From paws to hooves

Horses take ages. Three evenings of painting with only some minor distraction have resulted in six horses barely half done. I really don't know what I did with the time. I had thought I would have been well finished with them by now and onto the second six. It would seem that I may be painting these guys for a while yet. The white hasn't had much work done on it as you will see in the photograph. The reslt is pretty much finished.

I made a huge mistake while undercoating these models. I don't know if it was that the white spray was a little old or I held the can too far from the model. Anyway before I noticed three of the horses had some nasty lumps of paint misted across them. I tried in vain to remove this. So now I do have some messed up horses. As I don't have any replacements currently I have pushed on with them and painted them up. For now they will sit in the back rank of the cvalry regiment. This regiment at least sounds like it can do something! The vanguard move pretty much gets them in position to shoot their hand axes on turn one hopefully meaning one less warmachine. If I have to go second I could even charge which would be much better. I am unsure as to what other equipment to give them. Aa banner would be nice but I am not sure if it is that benefical for the role they will be playing.

Painting these has really reintroduced me to the colours for the army. The leather mix I had been using on my warriors I have been able to copy here. I made a few errors in the application as I wasn't paying attention but with the cloaks on the riders hopefully it won't be that noticeable! I won't be startingt the riders until I have all of the twelve horses done. So that could be a while away. Paintballing tomorrow takes a day away from the army and I will be hopefully spending a few days at the ETC next weekend seeing what that is like. As I will most likely be crippled from all the action tomorrow I will have a good excuse out of house work at least!

Coffee keeps you going

The hounds are done! I sat and finished them yesterday. Thankfully they turned out to match the original ones closely enough. Hopefully you can't spot the difference. I looked in my foam cases today. I found another six that have been base coated. I doubt if I will paint them to soon. Thinking about the big regiment I can't see the use at all. I do remember people talking about having a large regiment with a character in the front. It would have been used in tournaments in 6th edition. I can't see that helping now with the stand up tule. The attacks coming back at the dogs would devastate them. It would be a useful flanking regiment as it is fast and relatively cheap. Twenty come in just over one hundred points.

I finally got the rulebook. Its huge. I know I had heard everyone say that but I was stiull suprised. I can actually see the size being counter productive. What twelve year old new player is not goin to bew intimidated by that? It is cool though. I haven't had a chance to read it in depth yet as I am trying to finish Fool Moon, the next book in the Dresden Files. The colour section is amazing. I just went through some of the army spreads and they give some good inspiration. The examples in the book seem comprehensive. The rules well written but not being too direct. There is still some sense of fun to them. I look forward to getting through the meat of the book over the coming days. Wwhat has struck me as weird is the FAQ pdf's. I would seem to need to check them every few weeks to check what has been updated. I can really see them becoming unwieldy quickly. Its hard enough to keep up with the changes in two or three armies but having to check each pdf once a month gets to be arduous! Anyway we shall see if they are able to keep the pressure up and actually actively update these documents.

Tonight I poured three cups of coffee into me! Well it kept me awake long enough to get the base colours done on six marauder steeds. It is suprising how long three colours can take to get on these cavalry models. The horses are fantastic though! The really got a nice sense of movement in them. I will e following a similar scheme to the slaanesh horses in the army book - white. It might be a little strong and garish in the army. Hopefully the riders can tie them in. I will have some pictures up over the weekend hopefully. I have paintballing on Sunday so I will be losing a painting day.

Gone to the dogs

This book is suprisingly good! I have spent far too much time over the weekend reading rather than painting! The army guilt has set in. I find that having the army out on display makes me feel like I have to paint it. It lurks in the corner of my mind saying "You must paint me, put the book down". I did make some good progress however! I had seven Chaos Hounds painted from before. As I want a regiment of twelve now I have to add five in. I don't quite know why twelve would be good... If every regiment is getting larger though why not these guys too? Anyway its actually pretty tough to match the colours between the two sets. I did it okay and I will have pictures up later in the week. The details still need to be done. These shouldn't take too long to do. After that I am not sure. I might do some Chaos Knights. I think I will replace on of the regiments of Warriors with a Knight Regiment. Its a lot easier to paint for one thing! Five large cavalry models versus twenty foot models. The points are roughly the same too. It would free up a few points for Marks of Chaos. I rally want to get the Mark of Tzeentch onto my Warriors along with the Blasted Standard. That makes them really durable as I am assuming they will be target number one in competitive games.

Back to the book, I have just picked up a few of the Dresden Files books. Stormfront is the only one I have read so far. Its pretty good. Nothing to really challenge as an enduring classic but very entertaining. The author is clear and descriptive. He doesn't spend too long drawing out every detail but still gets the atmosphere across. The book is about a gumshoe detective wizard in modern Chicago. I can imagine the series is a little like a Monster of the Week. The titles of the later books indicate Werewolves, Ghosts and Faeries in that order. Hopefully it isn't that much of a formula. I read the first book in a evening, something I normally reserve for really exciting books. So to keep it somewhat short, check it out Stormfront is good!

Back to the fur

Hmmm one thing I both like and hate about eight edition is the apparent need for more infantry models. Looking at my marauders I remember how long it took to actually sculpt the cloaks. Thats not going to be fun but it has to be done. At least the amry will look all the cooler for it. I thought I would put up a little guide here so that you can see how I do the cloaks. Its rather simple but takes time. It also takes some practise so be warned if you try to copy these techniques. It won't work the first time.

