Water, water everywhere... Man O' War base test

While waiting for the paint on my Dwarf Man O' War fleet to dry, I painted up a Man O' War test base. Unfortunately, the brush had a little too much white paint on it at one point, and my drybrush turned into a wetbrush and I wound up hitting more than just the wave crests.

Another poorly lit image!

All in all, I'm pretty pleased though. I used a fairly simple technique - plastic card cut to size, covered in a watered down (to about the consistency of thick yogurt or mayonnaise) wood putty.

Brains - they're good, and good for you!

Killing zombies, so you don't have to. That's the power of Zombicide!

I recently received my box for the Zombicide: Season 2 Kickstarter - 19 pounds of plastic and cardboard. I foolishly passed on the original Zombicide Kickstarter, and wound up purchasing the base game through the Season 2 KS as well. If you're not familiar with Zombicide, it is a 1-6 player co-op survival game where players are pitted against zombies controlled by the game itself. I think it's a pretty neat concept, I like the look, and I think it will be a fun game to break out once in a while.

"They're coming for you, Honey Boo Boo..."

I went through the boxes the other day and counted up all the models I have to paint. After recovering from the heart attack, I recounted and found that there are around 244 zombies to paint from the three combined sets and the Kickstarter bonuses. Yikes. This number does not include the Survivors, of which there are many. Double yikes.

My enthusiasm was restored after watching the Dead Rising 3 trailer this weekend though (Warning: bad language and zombie killing after the break!):

Badger Airbrush Sotar 2020 - $65 at Amazon right now!

Heads up! The Badger Air-Brush Co Sotar 2020-2F Large Gravity Feed Airbrush with Fine Head is on sale at Amazon right now for the phenominal price of $65! This the best price in over a year!

By all accounts I've read, this is probably one of the best airbrushes you can get for your money. It's gravity-feed, so you don't have to muck around with bottles (my leftover paint mixes always dry up before I can use them again.)

Be aware that this is more a brush for detail - you're probably not going to want to basecoat an entire army with this airbrush!

And yeah - I picked one up. :)

WIP - Ork Gargant

Top uv da wurld, ma!

Epic at Adepticon 2013

On the second, and last, day of my Adepticon trip, I participated in the Epic tournament. We had a slightly better turnout than with the Warmaster tournament - eight people participated. Again, the event was sold out with sixteen players, but with gamers being gamers, half showed up.

There was a good spread of armies participating - Space Marines, Eldar, Tau, Minervans, and Orks. Matt Alix (of The Nerdherders Podcast) pretty much swept the tournament with his Speed Freeks. He had a really cool unit of Fightabommaz made from 40K Stormboyz rokkit packs. They were pretty neat and each had a distinct look - very orky!

The boyz fought against Space Marines, Eldar, and Minervans - all to spectacular failure. As usual, the boyz did a poor job of maintaining their weapons and equipment, because I was failing to roll anything approaching decent. I really love the Orks, but with my dice rolling being the way it is, I don't know how long I can maintain the relationship - "Sorry Squiggy, it's me, not you..."

I have to apologize in advance for some of the photos - my objectives came out very blurry. I'll get better photos up at a later date. I was also unable to get a full army shot of the Eldar, Minervans, and Marines. Now, on to the show!

The Stormboyz take cover inside a ruined hab-block

Mob on overwatch

Skorchas race to burn da beakies to a crisp!

Warmaster at Adepticon 2013

Bookended by what has to be the worst travel experience of my entire life (long story - suffice to say avoid US Airways at all costs,) I had an enjoyable weekend at Adepticon 2013 in Lombard,IL.

We started Friday off, bright and early (well, 9 am, so not that early) with the Warmaster tournament. The tournament was slated to have six participants, but, sadly, only four of us showed up to participate.

My battles were against Dave's High Elves, Nat's Dark Elves, and Jordan's Tomb Kings. In the game with the Tomb Kings, I actually rolled fairly well and was able to beat the undead by points. All of the battles were enjoyable, and my dice rolling seemed to be a little above average (in other words, I wasn't rolling all ones and twos.)

One highlight was that my Chaos Army won the Best Painted award - that was a nice surprise! Of course, there was only a field of four, but I'll take my victories when I can!

The Dark Elves arrayed for battle

Tomb Kings cavalry prepares to advance

Tomb Kings versus High Elves

The Lost and the Damned Part 2 - This Time, it's Personal!

And now, for part two of the Warmaster Chaos army photos:

Chaos Sorcerer

Chaos Sorcerer

Chaos Hero

Chaos Hero

Chaos Hero and Standard

Chaos Hero and Standard

Aaaand that brings me to 3000 points worth of troops! I was pretty pleased with the way the heroes turned out - I was planning on doing simple schemes to get them done quickly. I think those simple schemes turned out pretty well though.

