The Great Hobbycation of 2017

So this year I took an extra three days off during the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US. I stayed home for 9 glorious days of sleeping in, hanging out with the dog, gaming with friends and painting models. Tomorrow I head back to the real world, but I have one night of painting left in me. Its been fantastic.

This "Hobbycation" has also coincided with a neat little hashtag on Twitter called #Hobbystreak. The goal is to do at least 30 minutes of hobbying a day, share your results, and see how many consecutive days you can string together. Its meant to motivate you on projects, inspire others and make taking time out for doing something you like a priority. So far, I've managed to get 18 consecutive days in! I'm aiming for 20. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, here's what I've accomplished over 9 days of pure hobby time!

In preparation for the release of Necromunda, I started on some Sector Mechanicus
kits I was sitting on.

I've managed to create a system to paint this stuff up really quickly.

A squadron of French ships-of-the-Line guards this platform under construction.

You all saw this jabroni last week, but I finished him on the
first day of my vacation.

This thing beats the hell out of the granaries I scratch built out of Quaker Oats tubs when
I was in college.

This is now the 4th skull crane I've done. I should put that on a resume.

I cannot wait for some hot sweaty Gangwar action on this badboy!

I added a third Contemptor to form a Talon in my Horus Heresy army.

God help me, I tried Shadespire and liked it. I'm 3/4s of the way through the Orruk war band.

I used these guys as an excuse to experiment with a
different skin tone. I didn't want to paint green for the
millionth time.

The chance to make comments in a dopey Bane voice makes this guy totally worth
having in any war band.

He likes to bash things. That's his thing. Apparently. 

I finished 10 more Poxwalkers, completing the whole 20 in the Dark Imperium kit.

I set about making a custom conversion from my Inquisitor Greyfax model. I have lots of plans for this gal.

Its been quite an adventure. I'm sure some people would consider my Hobbycation a living Hell, but for me its been Heaven and really great way to recharge. I may have to do this again next year!

Cheers!

Slow Week - Adding To My Orks Here and There

Just painting some more Orks this week. I added a Weirdboy and some additional Shootaz to bring that unit up to 30 models.

I really didn't like the current Weirdboy model very much. Its also Finecast,
which I've tried to avoid as much as I can. Instead, I made a Weirdboy using
the AoS Orruk Weirdboy and spare Ork parts from a Deff Dread kit.

I added parts from a Scorcha to each end of the staff and added a skull plate as well.
Then I made a backpack out ofanother piece of the Deff Dread.

I was going for a bit of post-apocolyptic vibe on all this.

These last 7 guys brings my Shoota mob up to 30 - a fearsome prospect to face.

Cheers!

 

In the Grim Darkness of a New Edition

So I've finally managed to start getting in some games of Warhammer 40,000 8th edition. Two whole games in fact! Both were relatively modest-sized games at the 50 Power Level size, and I got creamed both times but had a lot of fun doing it. My first game was against my buddy Stuart and his Necron force.  We played the Eternal War scenario as neither of us had taken the game out for a spin yet and we wanted to keep it simple.

Game 1 on a 4'x4' board vs the Necron dynasty.

Basic Necron warriors come in distressingly large units in this edition.

I REALLY really really really wanted my Deff Dredd to make the acquaintance of Stu's Necron Lord.
Unfortunately, the 20 warriors on the gantry had something to say about that...

He slaughtered me to a man, and it took me most of the game to get to grips with his forces but when I did - oh, boy! it was on. I managed to kill his Lord and wipe a unit of warriors off the board, so the loss didn't sting too much even though I felt behind the 8-ball from the start. But that's a pretty common Ork player feeling.

I really like the streamlining of the new rules system. There are some things I think they kept for purely meeting older player expectations that could be ditched - I still find the Strength vs Toughness system slightly tedious as opposed to the speed of Age of Sigmar's fixed wound rolls but I know that most players seem to regard this as quintessentially part of GW's games so I don't really fault them for keeping it. Especially not with their big money maker IP. All told, the game feels easier to pick up and plays super quick which solves most of my major complaints about the previous editions. I'm also loving the use of Power Levels instead of Points Values - army construction is much quicker, and its only conceding an expectation of some level of balance rather than promising a totally balanced game (which no-one ever really pulls off anyway).

