Zen and the Art of Highlights/Shading Part III

Okay...I will keep this brief...and I must reiterate that uploading zoomed in pictures at 10 Megapixels is not forgiving at all. Case in point was the Skarlock post...when first uploaded Segrig thought that the paintjob was not so great but then when he saw it in real life it was actually better than he expected.

So...instead of put in many posts on every aspect of shading this little beastie I spent some time this afternoon and did the rest of the shading portion to the best of my ability. I think it has turned out really well for my first time and is starting to look really good in comparison to all my previous models.

A couple of points that I discovered, it is a lot easier to apply shading to light colors because it shows up really well. The challenge becomes blending the darker shade back in. On the flip side...shading a dark color is harder because you really have to get a shade that is dark enough to show, on the other hand it blends back in a lot easier...those are my thoughts at this point anyway.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is my first attempt and that people have been painting these models for years and still work at perfecting this aspect of their painting...

So without further discussion...here is my little Bile Thrall all grown up er I mean shaded...highlighting will probably begin this week.

Zen and the Art of Highlights/Shading Part II

Okay...so I did the original shading before supper...then everyone went to bed...I got bored and thought "Let's take a stab at Step 2 of the process".

What is step 2 you might ask? Well, if you remember from the previous post, when doing the shading we were only roughing in the dark spots so it looked nice but sort of clunky. The next step, according to the fine individual from the Painting Clinic, is to make a glaze (watered down paint essentially) that is the same as your base coat and then smooth in the shading to the base coat while at the same time sharpening the spots that you want shaded.

So I tried it...I haven't looked at the pics for comparison but on this picture I have tried to blend in the dark green body shading and the bone shading....the desired effect is that these look more seamless against the base coat and end up being the final definition of what will be shaded...without further adieu...I will post the new picture...because of blog space constraints I am only publishing the updated pic or else I would post all 3 for easy comparisons...if this feels cheap to you please feel free to click the "Complaint Box" link on the left side of the blog and let me know...if I get enough complaints I will post them all again in this post.












Well I just compared the pics and I can see a difference...however I might be a little biased...anyhoo...next post will be Part III where we start to add the first layer of highlighting to contrast against our shading...I'm so excited and disappointed at being a nerd at the same time...lol.

Happy Gaming Everyone!!!

Zen and the Art of Highlights/Shading

Well I know it has been a long time since I posted anything to this discussion. I have been busy with Warmachine...painting like a bandit, squeeking in the odd game here and there and I even built some terrain.

I bought an asswhack load of new models...so much so that I cannot, in good conscience, buy anymore until I have completed what I have now. The reason I bought so many was because my local gaming shop had a fantastic birthday sale that I just could not say No to...even though my wife was screaming it in the background! Another story for another day...

However...getting to the point of this post: I finally opened the Bile Thrall Box Set that I purchased oh so long ago...I was staying away from it because it is a multi-character unit that meant a major commitment to painting that I wasn't sure I was up to....but I bit the bullet and charged on. Much to my surprise (I guess it shouldn't have been much of a surprise in hindsight) because the Bile Thralls do not where clothes (I was going to insert a "per se" at this point but looking at the models it is much more of an "at all"). Literally they are nude zombies with guns...I digress...because  they don't wear clothes, when I opened the box I discovered little bare asses hanging out all over the place!!! This threw me for a loop...I had studied the box and it showed some excellently painted models from the front only...so I thought "How the hell do I paint these asses!?!".

Coming to the point of this post shortly...so I did what every good geek nerd battle doll player does...I did a Google image search on "Bile Thralls" to see how everyone else painted their asses..wow the segways that are possible here!  I will try to stay on point....in my search I found a particularly well painted set of Bile Thralls...and even better...a guy who has been painting miniatures for over a decade that had built a website dedicate to sharing his tips, tricks and techniques for great painting!!! What a fantastic find!!!

