First Bestigors

I didn't have much time last night but I got my first Bestigors finished. Only twenty six left to go! I am guessing a regiment of thirty or so is enough, I think forty is fairly excessive at a standard game level. These are really nice models to paint. The armour makes them a little easier to do than the standard Gors. Flesh is always more annoying to do than armour! I used another hound to fill the spacng base. It saves models and ties the regiment in with my Gor Horde. I have the standard bearer and musician basecoated so hopefully I can get them painted fairly quickly. Once these Bestigor are finished I have to decide if I am going to invest in the army more. The Bestigor are the last beastmen models I have left. It is very satisfying to clear something out of the massive stockpile I have built up. I don't want to start a big project at the moment to be honest as I have a few other things coming up soon, namely a Woldwrath and some SAGA warbands.

The Raid on Wallei, part two

Last night was the second game of two in the Raid on Wallei SAGA campaign. Owen, my opponent, has a video battle report on his blog. The video report on the first battle can be found here. The battle was a little strange, mainly due to the scenario. We played the Challenge scenario which would seem fine on the surface. Warlords begin the game within 4" of each other forcing them into combat on the first turn. They each have twelve wounds allowing them to survive a few rounds at least. The armies are deployed as normal on average about twelve inches behind the warlords. Our battle started with a few rouns of comabt. I was able to exhaust the Viking warlord twice, pinning him in place and getting repeated charges on him. However as I was charging with fatigue on me accompanied by lowly Ceorls (Warriors) I was consistently losing the combat. While this was going on I wasn't able to get my army into a dominant position and when my Ceorls were wiped out I was completely stopped in my tracks due to almost my entire army gaining fatigue.

Once that happened the Vikings withdrew forcing me to slowly come onto them and being whittled down in the process. The fact that I had more wounds on my warlord than my opponents allowed them to run down the clock and win by default. It was pretty annoying that the scenario allowed for this. I assume I would have still lost as I was in a bad position but the scenario should force the warlord to fight each other much more! I shall have my revenge and burn the Viking ships yet!

More Goff Boyz

Some more Goffs got finished last night. I feel like I am flying through models at the moment. The Orks have really simple schemes and while the Goffs are somewhat more involved than the Bad Moon Boyz they are still quite fast to paint. The check pattern makes these guys really distinctive in comparison to the other mob I have done. I might eventually revisit the Bad Moons to use some stronger yellow to them. I did most of them in fairly boring colours. So next thing for these guys is to get a heavy stubber in there. I never know if they are that useful but it is better to have them and not need them I guess.

Killa-Kan Mob

I got the Killa-Kan mob finished over the weekend. These are a nice addition to my small Ork army. I have inventoried what I have left to paint for them in the pile. There are two bike mobs, a Deff Kopta mob, a Battlewagon, some Nobz, and some small random bits. I want to get the Goff 'Ard Bozy finished so I will progress with them. I will probably have the Battlewagon as their transport so I will paint it black once I have the whole squad done. I want to get back to the beastmen and my Khador soon too.

SAGA news

I seem to have a lot to say about SAGA at the moment. There is an offical blog from the game developers here.It previews the Norse-Gael warband and their challenge mechanic. It sounds very interesting and gives a distinct flavour to the Norse-Gaels. There is also a description of the Franks whom I am not too interested in. The game is expanding eastwards a little and it may end up divorcing itself a little from its historical roots. The Byzantines were released in Wwargames Illustrated 301 I believe. While they would have clashed with the Rus I don't really seeing them fighting the Welsh very much. It was always something that bothered me with games like the Lord of the Rings where if you both had a good guys force you could end up playing each other. It just doesn't seem right. The most infuriating thing is having to wait to get my miniatures. I have them all sitting in a box in Ireland. You can expect to be blasted with SAGA warbands once I get my hands on them.

Friday Showcase- Ork Trukk

This model isn't finished! I am kind of cheating my putting it up on my Friday showcase. All that needs to be done is to finish the tires. However I don't want to do that without basing the model. I know that 40k vehicles don't come with a base but the model doesn't look finished until the base is done! I don't know what to use but I would like to have it similar to a normal GW base. Maybe one of the new fantasy bases would fit, something a little bigger than a chariot base. I have to find another that fits the battlewagon, that is going to be an even bigger pain!

Another Kan

The Killa-Kans paint up really quickly. I have the second one finished. It helps that I kept the paint scheme really simple. Balck and yellow go together very well and Iyanden Darksun (GW) really allows me to get great coverage really quickly. I just washed the yellow with some Gryphone Sepia (GW). This shades it down perfectly. I pick out some of the highlights in a brighter yellow. Then I add the battle damage with some red and silver. The metals are really dark as close to black as I can get them really. I do some extreme edging highlights to break up the dullness and to define the shapes. I then pick out some of the details in a bright red. The addition of some checking and that is it, really simple!

