A SHORT Post Today

GET IT?!

The past couple of weeks have seen me working on some little projects (get it? Get It?!) that I thought I could finally share. Due to a trade with a friend, I came into the possession of some more Westfalia Halflings and I decided to expand my force a bit. I added eight more Halberdiers to the existing unit of twelve, so now I've got a nice meaty group of guys to anchor the core of the army. 

Ready to Rumble. Or at least their bellies are rumbly.

Now that I've got a good sized army, it was time to add some scenic bits for them to defend. I built the two Hobbit Hovels in the first picture because I just couldn't wait for the resin ones Forge World is producing to come out. Before making them, I scoured the internet for a nice step-by-step set of instructions on how to make a hobbit dwelling and nothing seemed to give me what I was looking for. I'm building a third hole at the moment and I'm taking pictures as I go, so I expect to put up a tutorial soon. 

Over in Age of Sigmar-land, the latest General's Handbook has dropped and that usually heralds a change in points and rules for some of my armies because of course it does. Seems like the Kharadron Overlords were the most affected - I lost over 200 points off my existing army! So now I had to add something to bring it back up to 2000 points. I didn't particularly want to drop the money or time on an additional sky-ship, so I turned my attention to the Shadespire war band, Thundrik's Profiteers. 

Thundrik + blimp guy+ some guys with guns = PROFIT.

These guys were cheap to buy, quick to paint and seem hideously over-costed for the game. Perfect! They are all really nice models and I continue to be amazed by the Plug-and-Play style models GW is making lately. 

Cheers!

Day Late Due to Nerding

I usually try to update on a Sunday, but this weekend was a little full. But here we are! First up, I've got ten more Imperial Fists added to my Horus Heresy army.

"Yellow for the Yellow God! More Lemons for His Lemon Throne!"

This brings me to four ten-man tactical squads in the army. Along with a ten-man Breacher Squad and a ten-man Tactical Support unit. My next unit for the army will be an Assault Squad, giving me seven Troop selections, which doesn't seem too shabby to me.

In addition to painting this weekend, I also got in some gaming. I took my Kharadron Overlords out for another spin, this time against the crazily mobile and magical Stormcast Eternals. I knew the Stormcast were tough, but wow - I didn't realize just how hard hitting they were. 

We played a 1500 point Matched Play game.

The scenario would be won by whoever inflicted the most Wounds by the end of five turns.

I went for broke on Turn 1, sending my Frigate and its compliment of Arkanauts straight through a Realmgate and into
the teeth of the Stormcast. It. Did not go. Well.

Eventually, I did get stuck in with the rest of the army and the shear weight of my firepower carried the day!

I'm really enjoying playing the Kharadron Overlords. They offer a nice mix of shooting, mobility and squishiness that makes commanding them a bit of a challenge. This game saw me play much closer to "competent" as I remembered and used most of my army special abilities and utilized the shooting phase in a much more correct way. I'm looking forward to getting more games in.

I also got in some role-playing gaming - I've been running a mini-campaign with a Gamma World theme for my group. They've been trying to secure an Atomic Totem (Nuclear Missile) for their village and ended up having to transport it across a deadly highway populated by giant Kaiju. I created a little mini game where copilots had to try to "Drift" a la Pacific Rim. 

The biggest, dumbest Kaiju in existence - this blog's Author;
explains how to play this madness.

The Jaegers, "Delta Stryker American" and "Beam Head Blitz Wrecker", had to escort a hauler carrying
a nuclear missile down the highway while fighting an ever increasing array of kaiju.

It was a lot of crazy fun and the group successfully got their totem off the table, but just! The mini game was successful enough that I might develop it into something in my spare time, but that's probably just the dice and Mountain Dew talking. I dunno. 

Cheers!

Mixed Bag 14: Singles, WIPs and Gaming!

Trying to continue with the weekly update... I've done it twice now, so I'm totally gonna keep it up all year, right? Ha! We shall see. Most of my painting this week has been one-off figures and prep work, so not super exciting.

    

I finished up two single figs this week. First was a High Elf Dragon Prince. I needed a commander model for an upcoming game of Kings of War and this guy had been languishing on my painting desk for a while. I figured he'd make a good Elf King to game with. He also acts as a test scheme for a full unit of these guys - a project I should get cracking on.

