Christmas parties

As Christmas approaches it seems I am getting less and less time to paint! It is my own fault really as recovering from my work Christmas Party has taken most of this weekend! Having an effective public transport system that runs 24 hours a day means that parties tend to run on that little bit longer than back home in Dublin! My other excuse this weekend for not painting is because I have a roleplaying session today. We shall be forming a new group here in the city and today is the first session. I guess it is just to see what players suit and are available. I believe we will be playing Spellslinger. The setting seems interesting but I am not too happy that it is 3rd edition DnD. That system is supposed to suck and as I have never played it before this should be an interesting beginning. I am looking at my 4th edition collection here and wishing I could get someone to run that!

My online 4th edition game has been good. It suffers a little from the fact that we can't get maptools to easily work for us. Having to open ports on our routers has proven next to impossible. That means we can't easily use maps and therefore the tactics of the combat scenes are lost a little. The timing has proven okay at least so we can regularly meet without too much disruption. Currently I think we are playing through an old Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay scenario. I can't remember which but as the story goes on it feels more and more similar! Online roleplay has been good. The dynamics of the group work differently but there still seems to be a lot of fun. The familiarity generally created between players takes a lot long to build up but we are getting there. I wonder what it will be like with a bunch of Germans playing Spellslinger today... fun I hope?!

The North Wexford Gamers have begun another painting competition here. This one comes with prize support from Battlecry miniatures. I will hopefully be entering with Crom. I really need to get working on him. As you can see there is still a lot to be done! The armour is almost complete. I made a few mistakes here and there that are not visible in the picture. I have to tidy these up and then get into the more detailed work. The miniature has loads of little details that should provide some nice contrast against the dark armour. I have finally converted and base coated his shield. I am experimenting with some different methods for painting bronze. So far it is coming out well without having to put too much effort in. Thats always good! I have found that the GW purple wash gives an interesting tint to the gold. It is very easy to overdo it though. I haven't green yet but I assume it should also be good. I really think with Crom I should have cut the horns off the helmet though. The more I look at the model the more I hate them. The only handy thing is that it is easy to pick the model up with them. Maybe once they are painted I hope I will be happier.