December challenge ~ Day 30

The Seneschals and Knights Exemplar are done! Finally! Now to decide what to do with the other 16 models...

Two of them have fully painted requirements attached, the other 14 are base coats. Not sure what I'm doing with those yet.

Anyway, here's a pic. And here's a link to the rest of em.

Look! They're painted! And based!

My favorite out of the bunch, Seneschal with arm swap.

And because I'm a dork, I took a screen grab of this from the forums:

I think I made Ghost Ship Captain a week or two ago after reaching 500 posts. Tonight was 666 -- from tonight's update in my painting thread!

And this is how it looks with my two sigs all prettied up:

Still not sure how long I'll keep the otter pics up. Maybe the new year will bring a new avatar and profile pic. Who knows. 

Off to paint eKreoss and Deathstalker...

December challenge ~ Day 29

The Knights Exemplar will be finished tonight. Come hell or high water, they will be done. Both units have received their magical armour (yeah, British spelling since it's old Citadel stuff) and two knights have gotten their Sanguine Highlight applied. I have two Seneschals that are awaiting completed banners and bases. GE Kreoss should go fast as well.

After nearly a month, I can safely say I am tired as hell of seeing these models on my desk. It's a shame that they'll get painted and put into foam, but they will be painted.

I've been too afraid to total up the number of Cygnar models I'm getting painted for TC. I know it's more than 30. No biggie, assuming I can hit my challenge goal. The main difference is that I've given myself a few extra days, which will leave a little more breathing room.

In addition to the TC Cygnar, there are some conversions I'm working on. We'll see how they go. In all likelihood, I will post pics in this space; I'm not sure how much of it will make it to the PP boards.

I can say, with all certainty, that the Vanguard is the single most frustrating model I've assembled. I've done two Thunderheads, with a third on deck, I've pinned tiny-ass bows on Blighted Archers, I have fully assembled and pinned 20 Knights Errant -- all with different poses! -- and this one, stupid model nearly brought about its own destruction last night.

Thankfully, I set it aside and will attempt assembly after I get the December challenge stuff out of the way. But JTFC, it makes my head hurt justing thinking about it.

But it will be pretty. Dammit, it better be.

Finally! Painted model pictures....

I have had these done for a while, and thanks to Jen, I finally have pictures to "show off" what I have been doing with my painting.


This is Hierarch Severius perched atop two lucky acolytes.


And this is the Fire of Salvation, or "Fuego" as his friends know him.

I will get more up soon, just though I would get something up before the new year.

Go go Royal Blues...

There's been a slight change of plan in my quest for world domination via the Pink Horde. The battle cry of "axe to mouf" will be replaced, for the time being, by "eat electric death!"

I'm going to a gaming convention.

With airfare as cheap as it is, a very affordable convention pass, and a place to crash, it was a no-brainer for me to decide to attend TempleCon 2009. They've got 24-hour gaming! Did I mention it's in Rhode Island?

I've never been to the eastern seaboard, not sure how much I'll actually get to see. But it'll be a good chance to meet some of the East Coast Press Gangers and play in a fairly relaxed tournament format called Eternal War. And after reading this in the PP forums, I knew I wanted to go.

So we'll see. I've got three lists -- 500, 750 and 1000 (for Eternal War) and I will be fully painted since I'll be representing Boise. I'll have a model count ready by Jan. 1. As far as I'm concerned, everything I'm painting for TC needs to be finished by Feb. 3, as the plan is to fly out 5 February. I should return 9 February, catch my breath, run a Steam Roller 4 tourney on 15 February and start Call to Arms 2009 on 16 February. And run MonPoc.

The one silly thing I did with Christmas money? I bought another Thunderhead.

It's not a bad paint job. But from where I am now, it's not a good paint job either. The T-head did well for my against Circle yesterday, but the paint job pissed me off. So he'll be retired and I'll paint another one -- faster and prettier.

I might as hit 2009 running. I will have plenty of time to get the Trolls painted for the Invitational, and I might even learn how to win with the buggers.

Axe to mouf -- Revenge of Dangerfish!

So just how many Kriel Warriors is too many?

As it turns out, 28.

I needed to see if the 30 KW army would be effective at all. With 28, that got me close enough. And the answer is no, it is not effective.

Today's list was:

eMadrak

Bouncer (Smiley B)

Impaler (Smiley)

Fell Caller

Fell Caller (Juan Cinco)

KW (10) + UA, + Caber

KW (9) + Caber

KW (9) + Caber

Kriel Stone Bearer & Stone Scribes (6) + SS Elder

Champions

49 models, 748 points, 25 VPs.

I tried something new with prepping the Pink Horde for painting -- I added 30+ drops of FFW to GW Magenta ink. Covers really nicely over the gray. Doing the guide coat with Citadel black wash; I think these will go fast when they take their turn on the table. There is a very small chance I would need to bring a fully painted Menoth or Cygnar force to another con in February, but I need to see if 1) I can afford it and 2) I should go. I would like to go, they have an awesome tourney format, but we'll see. Airfare is pretty low. I just don't know that I could get everything painted. But anyway.

