Wet Palettes

So as a part of my continuing effort to expand and refine my painting skills, I decided to try out a wet palette. I've gotten into the nasty habit of licking my brushes after I dip them in paint (the saliva is a natural blending medium) and it occured to me that a wet palette might accomplish the same goal. So, I built a super cheap one using an old PP blister pack (cut off the back side), some paper towels, and a sheet of wax paper. So far I haven't used it much, but I somewhat like the results so far. I have a feeling that it is going to prove of limited use, mainly because it seems to noticably thin the paint that I put on it, but it definately does keep the paint wet. I'll try it out for the next couple weeks and report back.

To credit the larger community out there, in the construction of my wet palette, I used this tutorial mainly.

Sea Dog Rifleman 3

Whew! Last rifleman done! Again, still out of dullcoat, so I have to seal it, but close enough. This was also the first model painted using my new lamp! This was the lamp I mentioned a few posts ago. This lamp is AWESOME! It's the limousine of lamps. I need to replace the bulbs though since they have a bit of a blue tint to them currently. The lack of heat from this lamp is a noticable change from my previous lamps. I can totally see why ArkenTyre said his painting improved once he started to use this lamp. Like making the move to Series 7's, it was a leap of faith for me, and turned out to be worth every penny.

Freebooter

Finished the Freebooter today, although I ran out of dullcoat, so it's not really "finished". This model's "paint like I have a pair" elements are the dirtying up (after doing all that shading work, and also the metals got some extra love this time. I read a post on the Privateer boards under the "Ask the Studio" thread where Quentin talked about how he works on metals. I took this opportunity to try out the techniques. I'll talk more about it in a future post, but basically it involves using multiple black paint washes to darken and shade the metals.

Sea Dog Rifleman 2

Whew! One more done. I actually have 1 last rifleman left to paint, but I'm itching to get working on the Freebooter, so I demoted him in the queue.

Just a note about this batch of Sea Dogs, as I work on models, I always leave the paint pots out that I've used and then they get returned to my mobile trays once I'm done. For these last 8 models, I just kept leaving them out so that I could try to use as many different colors as possible throughout the entire squad. By the time I finished this one, I was down to about a dozen assorted paints, metalics and inks.

Weekend Roundup

Yesterday I played in the WM tourney at my LGS. I got a Menoth coin by default, being the only Menoth player, but otherwise it was pretty uneventful. I had a by in the last round, so I only played 2 games. The first was against a very standard Cryx Witch Coven assassination list, which, assassinated me (but not before I destroy the Deathjack!) The second game however was against a Madhammer list, and was extremely entertaining.

I've also decided to bite the bullet and upgrade one of my lamps, mostly based on this thread on the Privateer Forums. I hadn't even noticed before how much heat my current lamps throw off. I'm hoping this upgrade will help as much as the Brushthralls claim they do.

Today's a catchup day. Getting lots of misc tasks done, and reorganizing/cleaning my painting desk.

Sea Dog Rifleman 1

First rifleman done. I took the opportunity here to try out painting some pattern on the bandana like the studio painted one. It turned out fairly well I think. Could have been a little more cleanly painted, but these guys are just rank and file. The next one is already about 30% done too. Probably this weekend he'll get finished as well. However today is tournament day, so no painting today!

Ahoy Ye Scabberous Dogs!

I finished up my 6 man Sea Dogs unit this weekend. These guys were a blast to paint. I took a few shortcuts in order to stay under 5 hours for each one. Below is the group shot of all 6 together. I uploaded seperate pics into seperate posts per scabberous dog and postdated the entries to match when I actually finished them. Now, on to the riflemen!

Sea Dog 5

Sea Dog 4

Sea Dog 3

Sea Dog 2

Sea Dog 1

First of the Sea Dogs (after the mate). The pics are kinda washed out on this one since he's so much whiter than most things I photograph in the lighbox with this background. Overall the Sea Dogs are a blast to paint. Just the right level of sculpted detail to allow them to be quick and yet have plenty of character. I'm getting braver about painting stripes now too.

