Lylyth, Herald of Everblight

Gasp! A painted Warlock for Legion! I feel like I've completed an important step on my Legion army.

This model was plagued with challenges. I got it second hand and had to strip it, disassemble it, remove some putty, clean it, and get it reassembled. The whole battle box was second hand, but this model was really the bigger job. Plus, I had my first dremel accident with her. I was drilling a pin hole in her foot and it went right through. Fortunately I didn't hit anything critical like the cloak or, say, my finger.

What went well:
* Cloak - The green worked out ok. The overall color scheme is fine.
* Pink glow - The photo doesn't really show it, but I painted the danglies on the end of her belt-thing to have a pink glow to tie her in with the Shredders and the glow worked out pretty well.
* Speed - Pretty fast for the quality, and the Striders will match her fairly well as well since I did the flesh and cloaks at the same time.

What could be better:
* Quality - It's definitely not my best work, and I partially wish I had spent more time on her.
* Metals - The metals didn't work out so great. I think instead of basing them with a metal and then trying to wash and shade and work back up, I should have just started from the black base coat and just worked up from there.

Last Tourney Before KublaCon

Today was the last SR4 tournament at my LGS before KublaCon. I pulled out my typical 1 win and 2 losses record. I only played one army for all three matches (that's right, no by this time!) and again have no regrets doing so.

My List: eSeverius, Blessing of Vengeance, Fire of Salvation, Revenger, Devout, Hierophant, Vassal, Chior (6), Zealots (10+MB), 2x Seneschals, Aiyana&Holt, Orin Midwinter, Rupert, 2x Wracks.

Match 1: Circle: eKaya, Warpwolf, Woldwarden, Woldwyrd, Gnarlhorn, Shifting Stones, Brun&Lug, Blackclad Wayfarer, Druids. (probably something else too, but I forget)

The first battle was against Marco, who was the tournament organizer. Last tournament I had mentioned how he and I still hadn't gotten to play each other and "magically" this time we drew that match. I was stoked. This battle was awesome. It was a brutal punch-each-other-in-the-nose battle. Marco did a fantastic job of leveraging his army against me and supressing key elements. I on the other hand did a better than average job of keeping eSevvy inaccessible and mucking up his plans. I laid out some serious damage and tore things up, but in the end Marco executed a complex set of maneuvering and jiggery-pokery, throwing the Blessing into eSevvy, then running Laris up and using the animus to put Kaya right in next to the knocked down eSevvy. With the combination of a bunch of models in melee and 4 remaining Fury, the math was academic. Even though I lost, I give this battle a hearty 2 thumbs up for entertainment value.

Battle 2: Menoth: Severius, Hierophant, 3x Redeemer, Blessing, TFG (10+UA), Zealots (10+MB), Knights Exemplar, Seneschal, Rupert.

The second battle was against a newer Menoth player. This game almost ended very early. He won the initiative and went first. After his initial advance, I ran the Blessing up, then charged it in the back with eSevvy. My opponent was a little confused until I then popped my feat and terror struck him. I managed to get control of a Seneschal which I walked over into melee with Severius and took a couple swings. Unfortunately I missed with the first one, otherwise the battle might have been over on turn 1. I then got one of his Zealots loose to throw a bomb and apply a bit more damage. The rest of the battle was a brutal trading of blows and leveraging of denial abilities. In the end I pulled out the victory by orchestrating a series of ranged attacks against a cowardly Severius who was hiding well back.

Battle 3: Skorne: eMorghoul, Rhinodon, Cyclops Shaman, Cyclops Savage, Krea, 2x Ancestral Guardians, Pratorians (10+UA), Venators (10), Paingivers (6), 2x Extolers, Swamp Gobbers.