I won the roll (after we tied on 4s) and went first. KW1 with caber, SS Chronicler, Champs and Cinco, Smiley B and Smiley, eMadrak, KW3 behind, KSB and SS Elder, KW3 with UA and caber.

Here's how things went down, assuming I can read this chicken scratch I call handwriting.

Jen Turn 1

EVERYBODY RUNS.

Mike Turn 1

- Thorn advances

- Hunter shoots Smiley for 4 points

- Finn shoots KW3, gets 2 on strafe attack. Murders the untough leader but doesn't damage the two other KWs targeted.

- Black 13th moves, wants to do some of this Troll murder like Finn!

Ryan shoots, misses; Ryan shoots, misses. Lynch misses. Watts misses. KWs rejoice!

- Haley activates, arcs Chain Lightning onto Sm

iley. Rolls snakes, Squire re-roll, attack hits. Mike rolls 6 for additional arcs. Smiley, 16 points, no damage; Bouncer, 18 points, no damage. Champ B, 17 points, no damage; Champ A, 19 points, 2 dmg; Champ C, no dmg; Champ D, no dmg; Kithkar, no dmg.

- Thorn yo-yo out of Champ charge range.

- GMCA advances, long shot Smiley, 16 points, no dmg.

Jen Turn 2

- KW1 run

- Champs run

- Bouncer adv

- Smiley boosts hit on Hunter, no crit. Does 6 points of dmg

- KW2 advances. Caber gets into position. Tosses onto Finn for 4 points; kills SK and SK leader. UA pops mini feat (tough on 4s or better)

- KW3 runs from position in the rear

- eMadrak advances and hugs tree

- KSB activates Protective Aura.

Hey, tree hugging is for Circle, damn hippie!

Mike Turn 2

- Finn shoots into KW2, gets 2 strafe again. Initial target tough; strafe 1 dead, strafe 2 lives (didn't need tough!)

- Hunter shoots Bouncer, 8 points of damage

- Storm Blades charge Champs and do their standard bearer eat electric death thingie. Champ B takes 3 hits -- tough, tough, not tough! Champ A takes 6 points, not tough. SBs have no targets for charge attacks!

- JWC advances, Arcane Shield on SB.

- Rowdy falls short on Bouncer charge

- Thorn moves

- Haley + Squire move; chain lightning into KW1. Spell misses. Squire re-roll misses. 

- Thorn yo-yo to safety

- GMCA runs toward center of board

- Black 13th time... Lynch shoots first, KW tough; Watts hits KW tough on a 4; Ryan initial attack, no dmg, 2nd attack hits, no dmg. Time for 4" AOE. Gets 5 models for POW14: tough, tough, tough, tough, dead.

Orange dice indicate who was tough. Mike was displeased.

Jen Turn 3

KW1 were awfully close to where the SBs were. And had a fully loaded caber.

- Caber hops on hill with SB. Cinco does War Cry for +2 on attack; Prayer of Potency adds +2 for strength. Four SBs lined up for caber, all 4 die

- Impaler throws on Rowdy for 4 points of dmg

- Bouncer does no dmg to Rowdy

- Champs move in and finish off SB

- KW2 charge; Finn dies (not tough), SK lives, SK dies

Mike Turn 3

- GMCA shoots and misses non-Cinco Fell Caller

- Hunter misses Champ in melee, uses reserve tank to escape

- JWC throws Arcane Shield on SKs

- Rowdy smashes Bouncer. Night night, Smiley B

- Rhupert plays Heroic Call for SKs

- Thorn advances

- SK charge KW; 4 dead, 1 tough

- Black 13th moves again; Watts kills KW; Lynch murders piper; Ryan kills KW x2. 

- Haley activates, arcs Chain Lightning at KSB; 3 arcs. Three dead KSB

- Thorn yo-yo

Jen Turn 4

Too few Kriel Warriors now.

Extremely ineffective turn.

- Smiley frenzies, murders KSB. Gee, thanks.

- Champs attack Rowdy, only D manages 3 points

- KW1 run

- Fell Caller does reveille on knocked down KW3.

- KW3 run to find targets

- eMadrak feat

- Chronicler attacks Rowdy for no dmg

- Champ D attacks Rowdy, no dmg

Mike Turn 4

- Arcane Shield upkeep

- SK advance to non-Cinco FC, gain flanking bonus from Thorn. SK does 1 dmg on 1st attack, 4 on second; SK misses, 27 dmg, tough; SK does 25 points, KW dead. KW cmd check, 3 flee

- GMCA blaze round on eMadrak, misses with 13

- Thorn moves

- JWC shoots @ caber, misses!

- Hunter moves, shoots Champ C for 7 points

- Piper Heroic Call on SK

- Black 13th activates; Watts shoots Champ C, misses; Lynch shoots Caber, tough; Ryan shoots KW, tough; shoots again, no dmg, here comes POW14, 4" AOE - caber tough, KW tough, KW - dead. Pass cmd check w/5.