Without delaying any further...here is the link to his site: http://www.paintingclinic.com/MainClinic.dwt.htm

This site contains a wealth of information with step by step instructions on how to take your painting to "a whole nother level"...it is well work checking out, bookmarking and going back to over and over again. I was particularly impressed by his article on Highlighting and Shading. I certainly would not do it justice so I won't try to explain it here but recommend you read it for yourself.

I do need to summarize a little bit however because the next series of posts will be about my first attempt to implement the techniques he describes in that article on my hapless little Bile Thralls. The good thing is that I have 2 identical units...1 I will highlight and shade, the other will be used for comparison.

So here we go.....

The first step is  to base coat your model and get it painted well....this I did. The next step is too apply the shading (when you read the article you will see that this is rough shading and will be refined in the highlighting phase of the model.) The goal is to take your base coat color and darken it by several degrees (I will leave it at that because more detail is in the article) and then thin it out so that you don't really have a paint but a glaze. A glaze is much like paint but it is semi-transparent meaning you don't completely replace the base coat and you won't get that hard edge between colors that you would if  you were to simply apply a darker color paint.

So without further delay...read the article and check out my models below...I think the one is turning out well and hopefully with subsequent posts we will see it transform into an above average final product...I know...way to set the bar high...but hey mediocrity is still a goal isn't it??? Oh and BTW...I hate uploading  these pictures at 10 MegaPixels because every little mistake looks like a nuclear disaster but what the hell I am still learning.

fresh blood.

look at the blood that was spilled when i played a 400 point battle vs pete! no, its not a zit. i bent down to check line of sight from my gun mage captain and i got speared by a pointy ass pine tree he was standing near! owww!!!

we managed to play out 2 400 point games and im starting to feel more comfortable with my warcasters, especially siege. i can understand some of his little tricks a little better and have managed to pull them out a couple times. doing this has made me understand a little bit more about stryker and how i could perhaps use him better.

i have a shit ton of painting to do. should i post more pics of stuff as a get it done? perhaps when i get some work done on my TOP SECRET and MYSTERIOUS models?
should i look to make a battle report/ game analysis post?

we have one subscriber, perhaps that gourmand has a preference? (this is a test, to see if youre reading! HA!)

350 mangled metal

so as Xev already knows i took part in a 350pt warmachine mangled metal tounament yesterday. its was good, simple, one warcaster and as many warbeasts/warjacks as you can fit into 350pts.

however,

i got owned in the face.

well not completely, but basically. there were a couple of matches that were really close, but i ultimately lost them. i think that my problems all boil down to one thing: experience.
1) i was/am not familiar with many armies and faced only armies ive never faced before. this includes hordes forces, and the whole focus mechanic from hordes is unfamiliar to me....whatever i knew that would happen, thats cool.
2) my first reflection of my gameplay made me think i hadnt come with an optimal list, but now that i think about it a little bit more i think that i could have done some things differently and played what i had a little better. this is again an experience thing.

after all is said and done i feel a little exhausted from warmachine, but ill get back up on my horse soon enough. maybe even tomorrow with pete.

im not going to proof read this post, so fuck all yall.

i just ate 2 fantastic grilled cheeses

and during my little lunch break from painting im going to post some sweet info for those interested. (i told pete to check it)

new rules for warmachine. i think they are technically supposed to be going into effect in january (i think), however hordes mkii rules arent going to be ready at the same time..so who knows when/what is going to happen. for the time being the new rules are in pdf format and they are free. ill take it.

http://privateerpress.com/company/mkii-rules-and-model-info-available-for-pdf-download

forceplanner. ive tried a couple different programs that all seem to do the exact same thing. this one requires no download and is free.

http://www.forceplanner.com/warmachine.html

enjoy!

just a little bit

i find that when i have a new model to paint, especially when its a model that i have had on my list of things to do for a while, that i am hesitant to start it. not because i dont want to, but because it can feel a little overwhelming. not as though im gonna have a panic attack, but that i feel like it is going to be so much work that i want to put it off.

this happened to me today and i just decided i would paint a little bit before i went to work. just a little...i painted the pants of one of my solos. chippin away at it you know? ill probably be putting finishing highlights on it before i know it!