SAGA Campaign: The raid on Wallei

Having discussed SAGA on mondays post I actually managed to get a game in. I usually play Warmachine via VASSAL with Owen from Farfaraway.org on a Tuesday evening but he made an excellent module so we could play SAGA. I tried out the Anglo-Danes and I was quite pleased. The scenario is part of a small narrative campaign we will play. The first battle involved the Viking attack on an Anglo-Dane force escorting their Lords daughters to his Hall while nearby the rest of the Vikings try to overwhelm the Hall.

In 901AD a band of Norse-Gaels under the leadership of Harald Hvitbeinn are 'gone a viking' in Northumbria. Travelling up the river Ribble and its tributary the Calder the Vikings are attempting to reach the monastery of St. Paulinus and the village of Wallei. Having left their boats moored at the village of Langho Harald moved through the Crow Wood to arrive at Wallei before anyone could be alerted to his presence. Travelling to Wallei at the same time the family of Ivar Trätälja stumbled onto the Vikings just before they reached the relative safety of the village. Ivar's three daughters had been sent from York once the Scottish raids across the Ribble had been stopped. The countryside had been subdued for the most part with the saxons accepting the leadership of the Anglo-Danes. Unfortunately for them nobody had anticipated the Viking raid. Harald had no choice but to engage the armoured escort. Splitting his force in two he engaged the escort while the bulk of his force moved into the village before Ivar's Hucarls could form a defence.

Harald's son Rorik advanced on the escort as they hurried along the forest path. His Hirdmen held the centre with Bondi at both edges of his shieldwall to hold his flanks. Egill, the commander of the escort, quickly dispersed his force amongst the rough terrain. His Geburs moved up to harry the Vikings with bow shot. His Ceorls moved out to flanks the viking shieldwall while the Huscarls advanced on the Hirdmen. The daughters knowing they were in mortal danger split up and attempted to slip around the Vikings when they were engaged. Battle was quickly joined to the right and a great slaughter ensued. Rorik's impetuousness however led to the left flank breaking completely. As the Bondi on the right became embroiled in the fight they were slowly shoved backwards. Seeing this and and looming threat of the Huscarls Rorik sent his centre into the fray. These bogged down in front of the Anglo-Dane shieldwall and when the Huscarls did finally engage they were overwhelmed. Again Rorik overcommitted throwing himself into the fight. The shieldwall was defeated but the battle was already lost. Egill had moved cautiously up the centre. As more and more the the Vikings were forced to the right he concentrated on the right. The Bondi on the right were suffering poorly the attention of the Gebur. The final reserve of Hirdmen moved to disrupt the Gebur bowmen and reinforce their beleagured comrades. Egill took the chance to commit to the combat personally slaying three of the Hirdmen and throwing the entire flank into disarry. Two of Ivar's daughters slipped through the rapidly disintegrating Viking line. The third daughter was less fortunate and was captured by Rorik.

The battle was a victory for the Anglo-Danes as they managed to get two of the three objectives off of the board. In the next scenario these objectives can be used to generate an extra SAGA dice, up to the usual maximum of eight. The next scenario will be the meeting of Ivar and Harald at the village of Wallei in a Clash of Warlords scenario. The historical facts mentioned here aren't historical at all. The locations are real however and the events are possible. Wallei is the old name of Whalley in Lancashire and there is evidence of an early church or monastery on the site, most likely founded around 628AD. This would be a very likely target for a Viking raid from Dublin or Mann. Three to four ships could easily enough navigate the Ribble though I am unsure if the Calder was navigable at all. Therefore the Viking ships are moored at Langho. The area was probably densely forested, even today it seems to be much more forested than usual.

Killa-Kan

I seem to be plumbing the depths of miniatures backlog at the moment. I bought the Killa Kans when they came out. I was still enthusiastic about collecting Orks at that point. The models are great and I really wanted to have some. The metal ones were fairly boring and expensive. These are relatively cheap. I painted them up to suit the Bad Moonz rather than the Goffs. A simple black paint scheme would have been really fast to do but I wanted them to match the main part of my army. This model was fairly fast to paint up. I think it took about five hours from start to finish which for this standard seems reasonable. I didn't do much for highlights and kept the scheme very simple. The more metal the faster it goes!

One of the problems with these is that you don't really get weapon options. I would have prefered to have more rocket launchers on them but I had to arm them as shown as the box just doesn't have to options available. I guess it would only be a problem in tournaments. Putting the kits together was interesting. A lot of the pieces are fairly complex in comparison to what I expect from GW. These must have been digitally sculpted. I should get a second finished tomorrow!

The Raven's Shadow

SAGA is getting yet another four factions and I am looking forward to it. Studio Tomahawk are releasing the Ravens Shadow over the coming months. I haven't played SAGA much but a few others here in Hamburg are getting warbands together. The Irish are represented twice in the book between the Irish faction and the Norse-Gaels. The Franks and Strthclyde Welsh make up the other two factions. I am interested to see how they continue to add variance to the factions and keep the balance. At the moment there are three styles of Warband. The Normans, and soon the Franks, represent a mounted combat style. The Bretons, Scottish and Welsh represent a lightly armed skirmishing style while the rest of the factions mainly use shieldwalls. I don't see Studio Tomahawk being able to bring out any other style. The dark ages were not the most experimental when it came to warfare. So far though they have succesfully kept the game dynamic and interesting. I guess that Raven's Shadow won't be any any different.