- Haley activates, arcs Chain Lightning on KSB2: KW tough, SSE tough, Smiley takes a point (why the hate??), eMadrak 4 points

- Thorn yo-yo

- Temporal Barrier

- Rowdy quake attack, knocks down 2 champs, Chronicler.

Game called due to time; Mike 8, Jen 4

The biggest problem was getting stuck behind my own models. I will run 2 units of KW and I'm investigating a second unit of Champ. Tweaked the list yet again, we'll see what I can come up with. In the meantime, sleep sounds good.

Axe to mouf -- a win!

I was able to get a rare game in today. Two, actually. Since OC Graham's party was Saturday night and I wasn't sure what time I'd wake up Sunday morning, I arranged for my shift to be covered. And the promptly arranged a game. Mike said he wanted to face Trolls, so we scheduled a 750.

Silly me, I didn't take notes during the fight. I took pictures, mostly after my turn. I kind of have an eye deer of what happened, but it's gotten fuzzy now. So I might just end up making up stuff and rely on Mike to pop in and tell me I'm full of shit. :)

This is the Stone Scribe Elder. To quote someone else, "he will rock you!" I rolled my eyes when the comment was made, but in all truth, this dude kicks ass. That's why he has a fancy base.

This was deployment for Game 1. From left to right, I had Champions, Fell Caller, Stone Scribe Chronicler, full Kriel Warriors with UA and Caber, Slag Troll, Impaler, Kriel Stone Bearer and Stone Scribes with Elder, Bouncer, eMadrak, Fell Caller 2 (aka Juan Cinco) and KW (9) with Caber.

Mike won the roll and advanced his Cygnar. In order for there to be axe to mouf (you never go axe to mouf!) I knew I had to run my Trolls the first turn, probably the second. And so run we did.

Mike's Cygnar advanced. He had a Defender to my left, Sword Knights with Thorn as back up, Ol' Rowdy up front, Strangeways, Bokur, old man Nemo and the Squire (eeeee kawaii!) and Long Gunners with UA. As a Cygnar player, I understand there are many times where the models that fight for the Thundar Chikin will be outnumbered. With my Trolls on the board, this was exaggerated even more since everything on my side was on a medium base. It was a metric fuck-ton of models.

But see how far they got after Turn 1? It helps when your mantra is "run, Trolls, run."

By bottom of Turn 2, I had Cygnar all up in my Troll grill. On my left, the Defender was sticking it to my Champs. They did some damage but not enough. My unit of KW didn't like the looks of Rowdy. Nothing like a caber to the facehole to make you have a nice sit down. I think the Pile Driver was the only successful caber throw I had in both games.

If you take a closer look at the photo, Nemo is on his back. That's because eMadrak, thanks to Far Strike, ricochetted his ax off the Bokur and into Nemo. The bad thing for Nemo was that he had no focus and a boosted POW 17 isn't something you can live through. He did, then I popped eMadrak's feat and Nemo expired.

The game was over too quickly and we agreed to play a second game. Little did we know it would be a brutal affair, rife with horrible dice rolls, the Fell Caller Who Wouldn't Die and Long Gunners who more than earned their points.

Changed a few things with deployment for Game 2. This time, Mike had Thorn to keep an eye on Nemo. Ol Rowdy was also in better position to dish out some pain. Long Gunners would prove a good match for the KWs on my right flank. Bastards.

Mike won the roll again and went first. Team Pinky ran Turn 1. I think this pic was from bottom Turn 2 because the Defender is all the way across the board and the SKs have begun their defense of the middle. I think that's a Fell Caller engaging the Defender. If you look toward the Long Gunners, you can see a faint pink smear from where they ventilated Smiley, my favorite Impaler. Note to self: 11-man CRA to the face -- twice! -- is hazardous to your health. A moment of silence for Smiley.

... ... ...

I could have had the KWs on the right flank swing to the right of the hill, but thought I might need them for screening further down the line. They seemed to be enjoying listening to the Fell Caller tell dirty jokes from atop the rock.

This is Mike's dead Bokur. Those are the dice I rolled on damage. I wish I could remember how the hell I killed him. Knew I should've taken notes. But he was very dead. Of that, I'm sure.

[edit] Mike reminded me it was a buffed up KW who killed him on the charge. I wish I could remember which model, because he'd get moved toward the front of the painting line. In any event, the KW was benefiting from Stone Strength and Potency and hit the Bokur with a POW 14 on the charge.[/edit]

This is where Rowdy turned Trolls into bitches. He did his Quakehammer knockdown thing and pasted the hell out of Slaggy. If only Slaggy's hands weren't oversized, he might have been able to get out the way. Smiley B was pissed about Smiley's death and was able to hang on for a few more turns. I like what the Slag Troll is capable of, but I'm seriously considering dropping him for another Impaler or even another Bouncer. We'll see.