My second game saw me squaring off against the Adeptus Militarum, ably led by my friend Marky. This was my first time experiencing heavy tanks in the new edition, and while they seemed scary at first I don't think they were crazy over-powering in the game. In fact, his ability to make his troops move quicker or fire twice seemed much more deadly to me. Again, I was slaughtered to a man and really only managed to damage some tanks and kill a squad.

I broke out the full 4'x6' for this game against Marky's Imperial Gu- ahem - Adeptus Militarum.

The Stormboyz assaulting the refinery LOOKED awesome.
But a turn of firing and a Morale check wiped them off the board.

In the end, a unit of Shootaz took the objective, but again were wiped out by the fury of the Guard.

Not Pictured - the Killa Kans who assaulted the Hellhound. Because they were dead by the time of the photo.

A very aptly named Leman Russ Punisher variant held the center of the entire game.

I feel like I'm missing something tactically with my Ork army. Units of less than 30 Boyz seem to be a total waste and I'm having trouble even getting larger units to connect with anything due to the sheer weight of firepower that I've faced so far. There still obviously a lot for me to tinker with in the army - I'm not so much interested in winning games as I am in giving as good as I'm getting. After only 2 games I'm not going to moan about the army - there is obviously something I'm doing wrong. And part of the fun of a new edition is figuring that out and turning things around! If you have any Orky Know-Whats to drop in the comments - please do. In the meantime, I'll keep playing and seeing what I can learn from each defeat.

Cheers!

Celebrating the 4th - Nerd Style!

Whew. Its been a couple weeks since I posted anything on this blog. I wish it was because I was busy with lots of models I was working on, but I was just a little burnt out and enjoying the start of the summer here in Seattle (which needs to be enjoyed before it vanishes!). I've ended up with a nice long weekend to celebrate the 4th of July (US Independence Day for my non-US readers) and I decided to do EVERYTHING nerdy apparently.

On Saturday, I played 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons for the first time. I don't think I've actually played in, and not ran, a game of D&D since I was in grade school. My buddy Josh ran us through the first in what I hope is a series of adventures in his own setting and I don't think I've laughed and had such a good time in a long while. It was great fun to play and solve problems (or create them) and let a story evolve rather than plan and run a game. I'm playing a Dwarf Fighter, Ulf Rolfsson - who I'm vaguely patterning off Sean Connery's character in "The Untouchables." The bad impression is a lot of fun to do in game.

"Just like a goblin, brings a knife to a crossbow fight!"

Sunday, I set up a Napoleonics game and three friends came over to fight a critical made-up battle for supply depots during the War of the 5th Coalition. We managed to complete the game in about 3 hours and had a great time. Somehow, the Austrian Army managed to brutally savage the forces of the French Empire despite losing the initiative for 7 out of 9 turns.

I broke out the full 12'x4' set up for this battle.

French starting positions.

The Guard advances! Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough to carry the day.

After battling it out over the rolling fields of Bavaria, we switched gears and travelled to the far future of Warhammer 40,000. This was my first test drive of 8th edition. My Orks faced off against Necrons and got stomped pretty hard. I learned a ton about army organization and missions in this edition from just one game. I liked that it played pretty cleanly; and while my Orks had an uphill battle all game,  I felt like that was more about my own poor tactics rather than just having a bad set of army rules. I'm looking forward to playing some more games of 8th ed - and I'll share my thoughts on that at some point.

My Waaagh! advances across a desolate refinery world against the newly awakened Necron horde.

Even at 50 PL, its a lot of Orks!

Its also a LOT of Gauss weapons… 

These are my buddy Stuart's lovely models. 

Ohhhhhh! I so wanted this showdown to happen - unfortunately the 20 Warriors on the gantry had other ideas.

Paint-wise, I finished up a unit of 3 Killa Kans which brings my Ork army over 100 Power Level-things. I also finished up some more Shadow War scenery and I'm already eyeing up getting a little more. Because I am crazy, apparently. But for now, I am fully satiated on gaming after this weekend and my feet are sore from standing at gaming tables because I'm a million years old I guess!

Huey, Dewey and Louie are ready to rumble!

I had such a great time this holiday weekend and I'm really lucky to know such awesome people to game with!

Cheers!

Mixed Bag 7 - More Orks and a Void Shield Generator

In my excitement for the upcoming 8th edition of Warhammer 40,000 I've been spending a lot of time with 40k and I'm still kinda amazed at that. I've already shelled out my dosh for a pre-order of the new game and I'm eagerly awaiting it on the 17th of this month. In the meantime, I'm adding some more Boyz to my mobz and another Nob to the Nobz Mob.

