Monday, November 29, 2010

pizza party

it's been a while, i have no excuse, but i'm here now...so get off my back. (pretending someone reads this keeps me interested, ok?!)

ive got a little back log of content to put forward, most of which i will save for a future update. i'm starting to feel overwhelmed with the content actually so i'm just going to treat it like painting a squad of troopers: bit by bit. i have a bunch of pictures, a couple battle reports, and the results of my scenario test. i'll save the battle reports for another day, as i find them a bit tedious. in fact i'll do the scenario later too. feel free to request which one comes first, otherwise i'll just get around to it.

i'm going to just share the project im working on, and how i've been doing it. i know it's not rocket surgery, and this technique is nothing new (and it may even be wrong) but i'm stumbling around in it now. enjoy.

In the beginning:
this is my first large squad of troops. they are knights and they have a pretty traditional feel to them, so i wanted to give them mainly metallic armour. i primed them black. heres the new part. i did a mass base coating with my favorite metallic paint (reaper shadowed steel) using a DOLLAR STORE BRUSH! i purchased this package of crappy brushes for painting terrain, but due to the volume of silver paint i was going to apply to each knight i decided to make use of the wide (crappy) brush. so basically i just slapped it on:Pictured here. this i was able to do over the course of a week to the whole squad just by sitting down for ten or fifteen minutes when i had a chance.

Next:
i used the same brush to slap an ink wash on. this is new to me as well. normally washing happens much closer to completion of the model. i really wanted to darken them up so that i could dry brush GW 'mithril silver' over them and actually be able to notice it. This stage is pictured here. normally my drybrushing occurs much later as well, but as i said... im trying something new. "learning" if you will. (although ill hold out for the finished product before final judgement). you may notice these men have no arms. i find it REALLY annoying to try to paint around appendages, and will thusly paint them seperately for later attachment. this washing/drybrushing stage really didnt take very long either actually. it probably took me a couple hours to do all the troops and all their left arms. I would have done the right arms as well but i had just enough primer to do the left arms. so i moved on to:

The next step.
i dont know what these are called. bright yellow doesnt really cover well on black so it is going to take two coats. the guy on the left has only one coat. you may also notice im keeping a trend of showing which brush im using on each step. i only got halfway through this step today, but i intend to finish it tomorrow.

im hoping to do more posts like these in future. i'll snap a pic at the end of a step and make an update. some may be longer or shorter depending on how often they are posted, but im always hoping to increase frequency of posts. i'm also feeling incredibly scatterbrained at the moment and i suspect that is showing through in this update.

happy gaming!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

potential warmachine scenario - WIP

I've been pondering this idea for a little while now, but I think it's best I get a little help. I was going to design a scenario to play and whip it out last minute, but I think getting some input from others will help me polish the edges a little bit. It will lose the surprise factor, but I'm not sure it will make a difference.

Keep in mind that this is really the first time I'm putting this onto [paper] and will likely need some overhauling and possibly play-testing before I (we) could call it a finished product. It is also my first attempt at designing a scenario. Enjoy!

Project Exterminate intended for 2 players
The basic idea is that there will be a number of models ("Marks") not involved in either army, possibly 15. One player will be tasked with exterminating 2/3 of these Marks, and the other player will be tasked with defending them. The twist is that the Marks have a mind of their own, not content to sit idly by and watch the carnage. They want to wander. I think each Mark will use the deviation template to move D6" at the beginning of each players turn, with the 1 pointing roughly in the direction that model last wandered.

The Marks, I believe, should be deployed closer to the defending player. Perhaps three clusters 6" ahead of the defending players deployment zone.

The Marks will have the following stats: Spd* Mat5 Rat5 Str5 Def13 Arm13

The game will end on a set number of turns, I think 5 or 6 should be enough time for the attacking team to work their magic. It may work as well to start rolling at the end of the fifth round to see if the game ends (IE: on 5th turn game ends on a roll of 5+, 6th - roll of 4+, 7th - roll of 3+ et cetera.)

I think perhaps the attacking player should have a larger army because they will have spend precious resources killing marks while the defending player tries to pick apart the attacker. Perhaps attacker 20 pts, defender 15 pts for example. Although I  had originally thought the players would roll at the beginning of the game to decide attacker/defender. Maybe both players will have to bring some extra points just in case they are the attacker.

I suppose that is all for now. I would like to hear any and all input as everything is open for modification.

As always, HAPPY GAMING!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Making a spam and colgate sandwich:

As i have returned from my Eurotrip, I have found myself with motivation to get things painted, and have been quite content with my progress. I have a small contingent of models that are lined up for the dip and they are getting it at a decent pace. tonight i squeaked in 30 minutes before i had to come to work my night shift. Every little bit counts. i'm actually trying out a little bit of a new technique (new to me anyways), but im cataloging that for a future update.

Earlier I was strolling down the painting blog circuit and came across a blog I liked. (www.ironheadstation.com) there was a good article about keeping motivation. One idea that appears to be a fundamental is to make sure you keep switching things up. Things like not doing squads and squads of soldiers, but instead breaking it up. rewarding yourself for finishing up a whole squad by moving on to a completely different solo model. a warcaster, a 'jack, a solo, maybe even a model you just like from some other product line. There was one other suggestion in particular that piqued my interest, and that was to "Paint something for a friend’s army in their color scheme.". Which leads me to the POINT of this whole update: I propose Xevious and I swap a model and paint it for each other! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!

Good idea? Good idea. I think it will be a nice break from my normal paint scheme, and it will still be progress towards getting our armies painted.

Also, on a side note...apparently the same core concepts work for writing as well. (setting goals, making projects, mixing it up, and doing it often.) So I would like to try to reinvigorate this blog as well.

As always: HAPPY GAMING!