An absence of Sword Knights and many fewer LGs. Juan Cinco ran into the Long Gunners and another KW ran with him to engage. Two LGs decided to take it for the team and moved out of melee with Juan, who pasted both of them. But that set up a 9-man CRA, which Cinco lived through a total of FIVE times. Hence, he was dubbed Cinco. And Juan Cinco is just funny.

Down to the last of the KWs in both squads. Fell Caller 1 would end up running around the tree to engage Nemo. When he was able to attack the following turn (Nemo didn't do enough to kill him), he put a hurtin on the old man. Chain lightning (eat electric death!) and ball lightning made short work of my KWs and damaged eMadrak as well. He wasn't able to transfer damage at this point and couldn't use one of his troops to eat the damage.

I was able to move Madrak to where he had a clear shot at the Squire, which was surrounded by the KW standard and piper (hit em with your flute, Greg!). I boosted the hit on the Squire, pasted it and ricochetted into Nemo -- again a boosted POW 17. eMadrak notched a hard-fought win.

The character jacks are definitely worth their points. Rowdy was able to knock Madrak down, which delay the assassination run. The Thorn yo-yo is very effective at keeping the lil fella out of the way. Having Strangeways and Junior cast every turn and get Nemo up to 10 focus with the Squire ... wow. Makes me sad I'm training with my Trolls for the next few months.

And I've learned to love Long Gunners again. The UA is a must for them; the ranking fire and the additional shooter on CRA is quite nice. We're both looking forward to the Sword Knight UA; that's the one that will make it painful for me to keep playing Trolls.

I learned a lot. Winning does help, but just going through the motions and seeing what the proper order of operations is with those guys is huge. When I play Amon, there's a definite rhythm with the way I do things.  I'm slowly getting there with Trolls. 

Now to get them painted...

Day 18

I've been a bad blogger and not posting things here. And I've been lazy about uploading photos from the camera. But when the crazy thing has a 4gb card, there is little incentive to upload. :P

I should be panicking at the prospect of 30 models between now and the 31st, especially since there will be several days where no painting will take place. For example, I will paint in the morning -- I've been setting my alarm for 8 -- and goof off on the computer and paint some more. More often than not, I end up on the PP forums >_< (modeling & miniatures, duh) and causing/getting into trouble in the Press Ganger areas.

So, there are 12 Knights Exemplar, 2 Seneschals, 1 eKreoss, 1 Blessing of Vengeance, Rhoven & the boys and 10 Knights Errant on the desk. Along with 10 Kriel Warriors and several blisters of product dying to be assembled. It turns out I have a surprising amount of Mercenaries. Privateers, Rhulics and a little of everything else.

Sitting here and looking at my sort of base coated Mariner and Freebooter, I think the Privateers will get Trollblood base with red; Rhulics are already Caterpillar yellow; Stannis and Steelheads and other Mercs will be Trollblood with some flavor of green -- whatever complements the Trollblood base.

I didn't count numbers on the blisters. I know I have better stock than the local Hobbytown, which is OK since I got a lot of it there for 50% off. I'm not going to guess how many points are unassembled, but it's pretty terrible. I think there are 4 or 5 casters in there, tons o jacks (thanks to the Great Cynar dip of 2007) and more troop models than I should have. I have a tiny bit of Circle, Skorne for nefarious reasons, a wee bit o' Khador and just enough Cryx where I should research which models I really want to play. I'm going for the pinchy ones with claws, since my theme there is "Rawk Lobstah!" The Khador, and there will be Khador, shall be painted bright pink like my Trolls. I will likely acquire the Epic Butcher this weekend since he's 50% off. Seeing Orsus in bright pink is funny in my world. And there's an idea for a list I'll steal, assuming the models won't cost an arm and a leg. Who am I kidding? I really shouldn't buy anything until I'm fully assembled.

The best part about all of this? I have rationalized it because I'm a Press Ganger now. No, I don't know how to explain the models I bought the 3 years before I became a PG. :P But I have bought a decent amount in the past 2 months...

Edit: There may be a bit of confusion about my new avatar and profile pic (probably not, but humor me). For whatever reason, December makes me think of otters -- mostly because there was member night at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and you could see the lil critters more easily. Back in December 2001, an otter named Roscoe died at the Aquarium. His face became one of the logos there and he's the namesake for my cheerful dog. Plus I found cute pics, so there ya go.

December Challenge- update

Someday I will finally get off my butt and post pictures of some sort, but as of today I have all of my Protectorate warcasters painted. I finished and sealed the Harbinger of Menoth this morning. Yesterday I finished and sealed a full unit of Flameguard Cleansers. So what is left? Vengers, Errants, 2 Seneschals, Gravus, and a unit of Daughters of the Flame. Twenty-five models in all. To be fair, the Seneschals and Gravus have been inked and are ready to bring back up. I threw a base coat on all of the Vengers, still have some spots to go and a lot of touch ups before I ink them. Errants have the base coat of Vallejo White Gold liquid metallic down, and the foundation red, and Daughters have a basic idea of what I think I want to do with them.