Just 10 more Slugga boyz to either add to an existing unit or form a new one. I'll have to see the rules
before I decide.

Anuvva Nob fer da mob! I love Power Klaws. Luv 'em!

I also assembled and painted up a Void Shield Generator as part of a scenery deal for my buddy Marky. This thing was a LOT of work to assemble and was absolutely crawling with detail. Nuts. But I'm happy with the end result.

The finished Generator. This thing has so many detail on it that I really don't
envy the Eavy Metal painter that had to do the studio version.

Just a 3/4 shot. I think the green is a little more intense than I intended, but I can
live with it.

There are even a pair of poor dumb servitors built into this thing to keep it functioning.

Big Red Button of the AdMech. 

Even moar skullz!

And the Great Seal of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Don't
cross the Seal.
Or the streams.
Good advice in general.

And yes, I managed to build the kit so that the gears can still rotate.

-Cheers!

More Shootaz! And a Paintin' Tutorial

I have added 10 more Shoota Boyz to my existing mob this week, bringing the whole lot to 20 some odd models. Or, a proper-sized mob as you might call it. I had planned on doing this during 7th edition 40k as shooting was so much bigger a part of the game than assaulting, and I hope its the right decision for 8th edition (which I am eagerly looking forward to).

10 more jerks to join da scrum!

I also painted up another Nob to bring my Nobz mob up to 9 models and a Warboss. I think I'll add one more for an even 10 down the road.

A very slight conversion of making the power claw right
handed and the pistol in the left. Yeah, I still feel dumb
for not puttying that arm seam. Dag.

While sharing this guy on Facebook, I was asked for an Ork tutorial so I guess this guy is as good as any to show it on. Build the model and add sand to the base first. I always prime Orks black and then attach the assembled model with a touch of superglue onto a little painting post so I can hold that and not touch the model as I work.

Step 1: Basecoating
Skin - Vallejo Heavy Grey (sort of an Olive drab)
Pants - P3 Coal Black
Boots/Straps/Cloth - Vallejo Charred Brown
White Areas - paint GW Ushabti Bone over the Brown
Metals - GW Leadbelcher for silver and Vallejo Bright Bronze for gold

Step 2: Shading
Give the entire model a coat of
Army Painter Strong Tone Ink.
This step is really best done before you go to bed for the night, or
go out shopping, or play Diablo for hours, or whatever it is you do
where you aren't staring at a model and waiting for ink to dry.
It takes a good hour or two for this stuff to dry.

Step 3: Bringing the Color back up
Drybrush silver metals with GW Runefang Steel.
Give the lower areas of gold a thinned down wash of P3 Brown Ink.
Leather areas are highlighted with Vallejo Dark Flesh.
White areas are painted with a coat of GW Ushabti Bone.
Skin is given a coat of Vallejo Heavy Grey, leaving some recessed
areas in shadow.

Step 4: Highlighting
Drybrush the gold areas with a little GW Auric Armor Gold.
Mix 50/50 Vallejo Skeleton White with GW Ushabti Bone and highlight
the edges of white areas.
Mix 50/50 Vallejo Heavy Grey with GW Ushabti Bone and highlight
the musculature of the skin.

Step 5: Details
Add checker board pattern with P3 Coal Black.
Dot laser eye and tubes on Power Klaw with Vallejo Red.
Add some final skin Highlights on the lips and jaw with
25/75 Vallejo Heavy Grey and GW Ushabti Bone mix.

Step 6: Almost there!
Wash very thinned down Vallejo Red over the lips and mouth.
Drybrush the base with P3 Greatcoat Grey.
When dry, randomly drybrush some areas on the base with
GW Trollslayer Orange. 

Step 7: Tidying Up
Paint fangs and nails with GW Zamesi Desert.
Add red stripes with Vallejo Red.
Add a dot of GW Trollslayer Orange into robit eye.
Drybrush bash with GW Adminustratum Grey

Step Done: Being Done
Add a highlight of GW Ushabti Bone to fangs and claws.
Trim the base with Vallejo Black.
Add a tuft of grass using Gamergrass tuft and a dot of superglue.
Then go crush in the name of Gork. Or Mork. Or both.
I don't tell you how to live your life.

Yep. And dat's it. All dun. Its a quick way to get a nicely painted model on the board. Its not going to win any Golden Demons, but it will look better than 90% of the stuff out there.

Cheers!