also,

i put an advert on craigslist like a month ago in the wanted section saying that i wanted warmachine models, preferrably cygnar. lo' and behold i got a couple responses and ive picked up a bunch of stuff for wicked cheap. buddy bought this stuff that he never got around to painting/using and just wanted to get rid of it, and i raked it in for about 45-50% of retail price! its a deal, its a steal, its the sale fo the fucken century!

in other news,

i went to a games store that hosts game nights for all sorts of games, magic the gathering, warhammer, et cetera, and WARMACHINE AND HORDES! it was the warmachine game night and i saw a bunch of action. i did bring my battlegroup, but i didnt play any games. i was more interested in observing the play (seeing if ive been doing things right) and observing the players. although my crack team of scientists are still crunching the numbers, carrying the remainders and whatnot, im pretty sure that i will go back.

and then...

sweet pete and i also played a game together the other night and he seems to be pleased with the gameplay. so much so that he has buckled down and tackled the painting of his heavy 'jack, which he thinks will be completed in the next couple of days!

more updates to come!

rock 'em sock 'em robots

hello again. i was just basing one of my models and i thought "hey, i'll make a blog entry about it!".

when you put a lot of time into painting your models, you do so because you want them to look good. but how would your house look if you painted the walls really nicely but left the floors dirty, plain, or even with old paint on them? would it take away from the walls? surely. MINIATURE MODELS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS A HOUSE.

so here you go, this is how i make nice simple bases for my models.
(keep in mind that this is just how I do it, and there are surely several other different ways.)

1) complete the painting of your model, including ink washes. MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS TOTALLY DRY! i learned the hard way that sand will stick to wet ink.

2) using an old brush paint the base with glue. if you want rocks or skulls or whatever do those first and let them dry in place, then put the rest of the glue on. try your best not to get any glue on anybodies feet or shoes, including your own i suppose.

3) sprinkle on your sand. i got mine from the beach. you could find yours beside the curb, buy it, grind up rocks....i dont care. dump off all the excess and let it dry completely. once again i learned this the hard way. if its not dry completely and you screw with it you will make bare patches in the sand. if you do this, you can just fix it in step 5.

4) my sand is really lightly colored so i just add an ink wash to it to color it and darken it up. gryphone sepia is nice and light and still looks like your minis are at the beach, and devlan mud is dark enough to like earth dirt. i use a mix of the two and water it down. once again...let this dry.
also....if i were going to go with painting and drybrushing to achieve specific colors i would do that in this step. (i cant argue with my minis...they like to fight on the beach.)

5) apply glue just like you did in step 2 to areas you want to have grass on. i use "static grass". sometimes i dry brush the grass to lighten or darken it up. you can use whatever you like for grass...flock, old brush bristles to create patches of long dead grass, et cetera.

6) paint black on the outer rim (for warmachine models) to clean up. done.

Skarlock the Mamlock...

Yeah...X-Men reference...raising my nerd quotient even higher...lol! That's okay if you're a gamer and a comic book fan you're bound to have a nerd quotient of some kind...and who really gives a fuck!?! I love it....

As I reference in my last post, the painting is getting easier...I started my Skarlock today, it was really hard to pick out the color pallet but once I did it was all steam ahead.

Now he isn't finished yet but.....that's okay, he's painted enough that I could use him in a game and I think the detail on this model is as good or better then Denegrah...the difference is that it took me less than a day to get to were he is now...so practice makes perfect and that makes the game better.

Quick recap...I was crapping my pants about a month ago trying to figure out how I was going to finish my Helljack...nevermind my entire battle group! Now I say bring it on! I am having fun and getting really creative with my shadows and highlights...and that is before I have done the inkwashes....

Here is my Skarlock that I started this afternoon...I hope the picture does it justice because I absolutely love it!

