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!

swampy pond

so i finally made a terrain piece with water. its been on my list of things to do for a while and i was perusing an art store and came across a kit for making watery dioramas. i figured if i bought it ($13 or so) i would use it. and i did. so i decided on a murky pond or swamp and decided to check around the net to see what other people had done. i came across the blog of a guy named Gareson. he has a lot of good content and had put up a tutorial for making a swamp (among other things). i used a couple different materials than he did, but essentially stayed pretty close. i used pink insulation board and a sharp knife to cut out the banks of the pond, a couple of sticks for logs, and paperclips and green stuff to make cat tails, and green stuff to make lily pads. i added sand to the banks, painted 'er all up, let it dry, added the water effect followed by the lily pads, and after the water was dry i added the static grass to the banks.

in the end i learned a couple of things. 1) water effects take a really long time to dry.
2) i need to sand down my pink foam after shaping it because the edges dont get rid of themselves...
3) i need to find a better product to make water, because the diorama stuff cracked in a couple of places while it was drying.

All in all im pretty happy with the effect and intend to make more watery terrain pieces. hopefully bigger, better, and cooler ones. until next time, dont forget the gun mage captain is looking for you, and he'll gitcha. Happy gaming!

Monday night madness.

Step right up! ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

anyways... im on night shift tonight. last night Sweet Pete and myself had a battle. i took a picture each round with the idea that i would spend any downtime i had tonight making a BatRep. i took the pics with my iphone, so they arent the best quality, but hey its better than nothing right?

my lady friend decided to head to a friends place to watch the finale of the bachelorette (thank goodness), so i immediately called PJ and we decided to have a war. now since we adopted the MKII rules i have only ever played 15pt. match ups and multiplayer arena style, so this is a nice step. I came up with a fun list, a variant on my Siege strike force, that featured some guns 'a' blazin', 3 'jacks, 3 solos and some quick movin horses. Pete came with a horde of infantry that are all packin' heat, 1 'jack, 3 wracks, and the Priestess of the Flame runnin' the show. Model count: Cygnar = 10. Protectorate = 36. at this point i am bracing for an uphill battle. I win the dice roll and deploy first. we take the hills on opposite corners.

Turn 1

i make a bee line for the enemy. hunter runs up into the forest, siege drops a foxhole for the other jacks to hide in, the horses run to go around the small forest.

Pj advances everyone, his deliverers take the hill (where they stood and fired all game(with a 14" range why not?)) and lobb rockets at the concealed hunter with minimal effect.

Turn 2.

I pretty much accomplish nothing. i advance and am only in range with the hunter who fails to kill anything. i double back across with my cavalry.

pete fires again with the rockets and puts a small dent into the hunter. the deviations have minimal effect due to the safety of the foxhole. the exemplars advance and pull a trick to negate my foxhole and put a decent ding into charger. his grenade wheeling zealots make a run for my front line and pop a mini feat making them indestructable for one turn. Siege is feeling the heat.

Turn 3. (bad picture/pivotal turn)

Faced with mounting pressure and overwhemling numbers Siege must act quickly. he sends orders to the ironclad who then crashes into the zealots. the attempt at trampling has no effect due to the mini-feat, but when the ironclad slams his hammer to the ground they know he is there and many fall to the ground. Siege lets loose with his ground pound attack on the exemplar, who are then zapped from the other side by the cavalry's lightning sticks. they take heavy casualties.

The zealots begin to pick themselves up. one tries to escape the ironclad and has his brain mashed up in the process. those not engaged hurl grenados at the cavalry, who with the aid of an arcane shield manage to survive...if just barely. the deliverers deliver concentrated fire on the charger who takes heavy damage and loses his hammer arm. the Priestess not pleased with what she is seeing draws ample power from the wracks and sets her sights on the ironclad. She demonstates her power in a feat of strength. in the blink of an eye the once mighty ironclad is reduced to rubble by a few swift strikes. without pausing the Priestess' feat erupts and fire rains down on her enemies.

Turn 4

The Cygnar troops are feeling the heat. literally. they are all on fire. everyone but siege takes damage. the gun mage captain and the goblin speculator are instantly turned to ash. Siege knows he must strike while the iron is hot, he must lay it all out of the table. Protectorate troops feel as though their armor is shrinking under Siege's powerful gaze. He side steps, aims, and fires a single powerful round straight at the Priestess. Her loyal devout 'jack throws himself in harms way and takes the bullet. the hunter mows down a line of sight for the charger who then takes aim and fires a single shot at the Priestess. She takes heavy damage but is still standing. The cavalry, who now have a clear path, charge the enemy caster and two of them have enough gas to get there and get the job done.

all in all i would say we had a pretty decent battle and learned plenty about our forces. i am reinvigorated to paint and play warmachine as well as update the blog. hopefully ill be able to post again soon. until next time: HAPPY GAMING EVERYONE!

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.

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!!!!!