Ah, my old arch-enemy: Lance. Playing eMorghoul in a Mosh Pit scenario is like those nasty tire spikes they put on parking lots to stop you from getting out without paying: You either back up and suffer irrevocable consequences (lose the scenario) or you move forward and pay the price (eMorghoul's feat). This time though I managed to keep him contained enough to prevent the assassination run. Aiyana put the threat on the table of never getting to use his feat, so he used it top of round 2 when I was not really expecting him to. If he hadn't, he'd never have gotten a chance. This battle was almost close actually, but I had some key problems. First, when I use eSevvy's feat and take control of a Paingiver, it is no longer friendly to the Skorne warbeasts and can't just add Fury, otherwise I would have put eMorghoul in a horrible position by loading all his beasts up to max. Second, eMorghoul's 17 DEF is brutal to overcome. This battle was particularly painful due to a forest sitting right in the middle, which brings me to the third point of Lance masterfully leveraging that forest and dramatically limiting my options. Oh yeah, and Extolers make eMorghoul's feat completely ridiculous. I hates it! In the end, I lost on scenario after a failed assassination run on eMorghoul. If he hadn't had fury to transfer, he'd have been toast, but that's the way of Hordes. At least I didn't get jacked by him and merely lost by scenario, so I count that a mini-victory.

Lance walked away with the 2nd place trophy though which was rockin for him. I got to chat with more people about painting which was rockin for me, plus all 3 games were enjoyable.

Shredders

One more step closer to a fieldable (is that a word?) Legion army. These guys were mostly done almost a week ago, but I wanted to paint glyphs on them and needed to pick up some additional paint. It's nice to feel like I've made some significant progress on getting my Legion started.
What went well:
* Skin tons are fine - I was worried they would look "smurfy", but overall I like the look.
* Chitin worked out good - I really like the look of the chitin.
* Gums/tongues stand out well - Oddly enough, this was something that jumped out at me afterwards as having worked well.
* Time - It didn't take a huge amount of time to paint these. I think the longest part was painting all the little chitin spots.

What could have been better:
* Glyphs - There will be more below about the glyphs, but overall I feel like the execution was not super great. I've done tattoos before, but these didn't feel like they are really "glowing". I'm not completely disappointed, but just wish I could have figured out how to execute them a bit better. Perhaps a splash of paint on gloss.
* Claws/horns - Not terrible, but I used a different technique this time and they claws and horns just don't quite have the smoothness I'd like.

I used the GW washes for a couple things here (the skin being most notable) and overall I'm starting to like them more and more. They require a little caution in their application since they go on like a combination of a wash and a glaze. They will heavily color a surface, especially if put on too thick. However they are easy to apply and stay contained to a particular area very well. For actual "washes" I still will use just paint and water, but these GW Washes are now finding a particular niche in my painting arsenal.

I wanted to find a way to differentiate each of the Shredders so that I could track them during games easily. To that end I opted to paint glowing glyphs on them. Amy Brehm painted an incredible Coven battlegroup for the P3 Grand Masters last year that I really liked and used pink for the glowing items (pictures can be seen in NQ #21). I wanted to use that same pink theme, primarily because I liked the look of it. It's probably not a great color theory match, but I'll chalk that up to still learning. After some searching around, my buddy Lance pointed out the omniglot website which has a bunch of information about various written languages. I poked around in there and found a section on Nushu and loved the look of the characters. Why not just make up my own? Well, honestly, everytime I make up my own glyphs, they end up looking like the troll runes. Anyway, the long and short of it is that the glyphs worked out ok, but not fabulous. Hopefully I can refine the process on future models.

Chitin Formula:
* Base with Bloodtracker Brown
* Streak with Beast Hide
* Streak with Jack Bone
* Wash with Umbral Umber
* Wash with Umbral Umber + Armor Wash

Skin Formula:
* Base with slightly thinned Liquitex Light Blue over white primer
* Controlled Wash with Exile Blue
* Highlight with Frostbite
* Wash with GW Asurmen Blue
* Highlight with Liquitex Light Blue

From the Desk: Random Updates

Tonight's post is sponsored by a screwed up sleeping schedule, being ahead on my to-do list, and continued playtesting of MKII.