My next post will be about the Khador battle group...I bought it for my 10 year old son, he has managed to maintain a high level of interest and engagement in the whole Warmachine game and the painting/building of the models....he is doing a really good job, for a 10 year old, and is about half done his first Khador Jack...awww what the hell...here are the pictures of that as well!

Happy gaming everyone!!!

Enter the Warwitch...

So I finally finished my battlegroup..YEAH!!! SWEET!!!

Actually I finished the last of the models 2 days ago but have been generally lazy about updating the blog. I have to say that the painting is getting a lot easier! Once you get a good feel for the range of the brush and develop the patience to do the details properly it doesn't take long to do an "adequate" job...to do the little extras that make you model look awesome do take longer but hey...not necessary right??

Anyway...I would like to post my finished Denegrah, I think she turned out well and to back up my claim I spent an entire day (on and off) painting and adjusting little details!

Without further ado...enter the Warwitch and her battle group....

A Jack of Hell Trades...Part II

Hi all...

I know that it has been a while since the blog has been updated. Just to bring everyone up to speed Segrig and I went up to Uncle Wilbur's cottage for a 4 day getaway...to say that we overdid it would be an understatement. Having said that...we had a great time, lots of swimming in the lake and more importantly lots of GAMING!!!!

We finally got a chance to play Warmachine...I have to say I had model envy. Segrig had all his models built and painted while I only had 3 of 5 models completed. That, however, did not stop us from giving it a go!! I have to say I enjoyed playing the game a lot more than I thought I would!!! It is the perfect blend of magic, melee and strategy!

We also played liar's dice, poker and Settler's of Catan..just for fun we debated the definition of the word Fact for an entire afternoon while the rest of the cottage slept!

Getting back to the point of this post...I have finally finished my Helljack...yes the 12 piece monstrosity that I have talked about in previous posts! It was very satisfying to get it done and as my 10 year old son says..."its much more intimidating than a rock!"...the pictures will explain.

As for Warmachine, I would like to say that it is an awesome game and we, Segrig and I, will post more info as we play more often. For now take a look at the ghetto setup we had, the rock reference, and how the Helljack looks now!

Just to leave you with a question/thought...to maintain an upkeep spell does the initial target have to be within the command area? This came up because I cast an upkeep spell through my bonejack, arcnode, and then the bonejack got crushed...can I still pay the upkeep to keep the spell active?? Stay tuned for the answer or post a response!!

Happy Gaming Everyone!!

PS: I hate myself because I find the Party in the USA song catchy!!! In my own defense I have twin girls that are 5 years old that listen to the song all the time! but that is not an excuse...I deserve a punch in the balls, I just cant do it myself lol...it's a party in the USA!!!!

A Jack of Hell Trades...

Well I know I have been a little remiss in getting updates posted...

As I had previously posted I was going to Utah to do a presentation...well due to a colossal fuck up of weather in Chicago and lack of flights to Salt Lake City I ended up sitting in the Buffalo airport for 6 hours and then going home...no trip to Utah. In the end it did not bother me that much because I don't like flying. So...I did my presentation over the phone which was really weird because I like doing presentations and that personal touch was missing.

In any event, I put my new found time at home to good use and worked on my Helljack...although not complete I am really happy about how it is turning out. I bought a new brush specifically recommended to me for Dry Brushing and let me tell ya...its great. On top of it I am becoming more comfortable with that teeny tiny little detail brush...anyway...here are some pics!!





I also have purchased some ink washes but I have learned my lessons...

1. get all the base coats done.
   
2. Then do the highlighting and color adjustments.
   
3. Then fix all the little mistakes you made in step 2
4. Then review the whole thing very very very thoroughly
5. Then ink wash
6. Then clear coat

As Segrig pointed out I am still a "newbie" to this whole model thing but that is the point isn't it...I share my mistakes and lessons learned so other generations of newbies can learn from it.

As Segrig has mentioned we are off to Wilbur's cottage tomorrow and for the weekend...gonna be a couple of days of rain YAY!! that means lots of board games and my wife cannot tell me to go outside and play with the kids...hahahaha sucker!

