Monday, June 20, 2011

That fits on a medium base?

Sooooo I might have caved and bought Scaverous as soon as I possibly could once I saw his rules. Telekinesis?... in Cryx?.... ewwwwwwwwww.

So yah, I nabbed him last Wednesday, and between finishing up Boomhowler's and reading all the fluff in Wrath, I got him assembled/converted ish. I'm holding off on gluing on his arms until I get them painted just because it's all so awkward. Most of the reason for the conversion that I'm working on is because 4 points have to be glued at once to get the studio pose. Plus I didn't really care for that pose, so yah.

Since I didn't want to have to sculpt new hands/a new armor plate on his scythe, I basically brass rodded the scythe, and drilled out the hand that was in the middle of the pole. That hand just got glued onto the arm. The other hand on the end I left where it was so that I wouldn't have to sculpt anything. To make that work though, I had to chop apart the forearm and flip that over. Put in some brass rods to be the new pistons, and there ya go. I gotta clean that part up some more tonight, but then I'll take some pics of it.

I also decided to not do my all metal paint scheme, but instead do something new. I blame all the Merc painting getting me to try new stuff. Anyways, here's the progress so far.








The only thing I'm not sure on is the red cloth that I normally do. It just feels like it clashes with the purple/brass dealio I have going on. Anyways, I may change that later.

I'll post up my thoughts on how he plays after I get a test run with him on Tuesday night.

Boomhowler & Co. Finished!

Add another one in the bank. 79% painted mercs according to forwardkommander.

I'm really happy with how the skin turned out, and pretty happy with the color choice. The metals are so-so, but *shrug* roh wellz. Overall, definitely like them, plus glad to have them done.



Now I just have one more merc unit (Highshields, if I can't get a trade for them), one Khador unit (Kayazy + UA), and a few jacks & solos to finish up to have a fully painted merc force.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Merc Crazy

So I've been going a little merc crazy recently. By that I mean that I haven't played Cryx since KingdomCon. While I am being hugely tempted to jump back into Cryx with all the Wrath releases coming up, I vow to stay strong until I have Scaverous painted. Then all hell will break loose. Seriously, that guy looks like off the chain fun.

But as to my merc craze, there was supposed to be a 35pt tourney at Thou Shalt Game last Saturday (June11th). With that in mind, I knew I wanted to play Durgen, cause I've been having so much fun with him recently. I also knew that Joe would be there, presumably bringing eLylyth. So my second list had to be able to deal with that, cause I knew she'd shoot Durgen dead. Ashlynn was a possiblity, but even then, all it would take would be one hit to kill her, while I wouldn't be able to bring most of my guns in that list to be able to shoot anything (ATGM excluded). So Gorten it was, but I didn't know what to put in the list until I started looking through my collection and Gorten's spell list. And that's where I found my 2nd list to Durgen.

Gorten w/Solid Ground upkept, throwing out Rock Wall as needed, with 4+ Tough Boomhowler's who can't be knocked down thanks to solid ground. So I got to painting like mad Friday night, and ended up with 10 Boomhowler's with most of their base colors in. I didn't get time to paint on Sunday, but here's a little preview of how they're coming along.



I really need to get my lightbox set back up :p

Anyways, the tourney didn't end up happening, but I did get in 2 games against Joe. The 1st was with Durgen vs. his Absylonia tier. I had first turn, and moved stuff up. 2nd Turn, he moved Absylonia up, on top of a hill w/ Tenacity so that she's DEF 19 against ranged/magic, but there was a Forsaken within 2" of her. He left her without any fury, so I figured this would probably be my best shot at it. I probably should have tried to consolidate and take the 1st strike, but hey, Durgen is batshit crazy, so why not. With all my deviation rerolls thanks to Dougal, I ended up getting 3 of Durgen's 4 AOE's on her, and took her down to 3 life with some relatively average rolls. My last shot was with an explosivo'd Gunner w/1 focus. 4 dice on the attack for a RAT 6 vs. DEF 19. Rolling a 12 is a 75% chance, plus maybe getting a favorable deviation if I missed. I missed. Bad deviation. Typhon was close enough to Durgen to end it, but I still had my Basher. Durgen tuned him up, and I'm like, I'll choose damage rolls, and use the jack marshall to boost the attack.... then he slammed at Typhon and ended up outside of Thor's command range. Missed his slam, so Typhon got slipstreamed out of combat and sprayed Durgen's face in.

The next game was Gorten vs. Joe's eLylyth tier. So the goal here was to use Boomhowler's with 4+ tough to block LOS to Gorten and the important squishy pieces of the army (like Thor)... but I was an idiot and forgot to do that my first turn as I moved up. Joe was kind enough to kill me fast, and then let me smush the boomhowler's together like I should and keep playing. It was a good time. Since he only had 1 Ravagore, I was able to just tough it out through a majority of the game with all those boomhowler's, protecting Gorten upfield so that I could pop his feat and smush eLylyth's dirty stealth ranged face in.

