I'd get the box when I had money to spare just to get the new hotness.

Imagine my glee again when I found out that Privateer Press is offering the metal version as an exclusive!

Imagine my glee once more when I finally got her. Thanks SJ!

Pinned and assembled. She was simply slotted to the base as I have plans to put her on something more epic.

It really is a pretty fig. Sorscha finally has a pretty-faced figure to match her depictions and the mini itself was cast very cleanly with some very faint mold lines. Details are crisp and no warps on this fig. Assembling required pinning for both arms but shouldnt be a problem for experienced modellers. you can also opt to do the greenstuff/superglue combo.

Can't wait to paint her up.

Project 365: Day 32 - Painting Miniatures - Spacewolves WIP

Getting some painting commitments out of the way and getting a blog post to boot. Sweet!

Here are some of Felix's Spacewolves after their initial drybrushing and basecoats on black primer. This is strictly tabeltop so no fancy tricks just some good old fashioned elbow grease.

" In hindsight", Baldir said;"'Cutting your hair with a chainsword was a bad idea..."

When painting whole squads of figures I usually try to do them assembly line style. I start with drybrushing the metals down, in this case the golds (P3 Rhulic Gold) and the iron (Mix of P3 Radiant Platinum and Thamar Black). I also drybrushed the resin bases with a progression of Citadel Bestial Brown, Citadel Bubonic Brown and P3 Ryn Flesh.

With the messy drybrushing done I then worked on the basecoats. The heads were done with straight GW Bestial Brown and since I was working on "new school" 'wolves the power armor was done with GW Shadow Grey.

You'll notice I dont try to cover every nook and cranny on the model. This serves several purposes. First, its a shortcut so I get to paint a lot of figs in a short time. Second, if you prime black and you pick your strokes strategically youll be able to outline between armor panels and give some starting shadows just by not painting over the primer.

I keep in mind that when aiming for tabletop quality that youll be seeing the figures 3 feet away from you at an angle, so missing the undersides and corners wont really matter. I just remember to neaten up places that will be seen and be prominent.

For the folks who are Painting Obsessive-compulsives, this may seem like a grave sin but it works for me and my client.

Now he looks like a dwarf slayer!

By the way, since a lot of the heads were identical I decided to sculpt some additional features on them like beardy here. Generally, I cant sculpt a damn but fur and hair is doable for me. I added the greenstuff before i primed.

All in all it took me about 2 hours to get 10 marines from primer to this point. I should be able to wrap them up in a couple more days with some more basecoats and some simple highlights so stay tuned :)

Project 365: Day 28 - Friday Night at the Bunker - WM/H Tournament

Surprisingly I was able to wake up and make it to the Friday Tournament at the Bunker.

This is the second Warmachine/Hordes event held at Oberon's Bunker at E.Rodriguez and there was a good turnout of players :) some folks were late and had to take a bye but we had enough warm bodies to start.

We shared the space with the Warhammer crowd and the place was really lively. The games went underway and while unfortunately I wasnt able to get a lot of pics as I was playing, I'm proud to say I made a good showing in the tournament itself.

Before the start of the tourney, we were kidding around and Wolf predicted SJ would win using his Magic 8 ball app in his iPhone.

I first went up against resident Pressganger Dan. Glad to see him participating in games again :)

Circle Orboros vs Legion of Everwhite...err Everblight.

The power failed for a few minutes during our match and we went on regardless. Dan would declare that he "rolled sixes" in the darkness.

Second match was with Jeff  and his eHaley army.

He was playing fully painted with a very pretty Cygnar army

Jockeying for position. The swampgobbers earned their keep here as they kept the Defender from being effective.

The game ended with a knockdowned eHaley within Kromac's threat range.

I went up against SJ in the finals. Trolls vs Circle. I regret not being able to take pics for this last part but im sure Kim has some. It was a laugh-a-minute game as SJ knew I had to leave for work after the tourney so he was "stalling". The game with SJ was odd as we both knew that it would come down to killpoints at the very end. I was able to kill his Axer for 6 points but Refuge on Mulg denied me a big meaty target to kill. Dice-down was declared and SJ's last roll killed a Feral for 9 points.

SJ won the tourney just like Wolf's iPhone Magic 8 ball predicted.

Who wouldve thought?

Anyway the day was fun with good folks and good games and not a lot of stress, just as a night of gaming should be. I'd like to thank Kim for being the Tournament Officer and Oberon for letting us use the venue and setting up the tourney date. Oberon even sprung for food and drinks for everyone, WM/H and Warhammer player alike.

To cap it off here are some of the other pics i managed to take:

Arvin Tan. I was anticipating that he would join and I actually meta'd to account for his armor heavy Butcher list. He didnt make it on time. lol

Dan and Pat Palma

Wolf and Scrivener facing off

Wolf's LOE facing a wave of angry Menites. Dice down was called and Wolf was down to his caster Absylonia, with all beasts biting the dust.

New guy with a Skorne army. Haven't played against him before.

New guy's Skorne vs SJ's trolls.

Project 365: Day 25 - Battle Report: First games of the year

5This past Sunday i was able to finally lay down some metal and chuck some dice with the guys at Fortress. It has been weeks since my last game and I wanted to see how rusty I've gotten. And there was rust, and much squeaking.

First game was against Wolf. We planned this rematch in advance, using the exact same list we had from our last Unstoppable Match.