Will post pics and game reviews when we get back

Happy gaming everyone!!!

just as an update....

we leave for our little vacation tomorrow, and everyone involved is very excited. theweathernetwork.ca is predicting some rain, but that is all the more reason to play board games! (even though that wont keep us out of the lake anyways...) we are going to leave really early to maximize our time. hopefully it is not SO early that Xevs wont be able to read over the warmachine rulebook in my car. im not super familiar with the rules and we will hopefully be able to make a post about the learning process and how easy/difficult the game is to learn/play.

AND WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY:

i would like to announce that i managed to complete my own challenge: completed painting of my battlebox. (cygnar for life.)





i know Xevs was unable to do so, and i totally understand. afterall he has a lot more distractions at home and i have been off work for a week. i figured that if i was willing to issue the challenge i should put my money where my mouth is. it also kept me motivated to finish. (as my was original intention of the challenge and starting a blog) i'm also hoping that seeing my finished models will give Xevious a little motivation as well.

anyways,

wish us luck!

game summary

so my buddy pete came over the other day and we played a quick 500pt game of warhammer 40k. i played eldar and pete used tau.

Setup
pete won first turn and setup on the hill with his fire warriors and crisis suit behind. i placed my guardians in the trenches with the scatter laser platform wide right in hopes it could take 36" pot shots around the rocks at the hill. i put my farseer and jetbikes behind the armour of the wave serpent. even though the wave serpent is the softest and cheapest tank in my arsenal i felt kind of guilty fitting it in there since petes HQ the crisis suit was the only model that could damage it. after i placed everything pete used the infiltrator rule to sneak his stealth suits in behind the rock. both the stealth suits and the crisis suit have jump packs enabling them to move 6" in the assault phase, so it was pretty clear pete was planning on jumping in and out from behind the rock to pester me.

game on.
oddly enough i decided to try to steal the initiative and won, by rolling a 6 and stealing first turn....there is a first for everything. after the buzz of winning that wore off i realized that i had deployed in a great position and first turn wouldnt really net me anything special. (unlike the last game we played, pete stole the initiative and wiped my two best and most expensive units off the board and i had no hope of recovering...) so i advanced a little bit with everything, still hiding the bikes behind the serpent, strung my guardians out a little further and took 8 shots between the two scatter lasers killing 3 or 4 fire warriors.
pete retaliated by moving his fire warriors to the front of the hill, jumping the stealth suits out and back, and doing the same with the crisis suit. the damage however was minor with one dead jetbike and the crew of the wave serpent shaken up and unable to shoot next turn...which could have been much worse.


Turn 2
with the crew shaken i decided it best to just back up to the edge and stay out of range. the farseer and jetbikes zoomed as close as they could to try to pop the stealth suits and the guardians stayed put. only two of the bikes could see enough of the stealth suits to shoot but managed to kill one. they moved in the assault phase to behind the rock as i was pretty sure i couldnt get them into combat. the guardians were unable to see the same squad but took out 1 or 2 from the other.
pete still struggling to get the fire warriors into range kept moving them forward. i cant remember if it was them or the crisis suit that killed a guardian. the stealth suits, jumped out and plugged another jetbike. knowing they would be assaulted next turn, they charged....and lost, but only by one and remained locked in combat.


Turn 3
not wanting to risk anything, i had the guardians run up to join the combat. a couple more fire warriors dropped with the rest running for their lives under the hail of wave serpent starcannon fire. the stealth suits crumpled, with my bikes and guardians rallying behind the cover of the rock.
with all my troops out of range or out of sight, pete essentially did nothing but watch his fleeing warriors run off the table.


Turn 4
on this turn you can see my girlfriends skull slipper signalling the end for pete. i pelted the last of the remaining fire warriors and left myself in good position to make a run at the crisis suit. pete scooped knowing he would be unable to survive and wanted the crisis suit to return any and all data of this loss to the mothership for future calculations.