Freebooter Sorceress

In contrast to pretty much everything else I've shown here, this is not a Privateer model. This Freebooter model is something my wife asked me to paint for her, so I put it into the queue and finished it just the other day. I spent alot of time on it and am relatively pleased, although this model felt cursed. She kept losing her arms, and at one point I dropped her off my painting desk (which is 4' high) and onto the hardwood floor. Miraculously she merely fell apart, and no paint chipping or damage was incurred.

Parallel Projects

Lots of stuff going on lately, and unfortunately painting time is at a premium. However I'm getting lots of projects moving and/or completed lately. Here's an update on painting/miniatures projects:

Display Case Enhancements: A couple years ago I bought one of the Ikea Detof display cases, which I have to say, for the cost, has been a wonderful investment. It's provided a great way to store and display my miniatures... until recently. I've got enough paintined stuff now that it has nearly run out of space. So, my wife made a quite clever and remarkably obvious comment of "Why not add more shelves?" So, this weekend I got some additional glass shelves cut (because Ikea doesn't sell the shelves individually), and some metal rods. Using some florist wire to suspend the rods in place, and then some 2-part epoxy glue, I secured the rods in place. Then a few rubber washers around the rods and BAM, 2 more shelves added securely and easily. The project probably took me about 2 hours once I had all the materials.

Troop Transport Options: I've been having a little frustration with laying out trays for my Army Transport case. I've got the small one that only holds 8" of trays, which I very much like, but it does create some challenges around planning trays flexibly. I saw a post on the Privateer Forums by bugbait_nz where he shows some custom trays he made. This gave me an idea to make some of my own trays. So after some hunting, I found a nearby store that sells foam (interestingly named House Of Foam). My plan is to create some half-sized trays similar to bugbait's so that I can have more flexible configuration options. The foam is ordered and should arrive next week.

Painting: I did actually get some painting done. I'll post those pics next as seperate posts though. I'm slowly working through my Sea Dogs, and hopefully will have them done by next weekend. This weekend though is full of entertainment (Cirque du Soleil and a Superbowl party).

Sea Dog Mate

Well here's the Sea Dog Mate, leader of the squad. These Sea Dog models are very fun. I especially liked this model because it has just the right level of detail to make him both fun and fast to paint. Now to get the rest of the squad painted!

The Crushing of a Lifetime

Played a 500pt game against Eric tonight and I gotta say, I got crushed. I mean really smoted.

My List: Kreoss, a Reckoner, a Castigator, a Crusader, a full chior, 2 paladins, Vilmon, and 2 wracks.

My Enemy: Grim, an Impaler, a Blitzer, a Fell Caller, Alten, 3 Long Riders, and 6 Pyg Burrowers.

My Casualties: Everything except the Crusader basically. I got Kreoss into melee with Grim, but just couldn't land enough hits to put him down.

My Tactical Error: I switched the chior to Infuse from Safe Passage, opening the door for a bunch of shooting, from a primarily shooting army.

My Regrets: None. I drove my army straight at the enemy, spending half the game with most of my models on the other side of the board. I charged Kreoss into melee and played balls out. It was my intent from the beginning of the game. I could have played a brick and slowly marched across the table, but this was definately more fun.

