Tharn Wolfriders, finally done!

It is a bad picture as I couldn't get the focus to work correctly however this is the proof. They are done! Well actually when I was taking the photograph I noticed that I hadn't done the bases. I just packed away the models once the painting was done, I had had enough. I think the problem with the Tharn in general is that they have a lot of small details and it takes a lot of attention and effort to get them all done. The wolves were really nice to paint, especially as I went for varied colours with them all. That meant I wasn't getting annoyed painting the same colour over and over again. I think each wolf took about an hour of painting in total whereas the riders took far far longer.

Here is a much better shot of an individual Tharn. Hopefully you can make out the detail a little better than on the unit picture. I am guessing I need a decent tripod to get unit/army shots. You can also see that I made an effort and got the bases done. So the unit is finally finished. I went with a more normal human skin tone rather than the purplish colour I got before when highlighting their skin on other units. So now I am moving on to doing some solo's and getting the Beastmen for the Tale of Three Gamers done. I want to make sure that I hit the dealine this month at least!

A Tale of Three Gamers - Month One

Hopefully there is no Mayan Dragon destroying the world today, if so I think you can ignore this post and see the more important issues! Anyway I haven't managed to get a post up on our Tale of Three Gamers for a while. Slow progress and being sick hasn't helped thats for sure. We all failed to meet the target but hopefully in Month two we can make up the short coming a little. Alan had too many holidays, lucky him. Gar damaged his wrist, unlucky him. I was too distracted, silly me!

Here is the progress I had made as of the deadline. The chariot was almost complete. I really under estimated how long it would take me to get everything done. I thought the model would be fairly simple. The chariot was really difficult to attach to the two hounds and took quite a lot of fur sculpting to get it done properly. I am still not 100% happy but it is better than the two Tuskgors. I would have liked to get a collar or harness sculpted on there but with the sheer volume of fur I assume that it would be next to invisible.I only had the two hounds to do and I will get them to match the hounds I have done before. I am pretty burned out on painting hounds but I have maybe twelve more to do for this army at some point so I had better get used to the idea that I am doing them soon. The crew were handy enough to paint. I followed the basic sample model I had painted before as far as the colour scheme. I am not sure about the red shoulder armour. The colour is nice and dark but I am not sure if it suits the green? I am not changing it now but I might not use it as extensively as I had intended. I wanted it for all the armour in the army, especially on the Bestigors. It would also be a nice colour on the banners but maybe the green suits that better? This month I will finish the chariot and then get into the meat of the army. I want to have at least one core unit done and therefore I have choosen to do some Ungors. I think 24 is a decent number to start with. I will eventually expand the regiment to at least thirty but that would be a bridge too far at the moment! To accompany them I will paint 12 Gors with additional hand weapons. That means I have two fieldable regiments and a good foundation to build upon in the following month.

Gareth will be catching up which is fair enough. Maybe next time he will watch his step on the stairs! So thats thirty clansmen for him. Alan has set a more ambitious target however. He is endeavouring, despite Christmas on the horizon, to get the Cavalry from last month, a wizard and a chariot done. Looks like chariots are popular! So stay tuned for a progress report and some photographs next week from us all!

Friday Showcase - Pureblood Warpwolf

I missed a post last week due to lying in bed with a temperature. As a treat I thought I would put up one of my favourite Circle models, the Pureblood Warpwolf. I remember falling in love immediately when I saw this model. I really think that the sculptor did an awesome job, something the Circle are lucky with. I wanted to follow the studio scheme and that meant white. I really don't like painting white, who does? However I did it and I think it came out okay, the shading is a little more subtle than is optimal but otherwise it is fine. Thankfully there was enough armour and leather to provide some good contrast to the white. In comparison to the other models in the predominately dark army the Pureblood really stands out. Thats fine as he does provide a great centerpiece sculpt. I just fear what the new plastic incarnation will be. I can't imagine it ever approaching the awesomeness that is this sculpt.

Sick

Thankfully I am not sick anymore. I came down with a nice dose of the Man-Flu last week and then combined with that I managed to acquire a gum infection. So no painting has been done for a week. It was in a way nice to get a break. I did manage to get the Tharn finished before I was sick and I will get a photograph up. It was really nice to get those Wolfriding ladies finished. I only have four of their foot slogging sisters to do and thats them done. The models are great but I hate painting them! I also have some progress for the Tale of Three Gamers to put up, I will try to have it ready for tomorrow.

Domination Rocks

So I have been playing around with some rocky terrain before as you will have seen here. Now that the Domination release scenario is out I thought I would get busy and make some of the boulders for it. The scenario demands three boulders based on large 50mm bases. So I got busy and cut some old cards up. I didn't like the idea of actually using Hordes bases for them so I used one as a template. I drew onto some old bank cards and then cut around them. Its not 100% perfect but it is fine.

Onto this I put some cut down pieces of cork. These are the exact same as the ones I used in my previous rock terrain but much much smaller. They overhang a little but not so much as to effect gameplay. I used some cheap modelling clay to blend the base into the bottom of the cork. The bottom of the cork is usually really rough so after I had glued the pieces down there were large gaps. I just filled these as best I could with the modelling clay and then left them to dry. This has the added benefit of giving some weight to the pieces, stopping them from being too idly knocked over on the table. It also helps to stop the base warping when painting and flocking.

Once everything was dry I simply sprayed them grey with my airbrush. It really is the only way to paint terrain otherwise it takes an age even with a large brush. I got some new propellant from Faller and it is far more awesome than the GW stuff plus it comes in much larger qunatities for a much cheaper price. Then to finish the pieces I just drybrushed them with progressively lighter shades of grey until the final dybrush with white. Basing was simple too and I tried to keep it close to my standard colours. Someday when I make a table I will use this on it too and tie everything together.

So now I have a nice large out crop thats nearly 5" in diameter and three smaller ones of 50mm. All of these would count as obstructions. A few more would make for a really nice board that offers some tough tactical play. I would like to do some hills next with rock faces to match. I would make them fairly massive though and then storage starts to become an issue. I also have a few other projects that need finishing first, such as my Circle Orboros reinforcements. If you want to check out the Domination scenario you can find it here. I also created it for Vassal and you can find that here. In case you are interested in further pictures of how I made these pieces you can check out their big brother and how I made him here.