In the end i think the tsn turning point was being able to gang up on the stealth suits. pete sort of left them out for the dogs and they got beat down, leaving me in a great position with minimal casualties. that and the fact that i brought a tank.....haha
all in all it was a good game and one of my few victories against that wiley greek bastard.

until next time.

Painting Update

Well...I am just about done the 3rd Bonejack...I know I said that before but this time I really mean it.

I finished painting what I can only describe as the "penis gun" (forthcoming picture and post will explain) this evening...looked at and enhanced my highlighting on the legs. Finally I did all the correctional work to make everything look good!

To summarize the damn thing is done...I have decided to wait until the light of day to examine the paint job and begin the clear coating.

I do this...***and note to model newbies*** because there have been a couple of times when I put the clear coat on too quick and realized that there were "a coupla little things" that I would have liked to fix...so the lesson tonight is....finish the painting and highlighting and then give it a day to re-examine before putting the protective coating on...it is worth it.

Well that is it for tonight...nothing really exciting but progress nonetheless....Happy gaming everyone!

Challenge regretfully declined....

GAH......I hate it when work interferes with play time!!!

I had hoped to be done my battle group by the time the Wilbur's cottage vacation rolled around...alas that is not to be the case. By way of explanation...I have been working on an hour long presentation that describes my work growth strategy over the next 3 years...sucky boring crap....I am flying out to Utah on Monday and returning Wednesday night...we are at the cottage Thursday evening....so that leaves me 5 days to paint and put together ..... the MOST COMPLICATED model I have ever seen...12 freaking pieces????? honestly?!? Really, really?!?!

That would be my Helljack....ahhhhhh....well sorry to disappoint but the Warmachine premier will be delayed. However....

We will be sure to document out other gaming expeditions...Memoir for sure (probably the best 2 player game ever created) and Settlers of Catan...maybe even a game of Empire Builder.

Looking forward to it....


PS...I am almost done my 3rd Bonejack...I really need to get some pictures done!

Happy gaming everyone!!!

forward progress.

today i managed to find an old digital camera to start taking pics and documenting some of the stuff i (we) get up to. ...and when i say "i found", i mean i delegated my girlfriend to do it. and the charger. :)

AND THEN.....

i made a little bit of progress on my heavy warjack the Ironclad. im just gonna keep chipping away at him. i believe i will use the aforementioned camera to document some of that process.

IN OTHER NEWS:

our long awaited trip up north to our good friend Wilbur's cottage with the whole cast and crew is quickly approaching. at this time i would like to make formal and public information of my challenge to Xevious:

The completed painting of our Warmachine battlebox models for our first battle royale.

we are going to try to smash out a couple of games up north and i am really looking forward to it. having nicely painted models will make it that much sweeter. it will also make our first attempt of documenting a game of warmachine look nice.

i would imagine that everyone at the camp will play several other games aswell. we can do some entries with that as well. a little variety to our posts? not bad!
could be some memoir 44, perhaps settlers of catan, maybe even citadels! who knows?!
im also looking forward to making an entry about liar's dice, a great game that only requires 5 dice and a box of lies.

later.

Breakthrough!

After many hours I have completed the body of my next model....used a lot of color and highlighting.

I think it looks really good...I guess the tale of the tape will be in the morning.


Will post pics of my first attempts and my current model tomorrow...

All of this for a miniature model war game...love it!!!!!

here i am!

lets all welcome me, segrig, to the best destination for gaming!

i feel there are a couple of issues with that statement.
1) "lets all" -> this assumes anyone will ever read this other than Xevs and i.
2) when did we become the best?

as youve probably already surmised this blog and my first post are to be self fulfilling prophecies.

now just sit back and watch the magic happen.....

ps: im just here to meet chicks.

Update: Model Envy

Well in the light of morning, those 2 panels did not look so good! I was really trying but it did not work out so well.

So today instead of working...I spent some time covering over the work I had done last night. THEN...I took another try at the highlighting portion of the painting.

I have to say that today it worked out a lot better than last night...it isn't perfect mind you...but it looks a lot better overall.

Pictures forthcoming...