Once I get home to Ireland next I will pick up the two hundred or so models I have there. I bought them what sems like an age ago to use as a Warhammer Ancients army. I can easily see them becoming four or five warbands soon! While the Saxons are the faction I have used I think I will go for the Anglo-Danes. I was checking through the rules for them and the main trick they have is to put fatigue on the enemy. It seems very powerful as fatigue can quickly exhaust a unit and force them to rest. The Saxon play very differently than this depending on numbers to overwhelm the opponent. I have only played against the Vikings and this makes for a bloody affair.

A Horde Arrives

I managed to finish my Gor Horde. That is the first purpose built regiment for eighth edition. Aalmost every other one I have built over the years topped out at twenty or so models, maybe I stretched it to thirty with Skaven and Goblins. There are a few spacers in there and if arranged poorly they look bad as they really look like a hole. I think it is best to put threee models on a base rather than the two I have been doing. At least that way they don't combine with any placed beside them. As arranged the regiment has a few too many gaps. Considering that I made the entire regiment from thirty models it isn't so bad. Adding in the hounds helped and I think I will do it a little more often with the rest of the regiments. I think the addition of a few themed pieces will also be goo. I went for woodland bases and as such I don't really know what to add as a filler. Some ruins might work or some small standing stones. The problem sometimes is that Beastmen on there own have a fairly weak background. As simple forces of destruction there isn't much to latch onto to add a lot of character to the army. It would be fine to have the character shown by what they have destroyed. Fillers consisting of fallen banners and corpses would be okay but in some way that distracts from the beastmen by bringing the focus onto a different army. I will paint up some of the Bestigor over the next few days and ponder what I can do with the bases.

Deamon Prince

I found this fellow lurking at the back of my storage cabinet yesterday. Wwhile I hadn't forgotten I had him I have forgotten what I wanted to use him for. I never intended collecting a Deamon army, despite having a fair few models for one. I am thinking he would make at minimum a decent giant for the beasts if not a Ghorgon. The detail is rather astounding and paiting him would take a lot of effort.... I am not sure if I should start him now I keep going with the rank and file of the Beasts of Chaos.

More Gors!

I am almost finished with my Horde. I got a good start made on all the remaning Gors on Sunday. Yesterday with some spare time and a good audio book I ploughed through four more models. This time no spacers though as you can see in the pic. There are only so many of those that can be used before it breaks up the regiment too much. I just need to get another spacer done and that is all for the Horde. I am starting to get enthusiastic about the army again. It would be nice to at least finish all the models I have bought for it, especially as that means only another ten or so Bestigor. I don't have any Hordes or Warmachine stuff outstanding except I suppose for a few Khador 'Jacks. I could just get the army finished, I made a list for the first time in years recently and while I still have about fifty models to paint for it it is now well within the realms of possibility. I would have to buy some more models which is annoying but I suppose that is the nature of the hobby.

Gor reinforcements

I took a break from painting last week. I still haven't got my motivation back and there is no point in struggling and achieving nothing. I usually just end up staring at the models for ages rather than painting them. Rome: Total War stole most of my time anyway. I am looking forward to the next one coming out. I should really get myself the second Medieval: Total War but that would completely stop me from painting. For some reason there is a great joy to be found in running down peasant revolts with heavy cavalry!

I managed to paint over the weekend and make some decent progress on the Gor horde. I am still not sure if I will finish the army but finishing the Horde would be good. I added a few hounds to the spacer bases as I have some spare and it stops the base looking so empty. I had a spare box of hounds for some reason. I have twenty already assembled so I don't know why I would have bought yet another box. I am tempted to someday run a proper regiment of hounds. They are not so much more expensive than Ungors and they are much faster. It would be an excellent deterrent for other fast cavalry and disposable regiments which seem to be very prevalent in Warhammer at the moment.

Friday Showcase - Burna Boyz

Only four Burna Boyz come in the box for some weird reason and so I only have four of them built and painted. I had intended using them as reinforcements for a Kommando squad and then I decided to just build the rest even if I don't use them. I think I have a second set buried in the unassembled pile here so that would give me eight and the possibility for a Mek. I would like to get a custom Trukk for these sometime down the line but that is just dreaming!

Beast Reinforcements

It has been a while since I painted anything for Warhammer Fantasy. I don't have much left to paint fr Warmachine and Hordes so I decided to pick something from my shelf of abandoned models. It was either the beasts or some Warriors of Chaos. These won simply because they were assembled already. I lost impetus with the Beastmen after I realised how many I had to paint to have a viable army. I guess well over a hundred models in the end. I don't know if I will ever finish them all but little by little I may. I have three more bases like this to do to add to my Gor regiment. Once they are done I will be up to thirty six models and with only four more to hit that golden number of forty I might go for it. At least then it is one regiment finished!