First up in my random thoughts for tonight is my display case. Long ago (probably 4 years now) I bought the "classic" Ikea glass display case. I believe it's called Detolf. When I first got it, I was just getting into Warmachine and put a bunch of my old Warhammer Fantasy miniatures in it that I had enjoyed painting, despite never really playing it. Today, as you can see, the case has evolved. All of the Warhammer models have been demoted to closet storage, and I added 2 additional shelves to it. Only the very bottom has resisted infestation. At present, it stores my entire Warmachine and Hordes collections, but it's getting tight. I'm now starting to ponder how to better store my collection, and if that includes demoting some stuff out of the case.

Next is the Shredders I'm working on. This in-progress shot gives you a rough idea. I've opted for something similar to the studio scheme. I'm going with darker blue skin, brown for the chiton, and typical bone colors for claws, teeth and horns. Overall I'm liking how these are turning out. My current conundrum is how to differentiate them easily for battle purposes. My leading theory right now is to put glowing runes on them. However, despite pouring through all the books, I haven't found any sort of Legion runes or glyphs of any kind. So I'll probably just end up making up runes as I go.

Ah, and where would I be without my paints. I'm back to my age old debate of how to store my paints conveniently. My wife found a couple paint storage things, but they are more designed for the larger paint tubes. I'm starting to think that something along the lines of a spice rack would be best, but with the number of paint pots I have, it would take a lot of rack space. Odds are I won't do anything about it, but if anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

And lastly, a quick battle report...

I played another MKII game last night. 35pts of Protectorate vs Cryx. Pardon the abbreviations but it's getting late. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures despite bringing my camera.

Me: eSeverius, Blessing, Fire, Zealots (10+MB), Chior (6), Vilmon, Paladin, Vassal, 3x Wracks, Hierophant.
Cryx: Asphyxious, Soulhunters (5), Mechanithralls (10+Necrosurgeon+3 Brutes), Reaper, 2x Deathrippers, Necrotech, 1x Scrap Thrall, Skarlock, Withershadow.

Summary: Asphyxious pulled out the win after a failed assassination run on eSeverius, and then a failed counter-assassination run back at him. It turned out afterwards that we missed an effect of Asphyxious' spell that would have left a cloud effect and thus blocked the first run on eSeverius, but it was an interesting stress test for both casters.

Highlights:
* eSeverius is pretty badass, and his changes are very welcome. His spells are simplified but he retains his frightening support caster capabilities. This time I actually got him into melee with stuff and he is every bit the old man his fluff portrays him to be.
* Soulhunters are badass at clearing infantry.
* The new Unit Formation rules are very cool, but create some slightly strange effects. This battle resulted in a Soulhunter being cut off from his leader and stuck "cowering" by himself.
* Mechanithralls seem fairly priced. They are cheap, but they also don't have a very good MAT.
* The new Zealots and Monolith Bearer are rockin. I love the changes. They are much more reasonable and at the same time slightly more flexible than before. I like the simplification that their prayers and abilities are not *Actions anymore.
* The Reaper is pretty awesome. His DEF 13 made him remarkably difficult to deal with. I'd say he will start seeing occasional table time in the future.

Further Impressions: The Reaper is actually a good example of why I'm liking MKII so far. Before the Reaper was totally sidelined. Now it's something fairly priced and can have a key role in an army. It's now viable but not overly powerful. A great many things are now in this boat. So far, I'm still loving MKII. I'm actually going to be sad to play MKI in the tournament coming up this next weekend.

Spawning Vessel

Hooray! I've started painting my Legion models! It was sort of disconcerting to realize that I had more unpainted Legion than painted Trolls. So, given that I only have 2 Protectorate models left to paint, and one is the Avatar which will be a huge project, I decided to switch over for the time being. I painted the Spawning Vessel here because I'm also doing the 4 Shredders at the same time and it seemed a logical combination to work on them together. This model has officially solidified a major portion of my color scheme.