Later in the week, I cranked out a quick Aethermic Navigator hero for my Kharadron Overlords. This was the last model I needed to bring me to a 2000 point army. I ended up having to mail order him directly from Games Workshop, as no local stores or Amazon dealers carried him in stock. So much for giving the FLGS the business if they can't get what I want. Ugh. In any case, I should take some nice beauty shots of the whole army at some point, because I think I'm done painting Sky Dorfs for a little while.

    

I also worked on a few more High Elf archers and, you guessed it - started ANOTHER Tactical Squad for the Horus Heresy. This is the last one for a long, long time; I swear!

Finally, I wrapped the week up with some gaming. I managed to get in a small game of Kings of War to kick the tires on the system. Its fine. I like the simplicity of the game and it goes quickly, but I think we really need play it with larger forces. At 1000pts, everything dies just a little too fast. Until I can expand my army for the game, I think its hard to judge the game's merits.

My High Elves stand ready to defend a small settlement.

A rampaging horde of Gobbos advance from the hinterlands to crush the Elves.

Later, we played a big game of Age of Sigmar. I got to use my Kharadron Overlords against an immaculately painted Beastmen force. We had to control bits of falling stars that randomly arrived on the table. I decimated the Beastmen in a hail of bullets, but ended up chasing my own tail so much that I got blitzed when it came to scenario points. It was a ton of fun though, with a lot of back-and-forth. 

Those minotaurs go down hard. Don't let anyone tell you different.

After killing the shit out of a Minotaur Lord, my commander fell to the fury of a very upset Bestigor herd. I guess that's why they are the best...igor.

A unit of Gors and a Beastman Chariot totally crushed a unit of Arkanauts. Unfortunately, one poor dumb bastard survived so I couldn't shoot at these units with the rest of my army.

Every time I play Age of Sigmar, I like it more. And I already liked it a lot. Its just a nice fun and intuitive game - even if it does use way too many die rolls. I've been on a bit of tear with it lately - a few weeks ago I got in a game against an amazingly painted Daughters of Khaine army. I managed to squeak out a victory with my Overlords on that one. 

I was very worried about the amount Witch Elves on the other side of the board, but some judicious application of hot lead saw many of them off to meet Khaine in the afterlife.

These girls are hot. No really. That's magma.

Morathi is a beast. Literally. Look at that tail. But like any rabid beast, a gun will solve that problem.

More gaming and less painting lately, I guess. It'll probably flip back to normal soon. 

Cheers!

Meet the Sky Fleet

Gunhaulers guard a mighty Frigate as they go to war!

With the advent of the New Year, I'm going to try and make a real effort to keep this blog updated each week. Sometimes that seems pointless since I share a lot of WIP shots via Facebook or Twitter (@cwalton73 on Twitter), but I think its a worthwhile exercise to collect what I've done each week here. Lately, I've been making headway in getting my Kharadron Overlords to 2000 points by adding another Gunhauler. 

Two of these will add some real firepower and help the survivability of my
Frigate.

I genuinely think these things take longer to build to than
to paint.

I still need one more model to bring the force to 2k - an Aethermic Navigator. Despite my best efforts, it seems I can only get this model directly from Games Workshop. So now begins the painful waiting for it to ship. Ugh! In the meantime, I will console myself by building more Heresy marines. 

Cheers!

End of the Year Total and Thoughts on Army Painting

As 2018 comes to a close its time to look at how many models I finished this year. My current count is 300, which falls short of the goal I set for myself of 365. Still, I'm pretty proud of my effort. I'll probably set the same number again for next year - I think its an achievable number and even falling short is laudable.

  

This week I finished up some more Heresy Era Imperial Fists.

I added three more Skywardens to this unit to bring me up to a six man unit.

A heroic Endrinmaster to add some nice repair options to my
Overlords.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the processes I use to get armies painted. I've always considered myself more of an army painter than a miniature painter. Bear with me, because in my head there is a difference. While I can spend a lot of time on a single model, its always done in relation to a collection or a force for a game. I've come to enjoy the techniques and planning that is needed to complete an army and I thought I'd share some of the things I always try to keep in mind to get a painted force onto the board in a reasonable amount of time. These are the things that work for me, and maybe they'll work for you or give you a place to start.

Make a Plan 

Having a rough idea of what and how much you need to paint is an essential step in painting armies. I'm not saying you need to get all Charlie from Always Sunny in Philadelphia with the intricacy, but having a roadmap generally helps me. If I'm painting a force for a particular game, I will try to make a small army list of what I'd like to paint and what will get me playing games at the most basic level. I'll certainly expand eventually, but its important to break a project down into multiple chunks. This will let you feel like you're accomplishing things and lets you get excited for the future. If I don't have a game that will help me organize a force, or I'm just collecting some models because I like the range; I'll still try to break it down into smaller goals - for example collecting an painting all the infantry before I start on vehicles. What's important is that I'm not setting out to own it all and have it painted at once. Its just too overwhelming.