Progress seems a little slow, but I am getting there.

Pictures shhould be following. Eventually.

scott

Day... 13?

Stormguard are being counted in the "done" pile!

I'm not sure why I was insisting on painting mine blue; I like the knightly models with Cold Steel now that I've painted 2 units like that. There are plenty of folks who say it's lazy to paint with metallics and inks and washes. But you know what? It's 20 models done in 13 days. I am not going to complain about that in the least. And I'm fond of the way these SG look. Good thing I found a workable paint scheme since I have 20 of my own to paint ... some day.


Anyway, here's the Sarge. His weapon is large, when I first saw the model, I mocked it for looking very anime. But after using it to shoot the shit out of my opponent's models, it can look like that. It's big for a reason.

Didn't have the steadiest hands today, weather has gotten colder and my right wrist is killing me. The reason I posted the pic of the Sarge is because I used the wrong armor wash on him. I grabbed the bottle of P3 armor wash and thought, "hey, I haven't used this for awhile." As I'm watching it coat the surface of the Nexus Generator, I thought, "It's not working right!" Oh wait. Wrong wash. So as a result, the weapon isn't as clean as I would have preferred. I guess you could argue it's battle worn, but I think it's sloppy. C'est la vie. I still have time to touch up.

* * *

In other news, the Trolls got taken for a test drive yesterday. It wasn't the severe ass beating I took at the hands of Staggs, but it weren't pretty, either. It comes down to needing to run EVERYONE Turn 1. eMadrak and the Krielstones were out of the fight the whole game. I needed the buffs from the Elder (proxied him with the Kilt Lifter!) and I couldn't get him there. At least I learned something.

This was how I deployed. I need to bunch up my dudes and get them ready to run. I think I got hung up on the fact I'm using 40 medium based models...

Turn 2. Terrain aside, I needed all that stuff in the middle to be a lot closer to Scott's army. Out of the frame to the left, my Champs and one Fell Caller were taking on an Allegiant.

These are my new favorite dice. I am a sick enough person that I have 16 of the Skully dice. After forsaking me, the shiny, glittery pink dice stayed in the bag. These rolled pretty hot for me -- to the tune of 10 out of 25 tough checks. I kept count because I couldn't make one against Staggs to save my life. I had one Troll make 3 in a row. They also did well on attack rolls but need motivation for damage rolls. Between the dice, my Press Ganger coin and the fact I was wearing a pirate shirt maybe I should play Privateers. :P

Or I could just paint what I have and like it!

Finally catching up...

OK, so it took me a while to actually get here. I am a Warmachine Player, and I play primarily Protectorate, though I have been known to play any and all of the Mercenaries, have a sizeable Cygnar force and have been known to dabble in the Khador Realm.

I decided to take the December Challenge and vowed to paint:

Avatar
Harbinger of Menoth
Testament of Menoth
Hierarch Severius
5 Vengers
10 Knights Exemplar Errants
2 Seneschals
10 Flameguard Cleansers
6 Daughters of the Flame
Gravus (both models)
Sunburst Deliverer Crew

This has been more about finishing models than starting fresh. A lot of these have been base coated, the Cleansers have been inked, just not finished, and the Avatar and Harbinger have ended up being repaints.

As of today, I have finished the Avatar, Sunburst crew, Squire ( I know it wasn't on the list, but it was fast and easy and a break from the grind). Gravus, Severius, both Seneschals, and the Testament have been inked, and I finished the Testament this morning, along with eSeverius' base of acolytes.

Back to getting things done. I will post pictures when I am able.

Quick switch

OK, so everything looks the same, and really is the same.

But I had to fix one thing with this blog.

When I started it, I apparently typed "ghettorkore" as my URL. I can't believe I did that! But since Blogger makes it so easy to export and import the XML (which is still all magic to me), I exported from the old and imported here.

Day 9, really done

OK, they are based and have 2 coats of Armory Matte on them. The Sword Knights will get their Dullcote tomorrow, weather permitting. 

Tonight, I'll work on the Deathstalker for about an hour and then get ready to focus on Storm Guard. Not sure how long I'll be about to paint tomorrow night since there's a good chance I'll have to open on Thursday. So, tomorrow afternoon needs to be productive.

Graham's Cygnar will be living here. I have this army spread out between imageshack.us, the PP forums here and flickr. No, I most certainly do not have my shit together.

Day 8, SK completion!

Yes, they are done, except for bases and some glaring touch ups the camera discovered. Stupid 10 megapixels!

Anyway, to avoid duplication of photos and such, the update is here.

So, we're down to 42 models in 22 days. Or are we?

I'm seriously contemplating adding Trever's Kriel Warriors to the mix. For one, I'm jonesing to paint my Trolls after all of this discussion about the PG Invitational. Sure, it's in May, but I'm committed to bringing fully painted to PP headquarters. I'm a little torn about how much to post about the Trolls. It's no secret they're bright pink, but there's a part of me that wants to not post pics of em, just for shock value. Then again, you can't really behold the brightness unless you're in person. I think my boxed set looked really good, but most folks passed it off as just another gimmicky pink army. Whatever. I paint what I like, I like what I paint.