What went well:
* Metals - I feel like I got good contrast on the metals, really making them pop.
* Flesh - He's a little smurfy, but I'm fine with that. I'm trying out some other paints in the process of doing this. I primed in white, then used Liquitex Light Blue as a fairly thick wash, then did some highlighting. After that I hit it with GW Asurmen Blue Wash pretty thick, and then did some further shading using thinned P3 Exile Blue and VMC Black. I also applied a couple quick highlights over the wash with the Liquitex.
* Blood Pool - The red of the blood pool worked out nicely, despite not showing it off well in the picture. I started with Khador Red base, then used the GW Baal Red Wash, then hit it with some focused thick washes of Bloodstone, then Umbral Umber. After that I highlighted back up using a mix of Ryn Flesh and Khador Red, and some final point highlights of Carnal Pink.
* Speed - It didn't take very long at all do to this little guy. I'm probably going to adopt a similar plan as I did with Cryx and focus on getting the army painted to my own tabletop quality standard, focusing more on color scheme and overall army unity instead of individual model quality.

What could have been better:
* Quality - Yeah, the shading is a little rough, but like I said above, that's not the focus.
* Claws/Horns - I'm not sure I like them or not. Time will tell. I used various layers of Jack Bone, MWB, MWH, White, GW Devlun Mud Wash, Armor Wash, and Battlefield Brown. I feel like I got close to the effect that I wanted, but I'm not completely happy with it. The one downside to the GW washes is that they have a tendency to glaze the entire surface in the process since the medium is so thick. It'll take me a while to get used to them. I'm betting I'm going to end up transferring them into droppers.

Well, that's it for now. Back to the 4 Shredders that are currently half done.

KublaCon Painting Competition

This is reproduced from the SF Bay Area Mini Painters yahoo group. I can't express how excited I am about this change in the judging. I'm hoping to provide some good representation for the PP line of miniatures at the competition. I honestly think this will encourage more people to enter the competition which is good for the art in general. Entering last year was both exciting and disappointing: it was great to enter and not feel like the worst thing in the case, but it was disappointing to be judge against professional painters. I'm really looking forward to seeing how I do this year.

Greetings! Kublacon '09 is almost upon us! The KublaAwards Mini-Painting Competition has exciting new changes this year!

We are pleased to announce the new "Open" style judging for the KublaAwards. "What is 'Open judging', you might ask? Well, allow me to explain:

The old familiar style of judging was commonly known as "Podium" judging, and has been a mainstay of competitions such as Games Workshop's "Golden Demon Awards", where entries are divided up by many categories and genres, and in each category there are three winners in the order of Gold, Silver, and Bronze. This is a reputable and time-honored judging system, but is not the only one, and is not without its drawbacks.

Common problems with Podium Judging involve under and over represented categories. For example: Fantasy Single is often the most highly contested category...dozens of entries may in fact be Gold-worthy, but the hard choices must be made, and wonderful entries must be weeded out to just the top three. Often, the same well-known high-end painters walk away with the trophies year after year, discouraging new painters from entering. While in another category, there may not be even enough entries to fill out the top three, thereby granting automatic trophy status to whatever happens to have been entered. This tends to cheapen the trophy.

Now, enter the Open Judging System! This style of competition is *merit-based*. The panel of judges critique the entries based on quality of artistry and technique. You are not judged against your neighbor, but against a 'standard'. If your entry is Gold-worthy, then you will in fact win a Gold trophy! This style of judging has been practiced for many years at Historical conventions and European competitions. This year, many American painting competitions have adopted variations of the Open System, including GenghisCon, ReaperCon, and our very own KublaCon!

Genres will be eliminated. There are now two main categories: the Open Category is the main competition, and the Masterclass category is for high-end prestige competition. Masterclass will be judged to a more stringent standard. Those who place in Masterclass are indeed the Best of the Best! Both categories are judged according to Open rules.

Rules for entry:
Each competitor may enter a max total of 4 entries. For entry purposes, these will be restricted to 2 Singles, 1 Squad, and 1 Large. You may choose to enter any entry into either the main Open, or the Masterclass category.

Single is defined as any normal-sized mini under 3" in any dimension.
Squad is a themed grouping of at least 3 miniatures.
Large is any miniature larger than 3" in any dimension.

There are additional awards that will be handed out for Best of Reaper, Best of GW, Best of Privateer Press....and a single award for the Best of Show "KublaSword".

We will also carry on our traditional KublaKids category for painters 15 years old and under. This category will continue using the Podium System.

Members of the Judging panel ARE allowed to enter the competition, but of course will not be judging their own entries.