Consistent Techniques

A while back when I was working on my Kharadron Overlord army, I was showing off some work in progress shots on Twitter. Someone (I forget who because I'm a monster) encouraged me to add some Cassandora Yellow glaze to my golds because they thought it looked awesome when they had done it and I should experiment some. While I'm sure it gives a nice result, there was no way I was going to change the recipe I had used for the gold armor for 75% of an army at this stage. Maintaining a consistent look and color palette is essential for army painting.

This isn't to say you shouldn't ever experiment - by all means do so when you're working on a one-off model or a trying to nail down a test model for an upcoming army - but once you've started painting a force, its time to make sure that you're approaching your paint application consistently. This consistency unifies the overall look of an army. It also saves you a huge amount of time if you aren't approaching every new model for the force like its a blank canvas.

Even armies that are painted neatly with no shading or highlighting will look unified and cohesive if you use the same colors across the whole force. Far too often, I see armies where its obvious that new techniques were learned or tried half-way through the process. The force looks disjointed and messy because some models are simply painted while others have more advanced paint jobs. Aim to have everything on a similar level. If you're going to change techniques you need to go back and spruce up the older models in your collection.

Maintain a Consistent Painting Schedule 

I was gonna start this section with a list of reasons why people don't paint, but in the end those reasons don't matter. What does matter is that if you want a fully painted army, really want one, you'll make it happen. We all make time for the things that we enjoy or are important to us. Or we should. Completing armies is a commitment I make to myself and in many ways is a form of self-care. I want  something to be proud of at the end of a lot of effort and I make time to paint.

Maintaining a consistent painting schedule is an essential part to how I complete war-games armies. It helps with sticking to a plan by not changing my army's composition because I haven't painted in a while. It helps with maintaining consistent techniques because I'm not having to remind myself how I painted something several weeks or months ago. Momentum builds and its easy to stall out and get distracted or start new projects if I'm not doing a little bit every chance I can squeeze in.

I'm lucky that I enjoy painting. That its a form of relaxation for me. I get it if it isn't for you - and if its not, you should not spend your precious free time doing something you don't enjoy. But, if you really want a fully painted group of toy soldiers you have to commit to doing a little as often as you can. Thirty minutes a day. Once a week. Whatever you can schedule, because you need to maintain that momentum.

In Conclusion

There's a lot of other stuff to cover, but I think these three main points are the best advice I can give to anyone painting an army. The rest is mostly technique and color theory, and that requires patience and practice.

Happy New Year to all, may your brushes keep their points and your dice roll sixes!

Cheers!

Mixed Bag 13: Bits and Bobs

After a big project like my Nurgle Knight, I have a tendency to slow down a bit for a week or two hobby-wise and pick off small projects and this time was no exception. I first returned to my High Elf army and knocked out a couple of extra Lothern Sea Guard models and a Sword Master that I had laying around. These models will just add to the existing units to bulk them out a bit. I actually played a game of 6th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle against my buddy's gorgeous Goblin army, but sadly forgot to take any decent pictures.

The addition of these cats will really help out their units. In our game, my regiments felt
painfully small.

Then it was a quick trip to Age of Sigmar Land to finish off a character from my Kharadron Overlord collection. This time it was an Aether Khemist, a very useful character model that can buff ranged attacks for nearby units. I have a feeling he and my Grundstok Thunderers will be the very best of friends. 

I was literally going for quick and dirty with the paint job on this fella.
I managed to crank him out in about 2 hours.

This guy has a ton of details, but I just wanted to keep him simple. I think it
helps him feel cohesive with the rest of the army.

Afterwards, I made an about face and headed back to more Elf-y goodness and completed a second unit of armored Archers and another Bolt Thrower. I think this firepower will really help the army in the long-run. 

This should help me dominate the shooting phase and make Orlando Bloom happy. 

I reversed the color placement from the scheme I used on the original unit. This way, each unit feels slightly distinct while still maintaining the feel of the army by using the same colors.

