Monthly Archives: May 2011

Painting Progress – 20110531

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This was a solid, busy, productive weekend.  Not entirely as productive as I’d have liked, but I’ve no complaints.

Made a great deal of progress on the Plague Furnace.  I’m now profoundly angry at myself for gluing this f’ing thing together.  UGH.  This thing would be a pain in ass to paint even in subsections.

I’m fairly close to being done with all of the non-metallic stuff: need to finish the ropes, do some cloth and then finish basecoating where I’ll be painting gold.

While working on the Furnace, I realized that while I have a Plague Monk Standard Bearer, he doesn’t fit with any of my other standard bearers.  So, I threw a new one together:

I also got an early start on errands and chores Monday morning, and swung by Home Depot while doing it to pick up what I need for some display boards.

I’ll be putting my Daemons into the Armies on Parade next month, and there’s an annoying requirement that the display board be 2’x2′.  My display board is more than 2′ by less than 2′; so I’ve got to make another.  Very annoying.

Also, I’ve got to build one for my Skaven.  Might as well kill two birds with one stone, right?

The first one of these guys came together with a few false starts, but the second one didn’t take me any time at all.  I think they look really sharp: I’m looking forward to moving forward with them.

Rushputin vs. Finecast

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On Saturday, I popped in to GW Fair Oaks to check out this “Finecast” thing that might have been mentioned on the internet a few times.

As expected, the doom-and-gloom hasn’t really born out.  It’s not death-resin, for which I’m thankful, and the kits seem decent enough.  I’ve read about some serious casting issues, but nestled in the concern-trolling in that thread, there seem to be about as many okay experiences as bad ones.

I know a lot of people read Kirby’s early review of “they’re just as meh as expected,” as “this stuff’s terrible.”  That’s not how I read it, or how my experience has been; it’s meh, not because it’s bad but because it’s meh.  Neither terrible, nor great.  I imagine that could be read as a failure, I guess.

I’ve got to admit to being extremely annoyed by people bitching about Finecast in terms of their Forgeworld experiences well before actually seeing any of it.  I’m all for complaining about legitimate stuff but, when you don’t know actually what you’re talking about… you don’t know what you’re talking about.  (Never mind that that’s what the internet’s for.)

Anyway, I picked up Queek.

As you can see, there’s a ton of flash.  Soo much flash.  There were also a few bubbles; some immediately apparent, some revealed themselves as I trimmed away flash.

It felt like there was a considerably more work to be done in prepping this mini than there would be if it were metal… but that all of that work was much, much easier.

All of that flash came up very, very easily.  All but one set of bubbles filled in with super glue without any hassle.  There’s a bit of spine on the trophy rack that really just needed some green stuff, but it’s still less green stuff than I normally need to use on a metal mini.

I’d say that, in terms of assembly, it’s roughly break-even between Finecast and metal.  More to do, less trouble doing it.  I hate working with metal, though, and the lack of a need to pin makes me feel like I’m coming out ahead.

Those Canis defects do look pretty horrible, though; it’s definitely worth checking out the casting before buying any Finecast.  On the bright side, GW’s always had great customer service: I’m sure they’ll take care of shitty Finecast minis the same way they’ve taken care of mispacks and warped sprues.

I’m definitely going to have to go back and pick up a Finecast Skulltaker: the immense weight of that bastard has been a big obstacle in my making progress on the Skulltaker Chariot.  This stuff’s really light; a Finecast Skulltaker won’t weigh anything.

They make a cream for that…

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I just wrapped up a few Plague Monks.

If I decide to not paint new ones, this will be all I need to have the unit fully painted (putting aside the inconvenient need to rebase a bunch of them).  The Plague Deacon (an older Plague Priest model) started without paint; the other four were halfway done with the old scheme, which means they’re not quite as sharp as they could be.

That means that the only model I have left to paint before I’m 100% painted (again, discounting rebasing, repainting older Plague Monks, or things like the display board) is the Plague Furnace:

On the one hand, I’m really glad I’m able to airbrush / drybrush / wash most of it.  On the other hand, painting this thing assembled is such a pain… I’m of half a mind to just do a second one, painting it in the subassemblies it really needs to be painted in, and leave this one the way it is.  Bleh.

Clash for the Cure – Results

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Clash for the Cure went down this weekend, and it was fairly successful.  (Yes, that’s a pink ribbon mat.)

As I predicted, I didn’t do too well in the actual matchups (0-3) but, as I’d hoped, I did well with the painting.

Game 1 was against Phil‘s Chaos Dwarves.  (Weirdness: no Tomb King players, but we had two Chaos Dwarf players.)  He’s working through converting them; not using the Mantic models.  They’re looking sharp.

The game was kind of a disaster.  My dice weren’t there for me and, frankly, Withering + Blunderbusses is… pretty rough.

Yes, that’s four Plague Monks left out of thirty, after one round of shooting.  Not sure what my options there are besides, “Hope he doesn’t do it,”

Regardless, it was still a pleasant game.  Phil’s a good guy, which kept it fun.

Game 2 was against Bill’s pink High Elves.

This was a rough, back-and-forth game.

I had an insane Doomrocket shot (37″!) that, thanks to unusually considered positioning still managed to connect with a unit and be quite devastating.

Also, the Stormbanner lasted the entire game.  From the start of Turn 1 until the bottom of Turn 4 (the last turn).  That never happens.