Goff 'Ard Boyz

I gave in. After discussing Orks for the last few months and going through my collection I couldn't resist any longer. I had saved almost all the chainsword wielding Orks from three sets of Battle for Black Reach. I was considering using them, with some conversions, as Stormboyz. I never did anything with them and they just gathered dust. Last week I started glueing some of them together adding some armour pieces so I could use them as 'Ard Boyz. I was going to continue with them as Bad Moonz but I got creative and did them up as Goffs. I just wanted to see how the cheques would work out and I think they came out fine. I have four more glued together and I might get to painting them soon. I kind of scratched the itch and I am not too motivated to continue! Maybe showing off some more of my collection will make me more eager to paint them.

Friday Showcase - Grotz

I love Grotz. I guess all Ork players do. Maybe I should say collectors do as I have never seen Grotz played. I was suprised by how cheap they were, I think €10 for ten. I picked up three boxes a long time ago and painted them really quickly. I imagine they might become more popular especially if mysterious objectives are used. They are the perfect troop choice to send up to find out what a particular objective does. Who cares if the Grotz get killed, that is what they are there for! I have always been tempted to pick up some Grot artillery as they look great, I think Kromlech.eu produces the best I have seen.

The Shadowhorn Satyr

I wanted this guy for a while. I am assuming the Shadowhorn and Gnarlhorn Satyrs will be going plastic when Gargantuans is released. I don't like the new plastic models that much for the Warpwolves and so I thought I had better get the Satyr while I could. I never liked the model until I saw it on the table. It is actually quite taller than all the other Warbeasts, even without the horns. He dwarfs the old metal Feral Warpwolf and even the Gnarlhorn Satyr. Putting him together was easy though he didn't want to stay on the base. I pinned him on of course but with such a tall metal model there is a lot of force on the join with the base. Some greenstuff firmed this up nicely and stopped him from rocking his way off as I painted him. I had this problem with the Warpborn Skinwalkers before and I wish I had done this. They were heavy enough that they began to rock slightly as I moved them while painting. This eventually caused two of them to come free of he base in a shower of curses!

I went with a two brush blend on the skin of the Satyr. It worked out fairly well but muscle tone is a little bit more difficult than metal plates. I also didn't go for enough of a contrast. I find I am generally really conservative with my contrast. In future I really have to actively go for it all out. Still the skin came out fine and he fits in with the other Satyr. I went with darker horns similar to the stock model and these came out well. I only highlighted the ridges on the horns. I think they look good. As far as I understand he is a relatively underused beast in Circle. He sits between a heavy and a light in terms of cost and abilities. He isn't that strong are well protected. At seven points though he is cheap. His animus is useful but I prefer the Gnarlhorn's Bounding animus. The Shadowhorn has Vitality which allows a free power attack and some extra movement on slams and throws. What is interesting is his leap ability allowing him to get into places that the opponent doesn't expect and also sometimes getting himself out of trouble! Tramples are generally better than leap as they at least have the possibility of killing some models during the movement but leap is free and allows you to jump over medium and large bases. It is very rarely going to get you into a position to assassinate but it can often help in taking out some key solos. I still have to figure out a good Warlock to use him with.

Tharn Ravager Archers

It is not often that I post twice in one day. These lovely Tharn Archers were previewed by Matt Wilson on Twitter and I felt I had to share. I have been playing a lot with the Tharn recently and I am slowly coming around to just how good they can be. I am really excited to se what the archers will bring to the mix. Hopefully something good...The original link the the picture is here. I just can't wait!

Hitting a Brick Wall

Linear Obstacles in Warmachine seem to be a rather popular piece of terrain and I thought I would try out making one. I wanted to do a quick mock up to see what could be achieved and this here is the result. I wanted it to tie in fairly well with the other terrain pieces I have so I went with bricks. Using bricks allowed me to thicken the wall a little bit more than if I used some other materials. I wanted the wall to emulate the template provided for these in the rule book. So it should be three quarters of an inch thick. This prevents models without reach from attacking over it for instance. The length was determined by the piece of plasticard I had left. It is about four and a half inches long.

I capped the piece with metal as this again ties in really well with the other terrain pieces. My rust technique didn't really work here as I had to be much more careful than normal. The foam I make the walls from dissovles if the turpentine I use for the pigments hits them. I wasn't able to slather on the washes as I usually would. I think I will tone down the rust for the finished pieces when I get around to making them. I have a few other projects I want to do first. The biggest one of them is getting the railroad pieces done. I finally ordered the sand I need to complete them and once it arrives is will be getting back to them.

One thing that does annoy me a little is random wall syndrome. I like a realistic battlefield. Randome walls have no place on one. They make no sense even though they are fine for the game. If I do more pieces I am thinking I will make them as some sort of a fixed size enclosure. It would represent a storage yard or the like. I think walls like the above shown one might be a little too much for agricultural purposes! I haven't decided yet but I think a terrain piece like this can work.