I do have some additional units to add - Spawn, Chariots, and Dragon Ogres, as well as a General on a Dragon - but they will have to wait until a later date. I've got Orks to finish for Adepticon!

The Lost and the Damned... now in Technicolor!

It took a bit longer than expected, but I've finally got photos of the Warmaster Chaos Army! And, to top it all off, the army is complete - I plan on going back at some point to do a little detail work on some units (the Ogres in particular,) but, for all intents and purposes, these guys are done.

The Chaos General

Chaos Ogres

Chaos Knights

Chaos Warriors

Mounted Chaos Marauders

Harpies

Chaos Marauders

Hounds of Chaos

I've also just finished painting three additional heroes, but I'm still waiting for the paint to dry on them - I'll have photos in the next couple of days.

Warmaster Chaos - Almost Complete!

Better late than never - here are some promised (terrible cellphone) photos of the Warmaster Chaos Army as it stands right now:

Chaos Maruders

The Ogres

Chaos Knights and Mounted Marauders

Harpies

Chaos Hounds

The Chaos Army, in all its glory
 

Here's the list so far:

• 1 General - Complete!
• 1 Hero - Incomplete
• 2 Sorcerers - Incomplete
• 2 Chaos Warriors - Complete!
• 4 Chaos Marauders - Complete!
• 2 Ogres - Complete!
• 2 Marauder Horsemen - Complete!
• 2 Chaos Knights - Complete!
• 4 Chaos Hounds - Complete!
• 2 Harpies - Complete!

I've got some base work to do, along with the three additional heroes, then the army will be complete! Once I get the bases done, I'll get some good (i.e. not cellphone) photos and post them.

Da Orks is goin' to Adepticon, so deal wiv it!

Contrary to my previous post, I've decided to err on the side of caution and bring my Epic Orks to Adepticon instead of the Imperial Guard. I'm still in the process of finishing up my Warmaster Chaos army, and the remaining time to paint my Guard is dwindling (less than six weeks.) I've already got a lot of Ork stuff painted already, so rather than having to paint a full army from the ground up, I'll just have to add and paint a few units. Those additional units are as follows:

• 18 Skorchas
• 8 Trukks/Battlewagons
• 16 stands of Stormboyz
• 3 Objectives

I'm kind of stuck on what the objectives are going to be - I was thinking a crashed fighta-bomma for one, but the other two are eluding me. Maybe a Waaagh tower, based on the Dawn of War game, or something... I'd also like to add some additional details to the models, but that will certainly be dependent on the amount of time I have.

On the Warmaster front, I'm almost done with the Chaos army - I've got to finish a mounted Marauder unit and three heroes. Once they're painted, I can get some flock on all of the bases, and the Warmaster portion of my goal will be complete. So far, my Warmaster to-do list looks like this:

• 1 General - Complete!
• 1 Hero - Incomplete
• 2 Sorcerers - Incomplete
• 2 Chaos Warriors - Complete!
• 4 Chaos Marauders - Complete!
• 2 Ogres - Complete!
• 2 Marauder Horsemen - Partially Complete
• 2 Chaos Knights - Complete!
• 4 Chaos Hounds - Complete!
• 2 Harpies - Complete!

Sadly, tragedy befell one of my Harpy stands - a dog tail threw the stand across the room, where it got caught up in a stuffed dog toy and then crushed. I was able to repair the damage, but I need to touch up the paint on the models now.

I'll be charging up the batteries and getting some photos up after the weekend as well.

From the Northern Wastes - Warmaster Chaos!

A couple of weeks ago, I was planning on bringing a Warmaster Tomb Kings army to Adepticon - which meant that I'd have to paint 2000 points of Warmaster Tomb Kings. Because Skeleton units are so cheap, that meant a lot of painting in a short time. Ugh.

Before I got started though, I lucked out and found a guy selling off a Chaos Army for a really good price. As an added bonus, he had painted the Marauders to a good standard (i.e. something I wouldn't have to strip and repaint.) I snapped the army up and decided to drop the Tomb Kings and bring Chaos to Adepticon!

One of the things I was concerned about regarding the Tomb Kings is the fact that they are a nuanced army that requires some experience to use. I, being a player with a whopping two games of Warmaster under my belt, am not that experienced player. Chaos, on the other hand, is more straight-forward and has the added feature of requiring fewer units than a typical Tomb Kings army (less painting!)