Ultimately, the game came down to Bill’s Phoenix Guard throwing down with my Plague Monks.  Things looked grim until I ran out of Plague Monks and it was just my Priest + the Furnace’s crew vs. the few Phoenix Guard that could swing on them.  In the end, Bill pulled out a Minor Victory.

Game 3 was against Harry’s Lizardmen

We ended up running out of time on the game, but it was another tough game.

My Seer managed to make a billion Ward Saves, lasting an unreasonable number of combat rounds against his Saurus BSB.  The Slaves stuck around a good long while, too.

In the end, I charged his General with some Stormvermin, the Warlord and the BSB… which didn’t work out for me.  I caught a flank charge from his Saurus after they cleared out the slaves.  Unsurprisingly, the unit broke; costing me something like 640 VP alone.

All three games, despite being losses, were great.  I had an awesome time.

Another thing I wanted to point out was Joey’s display board:

That’s a drawer, there.  He can fit all of his non-model stuff in there.  Brilliant!  (And really good looking, too.)

So far, the even raised over $500; we’ve still got a few items that didn’t see bids that are on their way to eBay.  That means that, across the three tournaments we’ve run, we’ve raised over $7,000!

(The photo of Bill’s High Elves and Joey’s Dark Elves come by way of Harry.)

Clash for the Cure!

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Today’s another breast cancer charity tournament: this time Warhammer Fantasy instead of 40K.  Should be a good time, though likely smaller than the Battle for the Cure tournaments we’ve done at Game Vault.

I won’t be fully painted, and I don’t have a unit painted pink to compete in that particular category, but I think the Rats for the Cure mini I knocked out a bit ago will do well in the single-mini category.

Games are at 2,000 instead of 2,500… which is a size I’m not really used to, but makes sense given the schedule we’ve got.  I’m trying something new to make the list I know how to play work with 500 fewer points:

Clash for the Cure

Lords
Warlord (General) – War-Litter, Enchanted Shield, Sword of Swift-Slaying
Grey Seer – Talisman of Protection

Heroes
Chieftain (BSB) – Shield, Armor of Destiny
Plague Priest – Plague Furnace, Flail
Warlock Engineer – Doomrocket

Core
Skavenslaves x42 – Musician, Shield
Stormvermin x14 – Musician, Standard Bearer, Stormbanner
– Poisoned Wind Mortar
Stormvermin x14 – Musician, Standard Bearer
– Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special
Plague Monks x30 – Full Command, Plague Banner
Gutter Runners x6 – Poison, Slings
Gutter Runners x6 – Poison, Slings

Rare
Doomwheel

I tend to keep my Core expenditures as close to minimum as possible: so, no more Clanrats.  Instead, I’m running a pair of small (tiny, really) Stormvermin units with Mortars.  I expect this will not work at all, but I’m giving it a stab.

Similarly, there’s no Hellpit.  No Warp-Lightning Cannon.  As poorly as the latter’s done for me (the last few games I’ve played, I’ve misfired something like 90% of the time), I should be more comfortable with that decision.  We’ll see.

No Power Scroll, but that’s ’cause it’s explicitly verboten.  Suppose I won’t necessarily swap out for The Dreaded Thirteenth, then.

I’m beefing the Gutter Runners up from 5 to 6 because I’m incapable of arguing with Harry’s logic about how many casualties it takes to force a Leadership test.  They don’t take them often, though, so I might go back to 5 ninja rats after a few games.

I’m planning to have a time and I hope we raise some money!  I’ll probably be taking pictures and commenting on the Twitter throughout the day… at least I hope to.

Hellpit Abomination, Part 4

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I’m not entirely happy with it, but I’m done with it!  
I finished converting my Hellpit Abomination nearly 20 months ago (and over a year before GW put out the kit).  I’d taken some stabs at laying some paint down on it, but nothing serious until last week.  

Other posts for this project:

Painting Progress – 20110513

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I don’t want to let this thing lie fallow for too long, so here are some quick cameraphone shots of where I’m at:

I wrapped up the five Skavenslaves.  That puts me at 35 painted slaves + 18 slaves’ worth of unit filler.

Then, I started on my Hellpit Abomination, constructed over a year and a half ago:

I’m getting near the end: I’m in the process of high-lighting the flesh.  Then it’ll be teeth/claws, a wash, and some assorted little details before I can move on to remaining Plague Monks / the Plague Furnace.

Hobby Status 20110502

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I’ve been painting more Skavenslaves, which isn’t particularly exciting.  Since we all know what they look like, I don’t think I’m going to bother taking any more pictures of them until the unit’s and movement tray are fully done.

I’m 95% done with Belial III, though:

He’s done save for painting the sword.  For that, I need to block out a little bit of time with the airbrush.  A little bit ago, I followed this tutorial from APJ to do a test power sword.  This was the result:

For a first try, I’m extremely pleased with it.  I’ll actually be doing something a little different with The Sword of Silence (since it’s obsidian and not a light saber), but not by much.

I also assembled what is possibly the most ostentatious turn counter ever:

I’ve got Island of Blood Warlords to spare (hence the pink one) and a history of throwing down with The Black Ark Apathy, so this thing pretty much built itself.

I’d originally planned on making the Druchii’s pointy helmet be the arrow indicating the current turn, but that didn’t work out quite so well.  It’s too far back, and the crossbow’s hanging over the edge.  I’d use the crossbow, but it’s off to the side; confusing.

Instead, I used a rat skull hanging off the back to indicate the current turn.

This’ll be one of the last things I paint in the current push, but I’m looking forward to it.