To celebrate our new KublaAwards system, we also have NEW TROPHIES! Our very own local celebrity sculptor, Matt Gubser (of Prophet Miniatures) has been commissioned to sculpt 3 new trophies. And they are beauties! The Open category will be receiving medallions with the face of our Kubla mascot. The Masterclass will get a bust of Kubla trophy. And the Best of Show is a stunning, and GIANT, arm holding the coveted KublaSword. These are beautiful and exciting new trophies! Be sure to catch Matt Gubsers popular sculpting classes at KublaCon this year.

Entries will be accepted anytime at the Paint-n-Take area in the main foyer, on Fri, Sat, and Sun till noon. Every care will be taken by Kubla staff to ensure the safety of competition entries, but Kublacon staff, volunteers, and hotel cannot be held responsible for lost, damaged or unclaimed entries. Please reclaim entries anytime after 5pm Sunday, or Monday morning. Entry implies consent for Kublacon to photograph and display entries during convention and online. Previous KublaAwards winning entries are ineligible for further entry. Judges decisions are considered final.

Come to KublaCon '09 and enjoy the new improved KublaAwards Competition, the Paint-n-Take tables, Speedpainting contests, and seminars.

See you at KublaCon! May 22-25, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency, Burlingame, next to the SF airport. http://www.Kublacon.com

Wayne Rogers,
Kublacon Mini-Painting director

Fire of Salvation

I'm glad to have this one finally finished. It seemed to take forever. There was marvelous detail and opportunity on this model, but it just hit an unfortunate conjunction of busy times for me and took longer than I would have wanted. Plus it didn't help that I took him to the tournament before he was really finished and had to do some repair work afterwards. All things considered though, it wasn't so bad.

What went right:
* Whites went better than I expected. I used more of a dirty earth tone instead of a grey tone.
* Glowing runes turned out nice. I like the effect and it's not too much. It's not very realistic, but I like it.
* Overall color balance worked out fairly well with the exception of how the menofixes in the shoulders seem to blend in too much.

What could have been better:
* General motivation to put more time into it, although I've been trying to limit the amount of time I spend on any one model these days.
* Lack of crispness to the painting seems to be a recent trend for me. I'm not saying I dislike it, but the jury is still out on that one.
* Realistic shading didn't really play out well for me, with several places being lighter when they should be darker.

Well, just a fast update. I've got a backlog of other stuff to deal with before I get back into a normal painting rhythm. KublaCon is just over 3 weeks away and I need to get seriously cranking on a squad entry.

MKII: Protectorate vs Cryx

Quick battle report, which is long overdue. I'm dead tired and sorely behind on things. The Fire of Salvation is parked with glosscoat drying too. Anyway, it was a 35pt battle under MKII and was quite amusing.

Armies:
Protectorate: Feora, Avatar, Castigator, Daughters, Deliverers (6), Sunburst, Cleansers (6), Allegiant, Hierophant, 3x Wracks
Cryx: eSkarre, Cankerworm, Leviathan, Nightwretch, Bane Knights (10), 2x Pistol Wraiths, Tartarus, Wrathe

Highlights:
* Feora is still Feora. She kicks butt and sets things on fire.
* Cleansers are pretty rockin. Automatic fire is a pretty sweet upgrade for them. Still not my favorite, but improved.
* Daughters are, well, not quite as I remember them. They are still pretty fun though.
* New Deliverers are very cool. I love the new Rocket Volley option for them. It's a welcome alternative to firing shot after shot of deviating blast.
* The Leviathan still impresses me for the points.
* Bane Knights are pretty reasonable now. I'd say they are quite fairly priced now.

Questions:
* Vengeance or Continuous Effects: Which go first?
* No measuring unit formation during Vengeance?
* Wall of Fire does not block LOS?
* When fleeing a unit can "cower"? (apparently it's correct, but still sounds wrong)

Outcome:
Feora pulled out a victory on this one. In the end I pulled out a NQ win. On eSkarre's feat round, she marked Feora and herself as non-targetable. However Feora's Blazing Effigy spell is not an attack spell. The Castigator trampled up over a couple Bane Knights and then Feora blasted eSkarre. It helped that she already had some self-applied damage on her, and the Sunburst was able to apply a couple points.