But Trever's Kriels are yellow, like his Champs. And then there's Wade's Troll army, which is going to be green (not as bad as it sounds, will have to paint something and post it to prove my point. :P) And let's not forget the ever-present Legion case o doom that requires painting. I'm glad Wade is patient.

Ah, what the hell. Here's my Troll list:

• Madrak Ironhide, World Ender
• Troll Impaler (Smiley, the painted one)
• Dire Troll Mauler
• Fell Caller
• Fell Caller
• Feralgeist
• Stone Scribe Chronicler
• Kriel Warriors [10]
• Standard & Piper
  
• Caber Thrower
  
• Kriel Warriors [10]
• Caber Thrower
  
• Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes [6]
• Stone Scribe Elder
  
• Trollkin Champions
  
• 43 models, 746 points, 25 VPs

Very attainable by May. I just need to find away to speed up the painting of bright pink. I've got some things I want to try that involve a magenta guide coat, but I will end up waiting until I get through the December Challenge models. Although eMadrak is calling to me... we'll decide when I'm more awake.

The addition of Trever's Kriel Warriors depends on if I get SG finished tomorrow (OK, later to)night. Hopefully, the weather will hold and I can at least get them primed to I have the option. The weatherliars are calling for snow.

Day 4

It's late again, so much for getting to sleep at a decent hour. I finished painting around 2, but had to edit and post pics and post to the PP boards. Which is why I'm not going to post pics here tonight.

The update can be found here.

I have a feeling I will be adding another 12 models to the vow. The SKs are under control and the SG is getting there as well. I need to get Trever's Kriel Warrior painted and would like to get Haley's Warpy 2 done since I've got a mod I want to finish. And since I'm waffling on my contest entry, I might as well add the Stalker since I'm painting her anyway.

Aside from that, it's killing me to have the Allegiant and Squire unassembled. Scott has painted both kung-fu fighters and the Squire is done as well (I think). Plus, I have all the models I need for my "alt" Black 13th. I will probably work on all of those together. I just need to find one of my Caine arms; need a magelock pistol.

Anywho, wicked headache has started, I think it demands sleep.

Day 3, Part II

Brush, the might Windsor & Newton Series 7. Size 3, used for everything, yes, even eyes. It sheds awfully. It's fairly dirty, but dislikes being run through brush soap. It freakin rocks.

Sword Knights.

I forgot about the damn Sword Knights. So that brings the December model count from 42 to 52. As if that wasn't enough, the Squire and Allegiant came out today. And AAG got the shipment of Uncharted Seas starters. 

Graham's Cygnar has moved to the front of the line with authority. And let me take this moment to say the Brush and I are really, really fucking tired of painting Cold Steel. Love the color. Thought about going with something GW for a moment, then said no, I want Cold Steel. So I bought a cheap brush and a pot of paint and threw the shiny on two Sword Knights while waiting for 4ok to finish.

Craig Ferguson was a rerun (regrettably) so it was iTunes time and paint. Roughly 2 hours later, I have shiny dudes on my desk. Again, the Canon makes it too easy to take really nice pics, which I'll get to in a moment. But first, about Brush.

Brush and I came together about 3 years ago now. When I first got into this whole painting thing, I wanted to do everything cheap. "I don't need no fancy paints. I don't need no fancy brushes." Well, that changed in a hurry. After a few months of craft paint, I started buying Vallejo; I still use Vallejo Magic Blue for my Cygnar. It's quite a bit brighter than the studio scheme, and I like it.

A little bit after I upgraded paints, I realized it was time to upgrade brushes. After flitting around the forums, I was introduced to Windsor & Newton Series 7. I placed an order with dickblick.com and have been using my size 3 brush happily ever after. I own 6 size 3 brushes. I have tried to use newer brushes, but they always misbehave. I've got one that forks as soon as it touches a model, so it's extremely annoying to even ink or base coat with. I've got one I used because I didn't have Brush, but I keep coming back to Brush. It's creepy.

Brush should have been retired at least a year ago. And it really hasn't been the same since the speed painting contest I entered 2 years ago. I don't go out of my way to abuse Brush, it just kinda happens. Like tonight.

I timed myself for the final Storm Guard. It took me about 5 minutes to get the right parts coated in Cold Steel. I never paint that fast. Then again, I don't usually have as many models to push through. Brush was angry, and there was always cat or dog hair getting in the way. Weather changes definitely affect the sable; splitting, errant hairs, it just happens more when the humidity goes up. But the worse I treated Brush, the better the paint went on. Anyway, to the pictures. Sue me for liking my Brush. :P

Thankfully, I had an assembled and primed unit of Sword Knights. It's not like I was going to paint them for me anytime soon.