Iron Kingdoms RPG

I am happy to talk about some roleplaying here again. It is an oft neglected part of my hobby. I was really excited to get my hands on a copy of the Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game on Friday. I haven't managed to spend quite as much time digesting it as I would have liked the weekend once again proved bizarrely hectic. The book cost €59 which is a little pricey, especially in comparison to the dollar price. I guess I will be ordering the supplements from the States. The quality of the book is top notch, though the artwork is repeated in places something that always feels a bit cheap to me.

I am a little dissapointed I have to say. There are going to be a lot of fanboy reviews popping up soon I guess but overall I think the ball was fumbled somewhat with this product. I am going to enjoy playing this but I think for what I paid I could have been given a higher quality product. The game is a wonderful transposition of the wargame onto a roleplaying game framework. The mechanics are solid but seem very restrictive in certain ways. I am saying this without having played so maybe I am completely incorrect. The statistical values of all the starting characters fall within a very predictable range. Having checked through the levelling mechanics, which in themselves are good, there is relatively little increase in these statistics over the course of a campaign. This works excellently in keeping the system balanced, something I applaud in the wargame. It does make your character seem a little bit similar to everyone elses though. The differentiation comes in skills and abilities. These add small but significant modifiers in places that you want your character to specialise. Interestingly a change of a point or two towards the positive has a much bigger effect on probabilities in the 2d6 system than in a d20 system. So maybe I am being unfair. Looking at the raw stats alone and their slow development over time makes characters seem very similar. I hope that the abilities however really allow some specific specialisation. I look forward to proving myself incorrect as I get to play.

The background and setting material is also a little lacklustre. Everything needed to play in the world is provided but maybe that is the point. We are presented with a little bit of everything rather than some specifics. I haven't come across a decent map yet, the book only contains one and its detail is sparse. Khador for instance has seventeen locations named within it. For one of the major kingdoms in the setting seventeen locations isn't much to go on. There are better maps available online but I can't see why new maps weren't produced. I think for a lot of players maps are one of the most attractive parts of an RPG. They spark the imagination in ways that text and pictures can't. I always hated Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay for not providing decent maps in the expansion books. A lot of the 4e Dungeons and Dragons expansions failed to provide decent maps. Moving on the bestiary section provides maybe twenty creatures. Aagain I find that this is poor fare. I can excuse the magic spells having no description, I have often found pages of descriptions for things like that boring and pointless. Some of those saved pages should have been dedicated to good creature descriptions and more detailed location descriptions. I have to assume that a Monsternomicon and some setting books will be available soon. Going on the monsters presented in No Quarter I am really happy with the presentation. The boring presentation in the Core Rules reminds me a lot of what I hated most about 4e. The No Quarter presentation provides a lot more information

Overall I feel that we have been presented with a 'Players Handbook' and we are left waiting for numerous supplements to fill in the rest. I suppose the fact that core rules is printed rather boldly on the cover should have given a lot of this away. It wuld have been nice to have been presented with a Monsternomicon and Setting book along with the core rules. At least then the contents could have been shared better between the three allowing some expansion in certain places. I guess the two supplements a year it is a fine model to make the game viable over an extended period of time. If each year two expansions are published it may keep interest in the game up. The book does leave me hungry for more but I wonder how long that will last.

Friday Showcase - Ork Nobz

I must resist painting Orks! The more of these showcases I do the worse the temptation becomes. Goff 'Ardboyz are the current flavour. These would of course come with a Battlewagon transport as they need to arrive in style. The worst thing is I wouldn't have to buy anything as it already resises in my collection. Lets see if I can resist. My Warmachine and Hordes stockpile is defintely in decline so eventually I have to paint something else. This week I have some Bad Moon Nobz, with a Waaaaagh Banner. I cut this from some Fantasy Battles terrain and it is almost the correct scale. It is a little unwieldy I guess but thats in true Orky style. I want to add eventually a few trophies and a flag but for now it serves its purpose. I never painted more of these guys as I wanted to give them Power Klaws, reasoning that they would be more effective in the game ths way. Seeing as I don't play this doesn't matter and I should top them off with the missing three squad members sometime soon.

Fly, my pretties fly!

I picked up the Scarsfell Griffon last week. It is a great model and the plastic doesn't suck too much. He was much easier to clean than the Man O' War's I had to do. Hopefully more of the plastics are like this. The arms on the griffon can be posed a little differently and I guess with some sclading hot water the wings could be bent a little. That would allow for some variety which is nice. I am somewhat tempted to get a second one as I think they could be really awesome, especially with pKaya. Their extended control range and the ability to teleport them right back to her makes for some interesting hit and run tactics at extreme range. I lost fairly badly last week with this but I wasn't playing Spirit Door properly. My opponent, Owen from Farfaraway.org, showed me the last line of that spell and from then on it was game over. I do still think there is some potential there but it would be an uphill battle!

I don't really like painting wings. They are hard to get looking convincing and they are often really detailed. I checked a few places online for inspiration and I came up with this picture. I wasn't brave enough to copy it exactly but I took a good few elements from it. As is usual I am unhappy with how the painting of the Griffon went. I guess I am never happy or maybe satisfied with my painting. I over did the dark grey/brown on the underside. It is fine on the outer feathers but it is too intense I think when it gets closer to the body of the griffon. Next time I would have kept it to mybe two rows of feathers and then I would have darkened the inner rows more in keeping with the picture here.