Epic Feora 2, Skorne 0

Battled Lance last night and pulled out another victory! This time it was 750pts of eFeora goodness against Zaal and his Skorne cohort. I've been very happy with eFeora now that I've sort of "got the hang of her". I've found that a balanced force really helps alot. Last nights army consisted of eFeora, a Crusader, a Repenter, a Redeemer, 2 Seneschals, Vilmon, a Paladin, Knights Exemplar, Daughters, Cleansers, a Chior, Grogspar, Rupert, Gorman and 3 wracks. The battle was, for the most part, a really good scrum around the middle of the table, but in the end I wore down the Skorne force. Here's some highlights:

• Skorne Immortals with Zaal's "double STR" spell are crazy dangerous. They whacked Vilmon easily.
• The Skorne Cannoneer is bad business, laying out template blasts and boosting damage against poor Gorman. I had alot of problems with putting my stealth models near non-stealth targets.
• The Crusader was a rockstar, taking down a Titan Gladiator in one round while benefiting from the Chior's Infuse and 3 focus. I think both Lance and I were suprised actually.
• The bonded Redeemer was quite amusing for handing out fire. Even though I never used eFeora's feat, the fire was quite effective at causing some general concern.
• eFeora's Escort spell is just plain boss. The +2" of movement really makes the SPD 4 jacks a viable choice, and jacks like the Redeemer and Repenter can really benefit from being able to move 7" and then take their attack.

All in all, a very fun game, and further confirmation that eFeora is a good caster for my play style. A nice balance between troop and jack support makes her a real favorite for me.

Paladin of Menoth (Alt Sculpt)

Wrapped up the Paladin today. This was the alternate sculpt version. I definately like this pose better. I opted for a green scheme instead of red for this one to make it easier to distinguish them when playing. He's one of a few green schemed models I have for Menoth now. The green probably could have been a little deeper in color, but I like the tone better than what I've done before. Definately not a primo job, but I'm happy. It felt good to get back in the saddle after almost a month and a half of no painting.

I picked up a box of Sea Dogs as well as the magnificent Aiyana and Holt models, so although this model marks the "fully painted" mark for my Menoth force currently, I've now got about 200pts of unpainted mercs to get working on.

Victory for Ashlynn

Played a very entertaining game against Eric on Wednesday night (geez I'm behind on blogging). It was a 500pt Mercs vs Trolls rumble. My rather unconventional list consisted of: Ashlynn, a Nomad, a Freebooter, Gorman, Herne and Johne, Hawk, Grogspar, Doc, 2 Bokurs, and Alten. Yes I realized later that I broke the Highborn contract later by including Grogspar. In all honesty though, for the first time he was inconsequential to the game. Eric had Grim, an Impaler, an Axer, a Mauler , Champs and Gobbers. I think there was something else, but it slips my mind now.

The first couple rounds were mostly just advancing and a couple minor exchanges. The Gobbers did a superb job of protecting the beasts and Grim from any potential reprisal. The third round started off as a disaster for me. The Axer charged in and took off both arms from the Nomad, and then the Champs charged in, and the champ leader (with the Mauler's Rage on him) single handedly cut the Freebooter to pieces, much to my sadness. Then Grim feated and it looked like I was gonna get pinned down. Fortunately, Grim used the last of his fury to cast Return Fire on himself. My only option was to go for the throat. Ashlynn walked out of melee, and exacted revenge on the Champ leader, but more importantly, opened up a lane of movement. Then she popped her feat, catching my entire force. Next, Gorman moved through the open lane and tossed Black Oil and Grim. Unfortunately he missed. I had counted on the penalty to def to help, but in the end it didn't matter. Grim's feat was positioned between himself and my main line of solos, which I then used to my advantage. I moved Hawk forward a bit, and then her Bokur charged Grim. Despite standing in the Gobber's cloud, Ashlynn's feat gave the Bokur enough bonus to land his first 2 strikes and cut Grim to ribbons. Definately a win from some lucky positioning and rolls. I can't complain too much about my dice. There were a couple snakeyes rolls, but the Bokur's rolling made up for it in the end. Hats off to Eric though for putting me in a really tight spot. He'd have been hard pressed to kill me in the next round with Ashlynn's feat still active against him, but he'd definately have put me away in a couple more rounds I suspect.

Warpwolf Extreme

Here's the final pics for the Warpwolf Extreme. Basically the only stuff done since the last post was flocking the base and sealing it. I added a couple size comparison pics that I took from earlier on in the project.