All in all, good day, and a good learning experience for playing with Mercs. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to nab Scaverous tonight... hopefully

All in all

Monday, June 13, 2011

Saxon Orrik

Here's a Saxon I did for a painting exchange. Pretty quick but I'm happy with how he turned out.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Alexia & Risen

So even though I already said the Risen were done, I changed my mind. Reason being, I like to play in any tournament that I can, and I want to be able to roll into a Hardcore tourney with them. That and it just felt weird seeing all that green metal :p.

Anyways, here they are. Alexia's face needs more work, and there are some places that I've got to go back and touch up on all the Risen/Thrall Warrior's green glow, but overall I'm happy with a lot of it.

Alexia & Risen:



Closeup of Alexia & a Warrior:



Anyways, there you have it. Another painted unit in the case.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Swamp Pits!

So since I've been working on making my own terrain to play with recently (moreso as well due to AGR closing down), I actually went digging around my garage until I found some hardboard that I bought ages ago for a different project. This stuff is also called MDF (aka medium density fiberboard) and can be found relatively easily at your local hardware store. I think I paid 6 or 10 bucks for a 4'x8' sheet, so it's also pretty cheap.

Anyways, on to the pictures. I've been messing around with stuff, and then realized that Micah didn't really have any 5" AOE's for his gator army. So I set out to remedy that situation.

I started by cutting 2x 5" AOE's out of the MDF. I tried several different methods at first. What doesn't work? A dremel or a hobby knife. I would assume scissors, but I didn't even attempt that one :p So I busted out my buddy's jigsaw and eventually got 2 relatively nice circles done. Sand the top with an electric sander and bevel the edges with a dremel, and there ya go.



While you can just toss these down onto a table and play with them, they're not good enough. I tried texturing them 2 different ways.

Attempt #1:

The first try used plaster wrap (basically guaze coated in plaster - found at Michael's). So I cut it up into usable pieces, dipped into hot water, and ran with it.



So I put down some cork pieces to form a lip and then tried to get it the plaster wrap to be smooth.... It came out like crap.



I have used it to decent effect on some hills, but I was flocking those hills, so the screen showing through didn't matter there.

On to attempt #2:

After doing some browsing of the Terrain & Table Building section of PP's forums, and found this thread detailing a guy making his own board. So he was using a combination of PVA glue, wood filler, water, & toilet paper. I didn't have any wood filler on hand when I did this, but I think it turned out pretty good.

Still in the drying stage.


I let that dry overnight, and the next day after work, I got to painting it. Here's a crappy pic of the paint before all the varnish & stuff. I ended up putting a layer of Thraka Green wash onto the water on the right template before I put in the water, but forgot to do it on the other.



So then I sprayed both of them thoroughly with my Krylon acrylic gloss varnish stuff. I probably should have done several thin coats...but I was impatient and lazy/had to get to the lab.

Once I got home, I remembered that I still had the 2-part epoxy/water effect stuff. Can't remember what it's called right now, but maybe I'll remember to edit it in later :p.

So I brushed some matte varnish onto the swampy ground, but it seems like I need another layer since they're both pretty shiny still. Then again, swamps are wet.





And to model how these things actually play, here's my WIP Alexia standing in for some gators.



I'm happier with the first one then the second, but whatever. I tried to do a pond scum effect by dripping a gree wash onto the water effect while it was drying, but I guess right after you pour the water effect is too early. Just doesn't seem right. Anyways, I'll be packing these up to give to Micah this weekend at TSG hopefully, and he can throw on some of his little grass clumps and gators.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Minor Painting Update

So I've been pretty busy since KingdomCon. In fact, I've only managed to get in 3 games in the past 6 weeks. I haven't managed too much painting either since I've been working on terrain and a gaming board, etc. Convenient timing I guess since AGR is now closed down. Anyways, I'll grab some pics of the terrain I'm working on and the board at some point as well.

Until then, I've also done some work on my Black Ogrun Boarding Party. Now, seeing the sculpts in the PP gallery, I've never liked them. I think it's just the skin tone, but they look like gorillas to me.


Thanks to Bartertown, I got them on the cheap (can't remember what I traded/paid for them, but it doesn't really matter). Sadly, I got 3 of the same sculpt, so I had to bust out the clippers and green stuff. I didn't do a whole lot because I'm honestly not that comfortable with sculpting, but you just have to try sometimes.

Excuse the crappy pics coming up. My lightbox isn't set up at the moment, and there's really not a lot of room for it at the moment. Anywas, I'm pretty happy with how the new bicep area of these guy's arms came out.



The guy on the left was my test scheme for the skin tone to decide if I liked it. Turns out... I do! So I continued painting and got all the skin tones, pants, and basing painted on them.



Next up, metals. After that, final details, like all the freaking nose and ear rings these guys have. In general, I'm actually kind of excited to play with these guys. Cheap to put on the field, got some decent wounds, and can lay down some damage with the right debuffs. I'm looking at playing them with pGaspy whenever I get tired of Durgen, Gorten, & Ashlynn.