So, after some back and forth with the helpful folks on the Specialist Games Forum (and being limited by the models I currently own) I decided on a Chaos Army list for Adepticon:

• 1 General
• 1 Hero
• 2 Sorcerers
• 2 Chaos Warriors
• 4 Chaos Marauders
• 2 Ogres
• 2 Marauder Horsemen
• 2 Chaos Knights
• 4 Chaos Hounds
• 2 Harpies

This list brings me to 1965 points, just under the 2000 point limit for the event, leaving a few points left over to allow for some magic items.

In the next couple of days, I'll be posting photos showing my painting progress on the army.

Progress! (Well, a little bit)

I haven't been able to do as much as I intended to up to this point (car issues, etc.) but I do have some progress to report. On the Epic front:

• I've based and primed all of the Imperial Guard troop stands for a 3000 point list
• I've assembled and primed a company of Leman Russ tanks
• I've assembled and primed a unit of Chimeras for the HQ section of the force
• I've assembled and primed an artillery company of Armageddon-pattern Earthshakers
• The Hydra and Sentinel units just need some touchups, and they're done

 As for Warmaster, I've had a bit of a change - instead of Tomb Kings, I'll be taking a Chaos Mortals army. I wound up getting a really great deal on a partially painted Chaos army (with case!) so I decided to go with the army I had a head-start with. I usually don't deal with other people's paint jobs, but in this case, the previous owner had done a really good job - the downside is that I'm going to have to try to replicate his work as closely as possible to keep everything coherent.

I'll wind up doing more painting than I would with the Tomb Kings (Step one: Spray white; Step 2: Wash brown; Step 3: Rejoice!), but Chaos is a harder hitting force that doesn't have as many subtleties as the Tomb Kings. Also, being inexperienced, I think it will be a better first army for me - at least I hope it will be!

So, that being said, I've got the remaining unpainted models primed and ready to go - next post, I'll try to have some photos!

On Guard for Adepticon!

Adepticon! Yep, I'm really going to try to make it this year. I wanted to go last year, but didn't think anyone else was interested. After the event, I found out Dave went and I was really bummed that I hadn't said anything. We're making plans to go this year though - I'm saving up right now to make it happen.

In keeping with the "Getting Things Done" theme, I'm going to need two fully painted armies - one Epic and one Warmaster. This is just more incentive to get these armies done, though I have a strict time limit now.

My original goal was to finish up my Orks to have a 3000 point force to be able to base additional units off of. The problem is that I'm just not having a lot of fun with da boyz in the recent games I've been playing. Case in point - yesterday, I played a game against a Space Marine force. By the end of turn one, I had lost over two-thirds of my force! Granted, I had made a few tactical errors (keep the boyz in cover!), and my opponent is really good, but a major factor was that I couldn't roll decent numbers on the dice to save my life. It doesn't help that Orks are terrible at shooting, and even worse when they double.

2013 - The Year of Getting Things Done (TM)

2012 is gone and what do I have to show for it? A few extra pounds (and not the good British kind, the bad other kind) and not much else. All my grand plans, and nothing to show for them. Sigh...

Well, that's not going to fly in 2013. I'm through with making plans and then procrastinating on them. 2013 is officially "The Year of Getting Things Done". What "Things" am I going to "Get Done"? I'm glad I asked:

Warmaster!
I've got three Warmaster Armies sitting around in boxes at the moment - Empire, Orcs and Goblins, and Khemri. Do I plan on finishing all three? No - if I do, I'll just go crazy and work on bits at a time and never get anything accomplished. I started on the Night Goblins for the O&G army, but I'm not 100% satisfied with the way they're coming out. Therefore, I'll concentrate on the Khemri army. Skeletons are relatively quick and easy to paint, and I should be able to get the army done in a relatively short time. I'd really like to something like Vincent's beautiful Khemri, but I know that I will never have the time or patience to do all of the work required to do the shield customizations.

Epic!
Where to begin? I've got Epic armies - lots and lots of Epic armies. A couple of Space Marine armies, Orks, Necrons, Sisters of Battle, Chaos, and numerous Imperial Guard armies. So many armies, so little time... But, like the Warmaster armies, I don't plan on doing all of the Epic armies in one fell swoop. The plan is as follows:

Finish the Orks - I really only need a few more units to finish off the army, so they need to be my primary objective. A Gargant, some Stompas, and another mob of boyz and that army will be done (minus various options, but I won't worry about those for now.)

Finish one of the Imperial Guard armies - Again, I can't do all three or I'll just wind up dealing with analysis paralysis and staring at a pile of metal and plastic. Again, I have a leg up on this - I have some units already done. I had previously painted most of a Guard army, but I didn't prime them properly, and the paint started to come off during in-game handling. Also, as a bonus, the infantry can fill in for any of the other Guard armies!