Overall:
Still loving MKII. The rules flow well and play smoothly.

From the Painting Desk: Ridiculous

It's 90 degrees today. This wouldn't be such a big deal except that without air conditioning, the heat permeates my place and makes blending more difficult. So I'm taking a bit of a break for a day or two and catching up on other tasks around the house. Too bad since the Fire of Salvation is almost finished too. Even if I could finish painting it, the heat makes it unsafe to seal stuff (or prime for that matter).

On another note, the KublaCon painting competition has decided to go to an open judging format. I for one am stoked. They are planning to have a masters level and an open level. Speaking of that I'll have to get crackin on the things I want to enter.

Anyway, I'm off for a late evening swim and then melt into a puddle in a corner.

SR4 Battle Report

The tournament yesterday was amusing. The quote for the day was "Dude, there's a Reznik in my face!" Overall I had a typical tournament record: 1 win, 1 loss, 1 by.

My List: Reznik, Fire of Salvation, Blessing of Vengeance, Revenger, Chior(6), Vassal, 2x Seneschals, 3x Wracks.
I brought a backup Harbinger list, but had no intention of playing it. I wanted to try out Reznik with a jack heavy list.

Battle 1: I fought against Protectorate ironically. Severius, Zealots+Monolith, Knights Exemplar, Chior, 2x Redeemers, Blessing of Vengeance. The battle overall was just difficult. Since I couldn't target Severius directly with spells, it limited my options. Plus there was this plateau terrain feature in the middle that screwed both of us up. I very nearly got a run on Severius with the Fire of Salvation (of which one hit would have probably done him in), but due to unfortunate positioning, he just couldn't quite fit through between two jacks and I got stuck. Then he managed to get a charge on Reznik with the knights and that wrapped things up. Overall it was a poor match up anyway since Severius is somewhat of an achilles heel for Reznik (feat, spells, etc).

Battle 2: Unluckily, I drew the by for that round. *sigh* I did however get to watch a magificent throwdown between Deneghra and Skarre where the Cankerworm destroyed both the Deathjack and the Nightmare. It was shocking.

Battle 3: I love the 3rd round. By then it's a game just for fun since I'm never in a winners' bracket. I faced off against Asphyxious, Soulhunters(5), Biles(7?), 3x Deathrippers, Skarlock, Wrathe and Gorman. This is where Reznik shined. I put Brand of Heresy on the Soulhunters, Zealot's Rage on the Fire of Salvation, and Enliven on the Blessing of Vengeance. It was downright punishing to the Cryx player. He could never quite leverage his full strength and I was able to relentlessly push forward toward his side. Near the end he retreated with Asphyxious behind a cloud but by using Perdition I got the Fire into LOS of Asphyxious and then pulled off the 10" charge and beat him down like the dog he was. This was definitely a battle where I felt like I executed extremely well and leveraged the full power and synergy of my army.

Casualties: A wrack got damaged slightly, and the Fire of Salvation, which wasn't completely finished, had a bit of an issue with a couple of pins, but overall no unrecoverable damage. I had worried about bringing the Fire of Salvation since I hadn't sealed it yet, but in hindsight I am certainly glad I did.

Overall: Great time was had. The "fanboy" Protectorate player was there boasting about not using Kreoss but he fielded a completely typical Harbinger list with Doc and Vilmon and Paladins and Redeemers. All things considered, I'd rather have a By than face that. Fortunately both of my battles were entertaining.

MKII: Mercs vs Cryx

Two more MKII battles on Saturday night. Just getting behind on posting unfortunately. Here's the highlights:

Battle 1:
Mercs (Highborn): Ashlynn, Nomad, Freebooter, Mariner, Nyss Hunters(10), Dougal, Stannis, Bokur, Herne&Jonne
Cryx: eAsphyxious, 2x Pistol Wraits, Seether, 2x Deathrippers, Soulhunters(5), Bane Thralls(10), Skarlock

Summary: I got Cryx'd. Admitedly I could have probably avoided it, but the Seether slammed the Bokur into Ashlynn and then a single Soulhunter charged and killed her. The battle was a poor match up anyway, as Asphyxious was dropping out cloud templates to provide cover to the Soulhunters, and the Bane Thralls had stealth, so it was pretty difficult for me to leverage my army against them.