First I create a flat piece of green stuff to make a base for the back of the cloak. It saves a lot of greenstuff this way but it can be a little unforgiving. Basically you need to form a square piece that fits on the back of the model and should be about the desired size you want. It is what you will eventually build the detail unto. I apply this across the shoulders of the models and make sure that it is securely fitted thereA little bit of greenstuff should go over the shoulder but not too much, thats important!

I didn't get great pitures of this stage, sorry! However here is the stage I reinforce the connection of the greenstuff to the body. Once the above is dry usually after 24hrs I take a small amount of greenstuff and form a circle that fits easily over the models head. This goes around the shoulders and to the front. It should not be too thick especially at the front but around the back it doesn't matter too much. I smooth this into the rought shape I want and then sculpt in the fur. The problem being that you definitely don't want this to be too thick at the front so you have to sculpt it now. If it is too thick there then it ruins the detail of the model as the cloak looks out of place. It also saves some time on stage three. As you can see here I have carried the sculpting all around the fresh green stuff. It is important to vary the depth of the sculpting at the back as this helps to later blend in the rest of the cloak.

The final stage is easy enough but it takes the most time. As I sculpted these two guys cloaks I realised I was really out of practise as they didn't have a nice clean effect that I have been previously able to achieve. I think I will have to get back into the swing of the sculpting slowly. So for this stage you need a lot of green stuff. The more the merrier! This is because it is easier to create a nice effect by using a lot more green stuff. I apply it evenly over the surface already established. Try not to have it overhang as this causes problems later. Once it is on the surface just creat two or three deep furrows and then begin to sculpt. The furrows help create depth and the illusion of movement. I didn't really do it on these guys as I wasn't concentrating but once I was finished I thought of it. I generally work from the top down. I haven't tried it the other way I probably should. It seems more logical to start at the top. Anyway I just creat the worm shapes that you see on the pictures. It is good to alter the line and weave of them from time to time and to create some higher and deeper patches. Once you get to the end of the cloak it becomes tough as you will get a lot of overhang (hence why you try to avoid it at the start). In some instances it is easily dealt with by sculpting the fur and then lifting it back out from under the cloak. It tends to fold in under the surface you created.

Some other tips would be to use your thumb nail as a support for the original surface if it moves too much for you while sculpting. Just stick it in behind the cloak and sculpt away. Another thing to watch out for is the edge of the cloak. You need to keep that neat and tidy as it can easily ruin the illusion! You need to keep it moving downwards consitently and any major overlaps can be tidied up by having the fur look like it is wrapping around.

Eight Edition

So eight edition is here, finally. I have to admit I was sick of Warhammer. It had gotten to a point where it not only bored me but it annoyed me too. The game wasn't fun, I really couldn't find a way to make it fun. I blame it a lot on the fact that I was playing too many tournaments and so were my opponents. At a certain point that leaks into the supposedly 'fun' games. Eventually you are facing a tournament list across the table when you are just trying to play for fun. It seemed that the game really had become a no holes bared competition. That and the fact that my painting time was suffering basically means I haven't played in at least six months. I have been painting however though this has been for a 40k Ork army. I have always wanted one and I finally picked one up before my move. However listening to the ever increasing number of podcasts that are available now got me interested in pulling out the chaos and painting again.

So today I cleared the Orks from the painting desk and pulled out the Chaos Troops. I got online and ordered some new stuff for the army too. I also finally ordered the rulebook as I was a little hesitant about getting it. As this edition has changed a lot there are many things I don't think I will be using much in this edition. My Chaos Knights have essentially been relegated to a nice to have regiment rather than a must have. I will of course still use them as cavalry are good but as I need some numbers I think leaving out the cvalry is best.

I ordered some Ogres. Monsterous Infantry seem to be excellent now and I have indulged. While I would really prefer to have some Trolls the models are pretty poor and I would prefer to wait for potential plastics! The Ogres models are ones I am very familar with as I have a Nurgle themed Ogre army already. The models are easily converted and I relish the chance to make some armoured Ogres. I am hoping it is easy to do but we shall see. I will be making them look like a cross between my marauders and warriors! Anyway thats for the future. I need to get the core troops out first.

Looking at the numbers I will have just over one hundred models in my army. Its actually a lot smaller than I would like but at least it is a reasonable target. Looking at what I painted before I really haven't much progress made in the army. I now only have a spawn finished and some marauders. I don't intend using the warriors I painted now as I can't get the pieces I need to finish the regiment off. The Slaanesh helmets are impossible to get now and I was lucky to have the twelve I used already. So for now I have in mind two regiments of twenty warriors and that means I need to paint them from scratch. I will keep the same paint scheme as it is nice in my opinion and easily enough done. With the Marauders I have twelve with great weapons done and I have eighteen with hand weapons and shields base coated. So I have a beginning at least!

Anyway I will try to keep this blog up now and chronicle the armies progress. It will probably be slow enough to start but hopefully I can get enough momentum to carry me through to the next tournament season!

I made a list finally last night and I hope it is somewhat competitive. Here it is:
Chaos List:
30 Marauders: Full command, shields
24 Marauders: Full command, great weapons
12 Chaos Warhounds
12 Marauder Horsemen: Full command, light armour, throwing axes
20 Chaos Warriors: Full command, shields
20 Chaos Warriors: Full command, halberds
6 Ogres: Full Command, chaos armour, great weapons
Warshrine
Hell Cannon
Spawn
Exalted Hero: battle standard bearer, shield (12 points of items)
Sorcerer: Level Two (fifty points of items)
Sorcerer: Level Two (fifty points of items)
Lord: armour of damnation, berserker sword
Total Cost: 2500

Percentages:
Core: 1288 51.52%
Special: 350 14%
Rare: 390 15.6%
Hero: 510 20.4%
Lord: 300 12%