About an hour later, they had Cold Steel in the right places, and in some of the wrong places. At this stage, it's more important for me to get through base coating as fast as I can so that I have more time to spend on detailing. It makes sense in my world, and has worked in the past.

In the interest of my sanity, I *had* to paint another color. While Cold Steel is very nice, the Sword Knights looked funky with just one color all over. Since I've been breaking out the Citadel paints Joel gave me, I thought Polished Blue would be nice. I think a dose of my magical armor wash will work well on all of it.

And here are the 20 Who Were Painted. Leaving the halberds off the Storm Guard is full of win. There is no way I could've painted each mini in 5 minutes. It will make painting their suits and leather straps much easier. I can't wait to see how they look with the armor wash concoction. I added about 30 drops of Future Floor Wax to a full pot of Citadel Amour Wash. It's pretty similar to the P3 stuff and it was easier to add the FFW to. Keep finkers crossed.

Day 3

OK, a quick post while I'm between coats of primer.

Late last night, I realized I need to get Graham's Cygnar done before he gets here on leave on the 19th. So in addition to the 29 Menoth models to paint, I have 12 Cygnar minis -- full Storm Guard, Lancer and Haley (the nice variant sculpt). That brings the total models to 42 for the month.

That would be true except I got a dwarf done for Lance yesterday in about 45 minutes. And, I've got a Warpwolf on the table as well. I am fairly confident I can get them all done; the strategy is to make sure every single model gets paint on it every single day.

The exemplars are all close to the same spot. The dipped unit of KE needs to get shoulder pads and tabards painted, and the good news is, I've decided on an armor color -- Reaper Shadowed Steel. A little less "plain" than Pig Iron and a different hue than Cold Steel, which will be used to trim all of my knights. The relic blades will be Radiant Platinum and maybe VMC White Gold. We'll see. Still trying to reduce the amount of gold used on my PoM models, saving it for solos, unit leaders, jacks and casters. My TFG have no gold on them and I like the look.

Anyway, pics.Graham's Cygnar "starter." Halberds are pinned and will be painted separate from the models. I will be able to paint the troops much faster this way. Not sure if I'll paint Haley and the Lancer before or after troops. He wants the "purtee" paint job on Haley.

The Seneschal with the KE leader's arm. I have 4 of these. They should not all look the same. I have had great fun playing with the macro setting on the Canon. This also means I must paint much cleaner.

My Errants leader. He helped kill Gudrun (both times) last week vs. Scott. This unit has deserved a paint job for about a year.

December challenge

So for some strange reason, I've decided to participate in the December painting challenge on the PP forums. This will be in addition to any commission work I do... just looking for motivation to get some of my stuff done. And there will need to be commission since tis the season to need $$$.

But here's what I'm planning on painting:

Faction: Protectorate
Points: 560
Model Count: 29
High Exemplar Kreoss
Blessing of Vengeance
Exemplar Seneschal
Exemplar Seneschal
Exemplars Errant [10]
Knights Exemplar [6]
Knights Exemplar [6]
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard [3]

My head isn't necessarily right at this point, but I've got the motivation to paint -- mostly because Scott has been painting like a fiend. That, and because I'm tired of not having painting Exemplars. So we'll see.

In other news, I'm officially a Press Ganger (ph34r!) and I got a new camera so closeups will be much nicer! I've had my Canon PowerShot SD 770IS for about 2 weeks and I've taken a ton of pics. It's small enough to fit in my pocket, it's 10 megapixels and it's tiny. Be afeared.

Time out

Not sure what my painting schedule is going to be for the next month or so. Wade keeps giving me Trolls, I'm painting Trever's Trolls now too and I've got a ton of Cygnar on my desk. And there's the ever-present Legion I need to finish. *sigh*

More importantly, I'm still trying to get my head on straight after receiving news of my grandfather's death. It wasn't a shock or a surprise; he was 94 and we knew the day was coming. But I wasn't ready for the call I got from my uncle on 16 October.

I thought I was OK and moving forward. Today felt like a normal day. Work went well, go things straightened out for the WM league and had time to check out the Press Gang forums. I eventually lost the urge to paint tonight, got online, then dinked around in iPhoto and decided to post of pic of grandpa. And after posting to Facebook, I realized that no, I'm not OK.

We'll see. I've gotten too good with the painting to quit. I'm just tired of fighting to be happy right now. I don't feel like putting forth the effort. The funeral is Friday, and I'll have plenty of chances to try and be brave for my grandma and mom while I'm back in the Bay Area.

I have been asked to write the obituary and will post here and in the normal blogging spaces.

And yes, I do have pics to post from past projects; that may just end up being a link to a gallery.

Just forgive me if this space get even more neglected.

Jen

Slacker, be thy name

No, I have been painting. I just haven't been posting.

Finished the Bouncer, Gnarlhorn and Woldwyrd. Currently working on Trever's champions, Wade's Mauler, Haley's Alpha and Woldwyrd.

I have pictures from everything I've painted in the past few weeks, just need to clear off space on the hard drive so I can import them. 

