Tag Archives: Storm of Magic

Fimir Balefiend – Complete

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I wrapped up the Fimir Balefiend over the weekend.  Come Monday, it was all over but for waiting for the water effects to cure.*

I’m extremely pleased with the green skin.  It’s different, somewhat, from the approach I took with the Gremlins, but still worked really well.  I absolutely feel like I’ve Solved how to paint green skin… now I just need the spiritual fortitude to undertake a Orc or Ork army.  Also, the claws/horns worked out very well, too.  Distinct from the flesh, but not out of place.

The much hanging from him could be better.  I might return at some point to repaint it.  It’s too similar to the Fimir’s flesh; a series of different washes didn’t darken it up enough to make it distinct.

I’m quite pleased with the barnacles / fungus / whatever that stuff is.  I think it goes a long way to breaking up the flesh and making it more interesting; the same way the boils do on Skaven.

The little conversion details came out okay.  I think they definitely accomplished their goals, though I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something else I could have done with the gut plate.  I did try adding verdigris: which completely ruined it… so I had to repaint it.  That little plant coming up in front of his right foot made painting the gutplate super-difficult.

The water effects didn’t come out quite as well as I’d have hoped.  Unfortunately, they photographed even worse than they actually look.  Take my word for it when I assure you that it’s not amazing but it’s not terrible.

And, ’cause I was at it: some scenic/HDR photos (HDR Fusion, no Picasa tweaking):

Composition on these might could be better.  I tried to crop out the sides of the base, but maybe didn’t do myself any favors with it.

Anyway, what do y’all think?

* Not entirely; after photographing the bastard, I noticed a few spots on the side of the base that needed repainting… I retouched the photos to cover it up since it’s just the flat color and I don’t feel like taking the photos again.  Not something I normally like doing, but I’m untroubled by it here.

Fimir Balefiend – WIP

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So, in my Storm of Magic list, I’m taking a Fimir Balefiend: Shadow’s a pretty happy lore.

I’d considered just cracking open my copy of HeroQuest; there are a handful of Fimir Warriors in there. But Casey pointed out that they’re a little small.  According to Wikipedia, initially (and when HQ was published, Fimir were man-sized… but then an ogre-sized sculpt was done at some point and it’s clearly had an impact: in Storm of Magic, they’re Monstrous Infantry.

So, I converted one.

 

 

 

The base, as is probably clear, is a River Troll.  There’s a Chaos Spawn tail on there, which was kind of a no-brainer.

I rolled the dice and bitz-ordered the Troll: unfortunately, it didn’t come with arms that would work at all.  I was lucky enough to trade them to a club member for better arms, though.  I thought they needed a bit more, so I stuck on an old Skaven banner bit to (hopefully) breakup the shape and make it look less like River Troll arms.  Same thing with the ring.  The sculpting there to make that banner bit fit?  The hardest part of the dang conversion.

The head is from a Krootox; the eyes and brow were drilled out and resculpted into a single eye.  The balefiend has horns, so I used some Gor horns I had left over from a Daemon conversion.  To make them fit, and to sculpted him a bigger head (since I’d list the three most distinguishing features of the HQ Fimir as single eye, club tail,  and big head).  It’s not huge, but it’s a lot bigger than it was, and it should be the right size for the model now.

And, just as I thought I was done with it, I realized that it needed a gutplate.  From day one, the lack of clothing had bothered me: Fimir are civilized (under certain definitions for the word) and wear clothes and armor, but I couldn’t figure out how to sculpt something on that would work.  Then I realized that Fimir have always had gutplates: that’s easy enough to do.  I sculpted a stylized Fimir face on it: I don’t think it’s photographed well, but it should paint up okay.

I’m leery of the chain: I don’t think it works well… but I think getting it to hide under the Troll’s rolls (which is what it really needs) is beyond my skill.

Anyway, I hope to have it done and painted before tournament in case I end up ringing.