I am a good bit happier with the back of the wings. They are a little dark despite what I felt was an extremely light highlight. The orange pieces break up the monotomy of the wings a lot and there isn't much I would change overall. Lightening up the feathers towards the head of the 'beast light have been better but the feathers there are so small and lack a lot of definition and I thought that changing the colour of them might make them look like fur. Anyway he is done now and can be put onto the display shelf with the rest of the Circle army. I just need to paint a Winter Aargus and that is all the light warbeasts done for the army. Incidently the griffon is the 100th model painted for Circle by be.

Painting Fail

Sometimes despite all the best inspiration and techniques painting just goes wrong. I painted this Feralgeist twice now and both times it has come out terribly. The standard scheme is nice but I wanted to go for something a little different. I started off with a blue scheme and it came out really bad. I am not sure why but I guess I started with too dark a base coat. It made the ghost seem too solid. I didn't learn from this however and I think I have repeated the same thing here. The red purple base colour here is just too solid looking. I highlighted it in reverse much like painting flame. I brought it down to a yellow white in the deepest crevasses. It just doesn't look right to me. I won' be changing him however, done is done. I have too many other models calling for attention at the moment. I may revisit him at a later date. Aat least for now he is a lesson to pay a little bit more attention to the planning stages of painting!

Steamroller Flags finished

I managed to get these done over the weekend despite aching muscles. Moving furniture is not something I do eagerly or particularly well. I think the flags came out fairly well although the colour of the internal wood isn't exactly as I had intended. I sculpted a few more little details such as Dryad's Saddles onto them to break up the surface of the wood. The colour scheme fits in nicely with the rest of my Circle Orboros army and I think these will be a nice addition to scenario play. I just need to think of what appropriate objectives I can make now. I think larger stumps wouldn't be quite right!

I am still tempted to make up some more of the stumps to use as a terrain piece. It is a lot of effort for some terrain but I could cast them up to save some time at least. I have a few half completed terrain projects that would cast up nicely I think. The train tracks for instance would be really excellent to cast as would a trench piece I have. Maybe I will research it and see.

Friday Showcase - Ork Painboy

This week has been really busy for me and while I managed to get some painting done I didn't get anything finished. Hopefully the weekend will provide me with a few hours to get some projects completed. At least I can put up something, the friday showcase. This week I have an Ork Painboy. Orks are a great army full of character. The Mad Dok's have been around for a while and I have always thought that they were really cool. I picked one up for my Nobz squad as a 4+ save against almost everything seems fairly worthwhile for the points cost. I just wish I could get a few of these for my other squads. The model isn't particularly well painted just like the rest of the army. These were an exercise in getting something done quickly without too much of an investment of effort. Aas stated before I wasn't very interested in playing 40k much I just wanted to have some Orks. Now that I have begun showing them here however I am tempted to paint some more. I have far too many in boxes and they deserve some paint.

Friday Showcase - Ork Warboss

I painted this Warboss when the last edition of 40k launched. I picked up three or four sets of Orks fairly cheaply at the time and I have a pretty large Ork force now. I wanted him to be a Bad Moon boss hence the large symbol. It comes from some Night Goblins for Fantasy and it works pretty well. I kept the painting fairly simple just to get him done. I started to experiment towards the end of the model and you can see this in the check design on a small part of the Klaw. I should have used the design in a few more places on the model as the armour painted as I did it is boring. It when combined with the gun makes for a very metallic model which is boring.

I have been tempted a number of times to take out some of the other Warboss models I have and to paint them with a little bit more attention to detail. I wouldn't ind doing a Death Skulls or Goff boss just to try out something a little different. Maybe I will do this over the coming weeks. It is too bad that Knarloc Green isn't available anymore as it was the colour I used for all of my Orks. I hope there is an equivalent in the new range. Although looking at it now it is fairly similar to the green I use for my Khador army. I just need to think of a decent yet simple conversion for this guy.

Everyones Favourite - Kossites

Following on from yesterdays solo syndrome I have a different painting disease to discuss: regiment rot. I hate painting units. These guys have been on my desk for well over a week. Only the rare alignment of a productive weekend happened and I managed to make good progress on these. I bought the Kossites as they were on offer and I assumed they were good. This was before I really got back into Warmachine. I have as yet never used them but I doubt they can be as bad as everyone says... right? I hope they will get a unit attachment soon to bolster them a little. Painting these was a little bit annoying. The detail is a little strange, a symptom of early Warmachine models. I kept the colours neutral. They don't fit the colours of the rest of the army but as they are an irregular unit I don't think it matters. They will still look cool on the battlefield.