At least the work has been steady. I've definitely got enough to paint to get me through the end of the year. The next goal will be to make sure Wade is fully painted for CheeseMachine on the 19th, which means he'll need to finalize a list. 

Any how, I figured I better post something here since this space has been neglected. :P

Change in plan...

So Wade has picked up Trolls and would like me to paint them. That means Challenge II will be reshaped and rethought.

I picked up the Bouncer on Thursday; the Drakhun is pissing me off. As long as I still get it done as a going away gift for Graham (who is at basic as we speak) I will be happy. It just doesn't feel like the right model for the contest. The Bouncer has been inked and I have until Tuesday afternoon to make him look all purtee and stuff.

I still have most of Wade's Legion to paint, but the addition of Trolls means I will have some much-needed cash coming in. It also means I need to start writing invoices so I know what I've charged him. He's the best client ever; it's cool to work on retainer.

Anyway, I thought an update was needed since I haven't posted anything in awhile. I think the next pics will be of the Gnarlhorn and Bouncer. Maybe even Ol' Rowdy, but I'm not sure when I'll squeeze in painting for me.

Based

In an amazing act of patience, I threw down basing materials on all of my Trolls -- 11 small bases, 32 medium bases and 2 large bases. Also based the Gnarlhorn and Ol' Rowdy (who is amazing!).

There will be a priming party and then the Trolls will be ready to be painted. I'm not completely sure where they fall into the grand scheme of things; my Cygnar and Protectorate deserve to be fully painted, but Trolls are Teh New Shiny (sic) and bright pink is appealing at the moment.

Then again, I've got the Cryx and Drakhun to paint as part of the next Challenge, which will start at some point.

I may make the next Challenges less rigid than the first one. I'm not sure. It was a lot of painting, and right now, it's nice to have been able to relax the past few evenings. And I've started doing stuff with my Flames of War army -- I've gone from having very few tanks to 8 that need painted. We won't talk about the state of my first rifle company, or the fact I have a second company that needs to be glued and based. Yeah, too much pewter.

In other news, I should have the bits from PP tomorrow (I hope) or Thursday. I can make the Cygnar Bokur and get beer mugs for the Scattergunners. Yeah, I need 4 more of them to fill *that* unit and 2 more Kriel Warriors for a full unit there. The caber for my thrower seems to have gone missing; I blame cats. It is around.

Procrastinating on posting pics from Sunday's tourney. I have been hit with a major attack of the lazys. There's also the fact I have gotten into another fantasy series -- the Pendragon Cycle -- and would rather read instead of playing on the 'puter. 

I plan on focusing on models that will earn me $$$. I think I'll jump on the Gnarlhorn tomorrow after I prime it. I may pack it, and the Drakhun down to work tomorrow night since it's 40k and there is a strong likelihood  I'll be there late.

Readings and sleep call.

Day 13, the conclusion

Madrak is finally done. I think after painting the beasts in the boxed set first, he is the one I'm least pleased with. He is a little rushed but looks OK with the rest of the box.

Anyway, I've got the Madrak progression from today and the pics of the finished box.

Base coated. I really didn't like this.

Wasn't much better from the back, either.

 But then, there was ink!

And we hated it a lot less!

The finished product.

I like using Arcane Blue for glowing runes.

Yeah, this is a lot better.

The battle group. Say cheese.

No, you can't take his chicken.

Purple mohawk needs a name.

It's the axer! With orange mohawk.

This model was a lot of fun to paint.

Hey, he's got a buddy in his bag!

It's Smiley, my favorite.

Smiley likes to kill things.

So the lesson from all of this? I can paint fast when I have to. Inks and washes are your friend. And I need better/brighter lights for the ghetto-ass light box. Or, I need to pick up some light blue poster board and use that for the background. That would be the cheaper answer to buying new lights.

I'm anticipating the painting desk will make my life easier. Things are sort of organized. I've got more room to work, the painting light and access to all my paints and inks.

The frightening thing is seeing how much stuff I need to assemble. I've got tons of Menoth sitting around, Cygnar I stripped and Trolls. And Cryx. Yeah, scary. 

So, with Challenge I complete, here are the models on deck:

Challenge II

• Vayl
  
• Striders
  
• 2 Bonejacks
  
• Helldiver
  
• Kraye
  
• eMadrak
  
• Pureblood Warpwolf
  
• Drakhun (for painting contest)
  
• Gnarlhorn Satyr
  

Some of these have paint on them already. I started Kraye, then got distracted by something or another. He's got a decent base coat. I was going to paint my 3 Grundback Blasters, but would rather get more of Haley's beasts painted for her since she's in the league. Striders and Gnarlhorn have top priority right now. I have a few paid gigs that may come in, but I'll deal with those as I get the models on one of them, and the money on the other.

Battlebox Beatdown is tomorrow morning. After that, it's time to start planning for October's Cheesemachine Tournament -- the cheesiest 350 you can field.

/end Challenge I