Battle 2:
Mercs (Highborn): Ashlynn, Nomad, Freebooter, Mariner, Nyss Hunters(10), Dougal, Stannis, Aiyana&Holt, Gorman
Cryx: eDeneghra, 2x Deathrippers, Nightmare, Mechanithralls(10), Necrosurgeon, 2x Brutethralls, Bane Knights(10), Tartarus

Summary: I got seriously Cryx'd. Top of round 2 eDeneghra feats and then the Nightmare uses it's prey to move in, then tramples over the Nyss and into melee with Ashlynn. A single hit from the Nightmare killed her with damage to spare. This is the first thing I've encountered in 5 games that actually felt broken. With eDenghra's Pursuit spell, the Nightmare could potentially move 12" before it's activation, and then take a 9" charge/trample. We're planning on trying that out again to see what happens before reporting it.

Overall: Still loving MKII. The rules are streamlined and easy to follow. There's a few specific situations that are raising questions, but overall I love it. I'm sort of sad to be playing MKI for the SR4 tournament this Saturday.

MKII: 2 More Battles

2 more test battles today. Again, no pictures. I played Protectorate against Cygnar at the LGS.

Battle 1:
Protectorate: eKreoss, Vanquisher, Dervish, Revenger, Reclaimer, Chior(6), Covenant, TFG(10)
Cygnar: Darius, Ironclad, Centurion, Stormclad, Squire, Strangeways, Mechanics

Summary: I pulled out a win by the skin of my teeth. The Covenant is awesome for the no-knockdown feature. The Dervish however was the star of the show. I used him to sneak around and then use side-step to make my way over to Darius and deliver a beating. I absolutely love the Dervish now. The Stormclad was totally badass to fight against as well.

Battle 2:
Protectorate: Amon, Devout, Dervish, Guardian, Repenter, Chior(6), Paladin, 3 Wracks, Sunburst Crew
Cygnar: eHaley, Defender, 2 Lancers, Trenchers(6), Squire

Summary: This was a bad match up for Cygnar. After a first round of eHaley's domination, I kept "no spells" on all my jacks and spell barrier on Amon for pretty much the entire game. Eventually I wore him down and took out eHaley, but he almost got a serious NQ win on me by trying to use telekinesis to move Amon out from his cover and then blast him with spells. Amon took a beating over the course of the game but pulled out the win. It was rough though since I lost most of my cortexes over the course of the game.
Amon plays like a whole new caster now. Even though I have to re-learn him, I like him. The Sunburst was actually quite good now.

MKII Experience:
MKII continues to impress me. The biggest issues that came up were just a distinct lack of rules where there used to be rules. I won't go into great detail, but this was today's list of questions:
* No mention that jack's can't spend focus outside of their activation (matters for free strikes, Darius' jackhammer, Devout's defensive strike, Vassal, etc)
* No mention that weapon crews can't run.
* No mention of what direction continue fire damages from (respective of shields)
* No mention of front/back arcs when knocked down (again, shields)
* Warcaster Attachments apparently are just solos now
* No mention of shield bonuses going away when that arm system is disabled
* No mention of warjack bonds granting an extra focus allocation
* Which wins between Purification and eFeora's Caustic Presence?

I'm seriously looking forward to more games with MKII.

Hierarch Severius

Doing another side-by-side on this one. Grand Scrutator Severius was the first Warmachine warcaster that I painted. I spent a ton of time on him working on the blending. I remember being very please with him at the time. Today I finished up Hierarch Severius, the Epic version of the original. Looking at these models side-by-side was an interesting exercise. For the purpose of this post I will shorthand Hierarch Severius (who appears on the left) as eSevvy, and Grand Scrutator Severius (on the right) as pSevvy. Unfortunately the lighting was tricky for eSevvy and I just didn't get good pictures, so he appears darker in the pics than in person.