Bakerofish (Circle Orboros - Kromac) vs Wolf (Legion of Everblight - Epic Thagrosh) @ 35 points.
Scenario: Incursion SR11

Now this battle was tense. We both had beast heavy armies with some support units. We also both had movement tricks (EThag's feat and Warpath for Kromac) and we both relied on hard hitting beasts for our offense.

Wolf's advantage was EThag's nasty feat (beasts get to make a full movement and make one free attack) and he had more warm bodies to throw at me. He had lesser and light warbeasts that move fast and hit hard. He also had Typhon and he was fixing to rectify his past mistake of not taking advantage of sprays. What I had going for me was a pretty good threat radius, a model that counterslams (Gnarlhorn) and the Warpwolf Triumverate.

The first turn was jockeying for position. By turn 2 and the scenario finally triggering we both made our moves. I took the gamble of putting my Feral down the middle and the other two wolves flanking. Gnarlhorn was on bodyguard duty making sure to always put a counterslam threat around my caster. I had to give him several threats now as I was wary of his feat. My initial plan was to make him commit to the middle of the table where Kromac can get an assassination run on the surprisinly squishy Thaggy. Wolf plays aggressive and I was counting on him not having any fury on Thaggy by the time he was done. I kept some fury on myself as I was gonna get hit by his feat next turn.

I took a beating on Wolf's turn, most of my beasts were wounded pretty bad and Wolf was able to get a Scythean, a shredder and a Theraph(Raek actually...-Wolf) to Kromac on his feat turn. EJ (one of the locals who was providing color commentary during the game) declared me dead. I had to agree. But then one of the things that me love this game happened.

Lady luck has the sweetest smile.

By rights I should've lost by that point but Kromac's defense 15(!), camped fury and incredible luck pulled me through. The Scythean WHIFFED!!! I couldnt believe it.

(edit: Wolf says the Scythean missed the gnarlhorn in front of Kromac. The Shredder that followed was the one that failed to hit. And he also shouldve made attacks with Raek)

I almost botched my kill turn as I totally didnt see one of his support models blocking my Gnarlhorn's lane to Thaggy. I also couldnt get an assassin run on Thaggy as he was too far away. Switching gears I then healed up my Pureblood and warped for Ghostly, charging towards Thagrosh to end him.

Close game. Good game. I was damn lucky.

Bakerofish (Circle Orboros - Kromac) vs aerolb(Cygnar - Prime Caine) @ 35 points.
Scenario: Incursion SR11

This is the game where Karma catches up to me.

Aerol had a shooty list with some longgunners, a hunter, a lancer and a centurion. He also had the Black 13th in the flank which I hate with a passion.

Since this was the scond game of the day it kinda was a blur to me. I remember being in a good position for most of the game ( I remember being cocky and actually saying "If you dont kill me now, youll die next turn...remember what I said about karma?) and Aerol's plan to slam my gnarlhorn  to knock me down failed pretty badly.

What happened over the next few turns was Aerol taking advantage of that complacency and me mismanaging my damage. Defense 15 didnt save me this time. The only beast I left open for transfers was killed by the centurion (damn piston spear) and I ended up eating a lot of shots. Embarassingly enough I actually lost to a Caine potshot :p.

This game, it wasnt luck (or lack thereof ) that did me in. I mismanaged and Aerol took advantage of that. He took out the advantages I had, he struggled but he was able to pull it off in the end. Another aspect of this game I love, even if I didnt win.

I dont think I've ever won against this guy.

Can't wait to get some more games in :)

To end this post, some pics of the denizens of Fortress:

Pantyman Fred! Store Overseer

Kim! I need to make a feature about this guy soon

I wasnt able to take a pic of EJ so I'll take care of that next time :)

Project 365: Day 21 - Miniatures - Ghetto Lightbox!

I've been working on getting better pictures lately. Since I don't have any means of securing a better camera for now, what I can do is to try and improve the lighting conditions when I take pictures

My ghetto lightbox made of a pilfered toybox (sorry Migs) and my desklamp plus another lamp. It was a bare bulb that i put a cardboard tube collar on. I therefore conclude I need a bigger box and some gradient backdrops

Project 365: Day 20 - He lives!

The Axer! It swings again! plus other pics

One angry fella...

... with his pal in the bag

Circle Orboros Stonekeeper with glowy rock

one of my earlier pieces, pKreuger! I'm debating on whether I repaint him or not...

Project 365: Day 17 - Tragedy!

:(

I was fiddling around with my photo setup when I turned around and heard a sickening crunch.

I promptly turned around and felt my foot hit something, sending an errant object clattering to a far corner of my work area

Twas my Trollblood Axer ...

Repair and repainting currently underway.

note: This was supposed to be yesterdays entry but the internet was down :P

Project 365: Day 16 - Painting Miniatures - Forces of Nature

I finally found the charger for the digicam! Win!

I still suck at taking pictures with it! Fail!

But to celebrate, here are pics of   the painted Megalith and Mulg the Ancient:

Mulg the Ancient aka Mulg "who is a bitch to highlight"

Megalith: The angle is making him look like he's leaning way too far back than he actually is. This was a concern as I when I was making him I thought he would be too top heavy but he turned out to be pretty well balanced.

In the last blog I lamented how I wasnt able to take pics of Megalith's branches. Here's a good view and it should give you an idea of how I sculpted and attached the branches.

 The photos are making the green look more "green". The greens are supposed to transition to a yellow for a semi glwy effect but the pictures just aint capturing that.


Ah well.

Thanks for looking.