Witchdoctor

I think it is impossible to paint this miniature without singing the damned Witchdoctor song. It was stuck in my head for the entire day after I finished. That song is a most infectious earworm. I loved this model the second I saw it. It is quite subtle which I think but that is good. I guess this model could easily have competed with the factions Warlocks if designed poorly. Despite having seen the artwork ages ago I thought that he might come with a mask. This would have been too similar to Calaban. Too much robes would have been similar to Barnabas. The model is really nicely detailed. The skull level is acceptable. I hate models that are really bedecked in skulls. I guess a Wwitchdoctor can be expected to have a few.

Painting this model was fun, much more than expected. I guess this is due to solo syndrome. As I have stated all to often I love painting solos. It is one model and it feels like I make a lot of progress quickly. I followed the brown scheme I used for the rest of my Gatormen. This presented a problem as my other gators don't have clothes. I didn't want the brown on the clothes to blend too much in so I went for a colder brown than I usually would. I think it contrasts nicely. I have seen on the PP fora a nicely painted Barnabas model with a green tinge to the robes. I was tempted to copy it but maybe I will keep it for one of the Warlocks.

I have used the model in a game and he was fairly useful. He would have been much more useful if I had understood how sacrifical strike works. I used him with a Posse in an eBaldur list. Adding tough to a unit benefitting from Baldur's feat bonus means these guys are not going anywhere soon.

Circle Flags

I have been wanting to make some 'flags' for my Circle army for a while. I wasn't sure what to do as flags aren't really defined except for their rules. In Steamroller they are pieces that need to be captured generally to win the game. The Circle isn't really an organised military force and has really low technology. I wasn't sure what I could make to represent an objective/flag. I have been playing a lot recently with Gallows Groves and they get killed in every game. The thought came to me that the stumps would make cool flag markers. I had been thinking of using some corpses on bases but I wasn't too inspired by this. It could really represent any army. Using some form of flag or standard isn't really that interesting either.

The stumps were easy enough to sculpt. I built the body out of normal modelling clay and then I made the top. It was just a small lump of greenstuff smoothed out and then I carved small rings into it. A few cracks were added to make it look a little decayed. Once all this was dry I added the sides. The sides were quite uneven as I wasn't too careful about shaping the base lump of clay. This is good as it stops the stump from being too regular. I still want to add a few small details like fungi. I have already added a few skulls to tie the stumps in with the Gallows Grove.

I think these came out fairly well and I am actually considering making some more to use as terrrain. I think they could easily be used to represent a harvested forest. Basically it would just be an interesting piece visually on the board but would otherwise count as a forest. I still have quite a few terrain projects to finish first though...

How do they steer this?

I got the Gun Carriage finished finally. I have been working slowly on it over the last week and it was becoming a little bit of a chore. I painted it in two stages. The horses and undercarriage were the first to get done. I glued these into place without pinning them and now I am thinking I should have pinned them. I guess they will stay attached to the base. I was suprised by how much metal is in this kit. I would have thought the horses were resin too. At least assembly was simple, there aren't that many parts to work with and I only had to fill a few gaps on the horses.

I think the blending worked out for the most part especially with the large flat sides of the carriage. The weathering from the top and the wheels doesn't match 100% as they were painted separetely and I decided to experiment a little. I had wanted to put some dried mud on the wheels which would have covered a lot of the weathering but instead I wasn't brave enough and left them as is. The best mix for the mud I have found involves using plaster (spackle) and if I screwed it up it would be really difficult to remove. So rather than do this with an expensive model I think I will experiment a little more with some other cheaper model. The weathering on top is similar to that which I did on my watchtower. It isn't as textured as the wheels. I still think it looks fine.

So does anyone know how the crew manage to steer this thing?

Angry Trees

I painted these a while ago but I forgot to post up a photograph. I really like the models.I painted them up quickly as they are fairly simple except for the bones and skulls. I hate painting bone and skulls, a hang over from GW I think. I came up with a fairly simple receipe though that works really well. I painted them bleached bone and washed them with a watered down version of Devlan Mud (GW) and then a watered down Gryphone Sepia(GW). I highlight this with bleached bone and white. Finally I gave it a brown glaze and it comes out really nicely. It is far quicker than the normal layering I use.

These gave me an idea for flags for my army. I haven't really been able to come up with a cool idea to use on my flags. I will make stumps I think in the same style as these. Simple but should look fine.

A devastated brush...

My experiments with two brush blending have continued apace. I am slowly making better progress but it is an uphill battle. I got this Devastator finished last week to get some more practice in before I began the Gun Carriage. The metals and other parts are left basic here as I really focused on the green. Again I managed to get the shading in fine. I went much more dark than I have down previously and I think it worked fine. It is three shades in total each occupying about 50% less space than the previous shade. Again the problems presented themselves when it came to the highlighting. I think I am doing it too quickly without enough intermediate stages. However adding all the stages brings me back to layering something I want to try to evolve beyond. I think I will pick up a Merc 'jack to paint with some different colours to see if that is helpful. I need to pick up a Bucaneer at somepoint anyway. I hope the local store has one in.

I am just putting the finishing touches on the Gun Carriage now. It is an awesome model. It isn't a Celestial Fulcrum but it still has its own charms. I only wish the two horses weren't identical!