Finally, I also swung into the world of DIY paper miniatures for my D&D group's latest adventure. We play a super stream-lined version based on the original D&D rules that takes a more narrative "theater of the mind" approach and normally eschews the need for miniatures and maps. This adventure was the culmination of a year-long story arc and would be pretty complex. The characters were attempting to get a hold of a magic hammer and destroy a cursed gem in the midst of a battle between Cthulhu-esque Cultists and undead Dwarves. It was also a lot of fun to quietly do this and pull it all out for the final encounter. Everyone enjoyed it a lot and I was really glad I made the effort. 

The intrepid adventures prepare their plan to run the gauntlet and claim the Hammer of Creation from the Temple of Arra.

All the standees were designed to folded into place.
Also pictured: My tubby mug explaining something. 

The hammer was floating over an altar between two massive statues. It was a simple effect to pull off and really sold the
adventure.

The evil High Priest and his army of cultists and Deep One allies nearly managed to thwart the
players' efforts, but the forces of Good won out in the end.

I really enjoyed making these paper-craft items. There is a certain simple charm in them when they are done. 

My next "big" project that I'm gearing up for is building a Storm Eagle gunship for my Imperial Fists. Its a lot of work with resin and I feel like I need to mentally prepare for it before jumping in. Wish me luck.

Cheers!

Guns, Dorfs and Elfs!

The last two weeks have been a really eclectic painting line up for me. I managed to knock out some long-waiting kits and start on some others that have been sitting on the periphery of my painting queue. Adding a second Vindicator to my Imperial Fists was the first project that came all together. I've always intended to do a siege warfare theme for them and this ties that up in a bow. I've now got a little over 3,000 points to play with and I'm itching to get some more games in with these guys.

Beeeeg Badda-Boom. Two of these in a big game should give my opponent serious headaches. I almost considered three, but that just felt over the top. 

Next in line was a Grundstock Gunhauler for my Kharadron Overlords. I had gotten the model with a "Start Collecting" Box and had put it on the back burner as I wasn't too impressed with its rules. However, the scuttlebutt around the Games Workshop page tells me that the Overlords are seeing an across the board points decrease, so I'm sure I'll need it to fill out some new room in my army.

Another fun kit for this army. If nothing else, it'll be good support for my Frigate.

I'll say this for the Gunhauler - its got a lot of balls.
Cannon balls.

Finally, something of an oddity jumped into the front of the paint queue this week. I had the High Elf contents of an Isle of Blood box sitting in my cabinet forever, and I've finally decided to start painting them. Long ago, I owned a High Elf army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle and loved them dearly but time and tide have seen those models off to greener pastures. The plastic Isle of Blood models are the ultimate rendition of that old line in my opinion and I've wanted to paint them for a while.

A unit of Lothern Seaguard in progress. I've still got to do the Champion, Musician and Standard Bearer to finish them.

I also scoured eBay and found these original plastic High Elf archers, which I have an
inordinate amount of nostalgic love for.

When I started this project, I wasn't really sure what game I would base the High Elves for; but a buddy is working on a Goblin army that he was basing for classic Fantasy Battle so I decided to go that route. After some discussion we settled on using the 6th Edition rules for Warhammer as it was hands down my favorite edition and there is a lot of stuff available for it online for dirt cheap. We are both trying to  focus on armies that are going to give a fun, close game; rather than world crushing army lists. My hope is to capture some of the old school feeling of Warhammer where it was a story-telling device rather than a competition game. I'm aiming to have a 1000 pt list done in the next month or so. Wish me luck!

Cheers!

Never Mind the Maneuvers, Just Go Straight At 'Em!

The full might of Barak O-Bomb-Ya on display.

I've finished the first 1,000 points of of my Kharadron Overlord army for Age of Sigmar. I've got the next 500 points planned out, but first I want to try and get some games in! This force has been a ton of fun to paint and I'm chuffed with how it all turned out. 

I spent an hour or two each night for the last week working on my Frigate, and I'm really pleased with end results. The army feels super cohesive and now its just a matter of adding to it slowly, using the same techniques.

The Orca (because of course that's what I named it!) in all its glory. Once again I ended up using
a metal rod in place of the flying stand, and I'm really glad I did. It not only adds sturdiness to the model,
but let me gain some nice height as well. 

Its a lonely existence navigating through the Aether!

The runes and ship name were done with home-made decals. 

"Hooper drives the boat, Chief…"

"Once I caught a fifteen- footer offa Montauk. Took two barrels to bring him up!"

"Full Ahead. I can go full ahead. Why don't you come down here and chum some
of this shit?"

As you can tell, this army is worth playing for the Jaws quotes alone! I'm super excited for it to hit the table-top. Wish me luck!

Cheers!