Of course, I was 90% done with this (just tracking down an appropriate set of arms) when ForgeWorld posted theirs:

C’est la vie.

The Doldrums of Magic

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As a follow-on to yesterday’s post about Storm of Magic:

We’ve got one local player, Arromanche (who maintains the Army Builder 2.2 WHFB files), who doesn’t normally play in tournaments any more, but he always stops by to help out and play ringer if one’s needed.  He really hates magic in 8th edition… and Storm of Magic is a bridge too far.

Early in the planning, he offered “I’ll help out but I am NOT playing. The very word MAGIC means no way.”

Totally reasonable, and the help’s always appreciated (he knows the rules and books better than I do, better than you do, and better than both of us combined)… but I thought this was funny, so:

The Very Word MAGIC Mans ‘No Way’

Practitioners of the Arcane Arts are well familiar with a phenomenon known as the “Arromanchic Doldrums,” when furious Winds of Magic inexplicably and unexpectedly (inexplectably!) ebb– even during the most tempestuous of magical storms.

During any Magic Phase Arromanche observes the beginning of, instead of using the Wild Magic rules, use the following rules:

  • Roll 3D6 to determine Winds of Magic
  • The dispelling player receives the sum of the two highest rolls as dispel dice, treating the second highest roll as a d3 rather than a d6. If the two highest rolls are doubles, treat both as d6s.
  • The limit of power and dispel die pools is 18.

I’m proposing using this rule at the tournament. So far one participant and one non-particpant have said they think it should be used… nobody’s said it shouldn’t. I’m still debating whether I should use it or not.

Storm of Magic Test Game

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I might have mentioned that I’m running a Storm of Magic tournament in January: more to motivate folks to give the dang format a try.  The book came out, folks (myself included) bought the book, the cards, Arcane Fulcrum kits… and then never did anything with them.

So, between that, my actually painting some Fulcra, and Eric McK making the call to let folks spend 25% of their points on random Forgeworld & Storm of Magic choices at the (very successful, non-Storm of Magic) Toys for Tots tournament earlier this month: I decided to go ahead and get something on the schedule.

Key is trying to make accessible to folks who felt like paying who weren’t chumps who’d bought the book or felt like playing with the Scrolls of Binding and such.  I’m a fan of inclusive.  So, the format’s 2,500 points: percentages are based off of that (so, 625 minimum Core, 625 maximum rare, etc), and lists can spend up to 500 points on SoM choices (because in SoM you get an extra 25% to spend on those things, we can pretend you’re running a 2,000 point army).  Those SoM choices are totally optional: if someone wanted to show up with their usual 2,500 point army… they’d be fine.

I finally got the chance to get a game in last night: when SoM first came out, I pushed miniatures around the table with Sean for a few hours while we had the book open nearby, but I don’t think that counts.  So, my game with Casey was my first serious attempt at a SoM game.

I ran my usual Skaven list (the Empire’s still being assembled), with two Grey Seers instead of the Seer and the Warlord, and with two Warp-Lightning Cannons as my Rare choices (no Doomwheel, no Hellpit) and just one unit of Gutter Runners.  I spent my M&M budget on a Lvl 3 Fimir Banelord and a Chimera.

Casey ran a normal 2,500 point list: two units of Mournfangs, a horde of Bulls, a Slaughtermaster and a Firebelly.

I won’t do a turn-by-turn battle report, but I will do a braindump of impressions from the game… and that’s actually why I’m writing this post:

  • We didn’t finish.  We didn’t really come close to finishing.  In just over three hours, we got in three full turns.  Now, a lot of that is because we chatted: with each other, with other folks… but decision paralysis from having a bajillion magic dice and an extra 8 (him) to 18 (me, if you count Lore of Shadow) spells to spend them on.
  • The Scrolls of Binding didn’t seem to break anything.  They offered me a lot more choices (a flying monster, a Shadow caster), but I don’t think they turned the tide of anything, really.
  • Did I mention the decision paralysis?  With so many dice and so many spells, it was kind of a lot of work to get through a Magic phase.  That shouldn’t be a surprise, but it is something to keep in mind when approaching the tournament.  Know your spells, try to have a plan.
  • We did not have a single dang miscast.  Not one.  Several double-sixes for dispelling, but never for casting.  Huge bummer.
  • We didn’t do anything with Cantrips.  My heart tells me that that means we were doing it wrong.
  • On paper, it looks like the only thing that matters are the casters on the fulcra, and that everything else is just getting pushed around for the heck of it.  That wasn’t my experience at all: the units on the ground are how you supplement your caster’s attempts to push guys off of Fulcra.  
  • Feast of the Fallen makes me sad.  Wow.

I’d definitely like to see us (locally, at the very least) adopt Eric’s 25% “random stuff” budget.  Cataclysm spells and Fulcrums aside, it’ll breathe some new life into armies that are starting to feel stale to their owners, open the door to clever and interesting conversions… and not be too bad, really.

Arcane Fulcra!

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I’m still rattling around, unsatisfied, with a Necron paint scheme that’s fast but isn’t terrible.  At this point, I’m pretty sure I’m just not going to bother.

As a change of pace, I decided to knock out the Arcane Fulcra I put together back in July, when they came out.

Painting notes follow the picture dump.

Magewrath Throne!

Balewind Vortex!

I tried a lot of weathering here.  For the most part, I think it worked out.  There were definitely some problems with the Throne, though: the verdigris wasn’t thin enough and it definitely obscured some detail.

For what it’s worth, I tried zenithal highlighting on these guys.  I don’t think it shows, though.

Brass
– GW Bestial Brown
– GW Shining Gold
– GW Burnished Gold
– Verdigris wash

Verdigris
I mixed GW Goblin Green, VMC Light Turquoise, VMC White, water, rubbing alchol.  No good ratios… just go thin!  I brushed it on heavily and then immediately dabbed the heck out of it with tissues.  I think this bridges a good gap between verdigris-as-stuff-that-pools and verdigris-as-exposure-to-rain, which is sort of what I took away from this.

Iron
– GW Tin Bitz
– GW Boltgun Metal
– GW Mithril Silver
– Rust wash

Rust Wash
This is a mix of GW Dark Flesh, GW Blazing Orange, P3 Armor Wash and water.  Again, it’s all eyeballed here.

Natural Rock
– Ceramcoat Charcoal
– Apple Barrel Pewter Grey
– Ceramcoat Quaker Grey
– Wash: 3:2:2:1 – Water : Badab Black : Matte Medium : Devlan Mud

Carved Rock
– P3 Cryx Bane Base
– P3 Cryx Bane Highlight
– P3 Hammerfall Khaki
– Wash: 3:2:2:1 – Water : Devlan Mud : Matte Medium : Thraka Green

In case you haven’t noticed: the 3:2:2:1 wash mix is my special sauce.  It turns the wash into more of a glaze, which makes the colors its washing over richer and more interesting, and cutting the wash 2:1 one color to another produces really neat results.

Also, this is a flip-flop from how I’ve been doing terrain.  With the rest of my stuff, the Cryx-based colors are the natural colors and the more pure grey is for carved rock.

Finally: hot-damn, I’m still totally in love with the Cryx Bane Base / Cryx Bane Highlight / Khaki progression.  It’s such an interesting, natural color.

I did miss a spot while keeping wash even, though: :(

Vortex
– P3 Meridius Blue
– VMC Light Turquoise
– P3 Arcane Blue
– VMC Light Blue
– Turquoise wash

Turquoise Wash
I really need to figure out how to replicate this, because I plan on using it extensively when I revisit my Tau army.  It’s P3 Turquoise Ink, a lot of water, a lot of matte medium and a little GW Asurmen Blue.

Bone
– GW Dark Flesh
– P3 Menoth White Base
– P3 Morrow White
– GW Devlan Mud

Anyway, what do people think?