Steam Roller - Ass Kicking

So yesterday saw me lining out with some friends against some of the best players here in Germany. My local club organised a Steamroller event and despite a smaller than expected turnout we had some great fun. My first round was against a good Cryx player who used Mortenebra. Uusally I find this a tough match up as I can't often deal with the armour easily. However my druids really were the stars of the game. In the first turn they pulled the Deathjack about 10" forward and allowed me to do about 80% damage to him, knocking out his cortex most importantly. Second turn they pulled Seether in while pushin back the rest of the force. Both the Deathjack and the Seether were destroyed in that turn and due to sprint I had nothing within his range. A perfect game for me really.

Things went downhill from there though. The next round was again against Cryx. 50% of the players brought Cryx. I popped down Kreuger and my opponent popped down Deneghra with thirty Mecanithralls. I managed to kill twenty six of them in one turn and both necrosurgeons but my opponent was really canny and pressured the scenario right from the first turn and I was never able to get on top. He won with a scenario victory in Outflank, Outfight, Outlast. It didn't help that I thought that Tornado was a slam effect and not a throw effect. I used it on my Warpwolf to try to help clear some threats and after I had cast I read the spell and realised what I had just done. I wasn't too happy.

Things continued downhill from there. Next up was Skorne and I used prime Baldur. I have not faced epic Morghul before and I was nervous going into the game. The scenario was Sacrifice and I felt I had a good chance at a scenario victory. However I pushed Bladur up and feated thinking I was safe. I was very very wrong. Despite the Archidon having massive wings I forgot it could fly and ignore my feat. I also forgot that Ghostwalk ignored my feat too. I was close to actually surviving as not much could reach me but enough did and Baldur went down. That was a fairly basic mistake so I can't blame anything but my own stupidity. It was still fun to play despite a quick loss.

Then I played some pick up games as we finished way earlier than anticipated. Of course I won these then! That always seems the way. I did get to face off against the newest incarnation of Asphyxious and wow what a 'caster. He really dominates the board and I imagine is great fun to play. Still two Warpwolves to the face are enough to get the job done usually! So there still are two rounds to play today. I will be right in the middle of the first game when this posts. I hope I can pull out some wins now that the pressure is off. Though it is the toughest field I have seen at a german tournament and there are no pushovers at all. There are some shots of the event from yesterday here if you want to see.

Friday Showcase - Ork Mekboy

I have a vague idea that I showed this model here on the blog before. I picked this model up as not only does he look awesome but he is pretty nifty in the game too. I was never 100% sure how the Kustom Force field worked but a cover save for everything sounded great. A lot of 40k tables I see don't have very much terrain. This fellow solves the problem by bringing his own. The other Mekboy models don't have the same attitude as this guy and I guess thats what finally sold me on the model. He reminds me a little of the last metal Dwarven lords for Fantasy. They oozed attitude despite a simplicity, a few more models like these would be appreciated for every game I play.

Butchery Time!

I decided to paint the Butcher. I wanted to leave him until last but I didn't fancy starting work on the Gun Carriage just yet and the Butcher was the only model I had assembled and ready for paint. I kept him in the standard 5th border legion scheme. I wouldhave liked to get a little more contrast with the armour but I wasn't brave enough to really shade him down. I will try it on a Devastator I have assembled here. I think I can really get it darker still and that can only be for the better. I still have to do the base as I haven't varnished him yet. All my Khador will be varnished at once and based afterwards. Maybe I can get a group shot once everything is done.

I have been wondering if I am using paint that isn't suitable for two brush blending though. The Butcher came out fine but on some other models I haven't been finding it very easy. I managed the shading easily but the highlights remain difficult. I use Vajello paints. The base colour is German Fieldgrey WWII. I shade it down with Charred Brown which is easy enough. I highlight it with Dead Flesh. With the shade I get a smooth transition without too much effort but with the highlight it is always a struggle and I seem to only luckily get the effect I want. Does anyone have advice on what type of paint it best for two brush blending?

Grayle Farstrider

I am disappointed with how Grayle turned out. He is mainly armour with some leather detailing. I thought I would get him painted to a much higher standard but I really wasn't able to get a good effect on hs armour. I checked him against some of the other models I have painted. Baldur for instance has really excellently done armour, in my eyes at least. I got some good contrast on the metal and the green recesses came out better. I am wondering though if the varnish I use is having an effect. On my older Circle stuff I used Testors Dullcoate, the old poisonous stuff! It really gives a great matt effect, especially on metals. Maybe this is why Baldur's looks so much better?

I am glad I finally managed to pick up Grayle. I have been eyeing him for a while in the store and I finally gave in and grabbed him last week. I don't as yet think he is that good in the game. He really seems to operate as a super solo rather than as a support piece. With a good charge and side step he can deal a lot of damage reliably to infantry. Storm Rager helps out a lot with this. Sprint then gets him out of trouble. I think that this leans heavily to one style of play and it is one that can be countered easily by a canny opponent. I will get Grayle to the table soon and see what I can figure out for him. I have no idea what a good list for him would be...