Model Envy!

Went to the tattoo shop today which is in Toronto....My brother asked me to bring down the models I had recently completed (yes...I know there are some gaps in the posts...will try to rectify) and so I did.

I was, and still am, pretty proud of the way the first 2 turned out...however when my brother arrived and whipped out the 2 he had completed....let's just say mine looked sorta crappy!!! Not horrible mind you...

Anyhoo...the challenge is on...I spent an hour tonight working on just 2 panels on my latest little model...I need to work on my colour mixing and shading/highlighting.

Gah...so competitive...can't wait to field test these babies!! That will be one heck of a post...

PS: I have been really happy with my tattoo artist for some years now! He has his own shop that has been open in downtown Toronto for almost 2 years now. The name of the place is Imperial Tattoos (http://www.imperialtattoos.com/) located on Ossington just North of Queen in Toronto, so if you are considering getting a tattoo and want the best quality.... go and see anyone of the guys at this place...very friendly and a talented bunch of artists!

Some small success....

Well I ordered a bunch of miniature models from a local distributor. There was a sale taking place and I was able to bypass the shipping charge by doing a local pickup. SWEET!!!! So of course I bought much more than was required...I now love miniature gaming models right?!?!

So I went and got my new models...what the f$@#$ these are the smallest most complicated little things I have ever seen in my life. WOW...I looked at them all and then put them on my desk to sit while I pondered how I would ever get my money back!

I came to the conclusion that I was not going to get my money back so I set about researching just how exactly to paint these so this little investment would not look like a piece of crap! As a side note, this is why I like Collectible Card games...no painting and the good cards just go up in value and all you have to do is put them in a sleeve :)

Getting back to those intricate little beasties that are my new models...I dragged my wife all over the place to get some accessories that I thought would be necessary...of all the stuff that I bought I would highly recommend the following:

• A weighted set of alligator clip hands (Purchased at Source by Circuit City for $16.99 CAD)
  
• A plastic mixing tray of some sort (Purchased at Michaels for $0.99 CAD)
• A very good quality set of paint brushes, including the smallest one you can find...even if you think it is too small it is probably not in the long run. (I actually got my brushes as a promo item from the distributor that I purchased from and it turns out they are some of the best quality you can buy. I forget the name but look for white tip on the end of the brush and white tip on the end of the brush handle)
  
• A good art knife to trim some of the casting imperfections off the model.
  
• A set of files to even out the imperfections and file down the lug that forms the base of the model itself. (I bought a set at my local Home Depot for $3.98 CAD)
• A good super glue. (I bought the loc-tite super glue at Home Depot for about $10 CAD...I have used it before and it rocks...just DO NOT get your fingers glued together!!!! You think I am kidding but I am really not...
• Finally get a Latex Varathane...it doesn't tell you to do that in the instructions but if you are going to devote enough time to work on these little models than why not get a coating on them that will make them look great and protect the paint job??? Seems like common sense to me....

Well that is it for today...I will say that I am very pleased with how the first 2 Models turned out. I will post a description of painting them along with some pics on the next post.

Stay tuned....

Here we go....

So my brother finally convinced me to get into a game that uses miniature models. He has been playing Warhammer for a while now and invited me over to play with him and a friend. I have to say it was a lot more fun than I anticipated...but I didn't feel like spending the hundreds upon hundreds of dollars it would take to build an army that would be competitive with the rest of them.

Flash forward a bit and he has discovered Warmachine. It is like Warhammer but has some different elements to it (which I will be discussing in other posts) however the nice thing for me is that none of us own any models yet. So the 3 of us decided to give it a go....

This is my first experience with building and painting these gaming models and so I thought it would be kinda neat to blog about it...at the same time we are always trying out new games etc so then I thought why don't I just create a general gaming blog and talk about all my gaming experiences.

So this will be be all about gaming....I will be discussing all aspects including new game reviews, strategies and experiences.

If nothing else I will enjoy documenting it and hopefully along the way someone will enjoy reading it.