There's a couple things that really shocked me when I took an honest look at the two. The whites on pSevvy are simpler and lack depth, but are smooth and clean looking. eSevvy overall has more of a gritty look to him. The reds on eSevvy are, without a doubt, much better. They have stronger contrast and convey much more depth, plus the blending is much better. However, for the overall model look, I have to be honest and say that eSevvy is not lightyears ahead.

Things that went well:
* Reds - These went great. Absolutely happy with them.
* Blacks - These worked out pretty well. Blending could have been better, but I like the end look of them.
* Brightness range - I'm happy with the overall effect. The blending on the whites was brutal, but I really wanted to put more contrast depth into this model to convey depth of field in his robes.

Things that could have been better:
* Whites - These frustrated me. I tried using more tonal variation but in some places it backfired on me. In the end I achieved the depth I wanted, but the blending left much to be desired.
* Metals - Overall I'm not displeased, but some places they just look unfinished.
* Gems - I suck at gems. I need more practice. On the plus side I used some paint-on gloss coat after sealing the whole thing and that made a noticeable difference for the gems.

Ok, well, it's late and I have a day packed with MKII test games at the LGS tomorrow, so I'm going to sign off. Hopefully it continues to prove a fun set of rules changes.

First MKII Battle!

Sorry, no pictures this time. Unfortunate too, since it was almost entirely painted. Lance and I played last night using the new MKII rules and I have to say that overall I like the changes.

My List: Reznik, Reckoner, Blessing of Vengeance, Hierophant, Knights Exemplar(6), Chior(6), 3 Wracks
Lance's List: Epic Asphyxius, Deathjack, Deathripper, Mechanithralls(10), Brute Thrall, Necrosurgeon, Necrotech

The battle was brutal. Before I go through the details of the battle, I want to share my MKII experiences:
* The game plays smoothly. Other than questions about staying in formation while charging, the rules were easy to navigate and use.
* Everything in my army except Wracks had changed. Some of it was substantially different (Reznik, Knights, Chior). However I can honestly say the changes didn't bother me at all. In fact, I liked most of them.
* Other than one instance of Reznik's Witch Hunter ability, I don't think we missed a single rule or ability during the game.
* Jacks are definitely better now. I love their new rules on damage and the boost to MAT makes them much more effective. The power attacks stuff is also pretty sweet.

Here are battle highlights:
* Reckoner, juiced up on spells and chior, charges in and wrecks the DJ in a single round.
* Necrotech created at least a dozen scraps over the course of the game. Those scraps also did a pile of damage to stuff.
* Reznik having Ashes To Ashes is a nice change of pace, and really helped with crowd control on the Mechanithralls.
* Epic Asphyxius is still a pain in the butt to get to. In the end, only he and Reznik were on the table, and he got the charge in on Reznik and pulled out the win.

It was both a close and a fun game. The new rules are excellent in my humble opinion. I'm looking forward to these changes being officially released next year!

Warmachine MKII

Well, if you follow Warmachine at all, you probably know that the MKII Field Trial has started. As a result my painting is slowing down in order to review the new rules and try to get a few games in. I'm not going to give a summary here of my thoughts except to say that I think it is good overall. One good thing is that MKII has me inspired to work on the Avatar.

Epic Severius is almost done now. Just down to fiddly bits and details. Hopefully I can finish him up tonight. The Fire of Salvation is assembled and primed on my desk.

I think that Legion is going to go on hold for a while. My hope of starting it soon has been drowned by a desire to finish up my remaining Protectorate stuff and maybe even go back and hit a couple more Cryx things. We'll see what happens though since my muse is a fickle creature.

Specific thought for the day: The P3 paint pots are fine, but when the top detaches from the pot entirely, it gets a little frustrating to work with. The GW foundation pots are fairly obnoxious because they don't stay open enough. In general I don't really like droppers cause I waste more paint doing that. Once of these days, maybe someone will find a better solution.

From the Desk: Vacation!

I'm on vacation! All week! So there will probably be lots of activity on this blog since my vacation does not have any specific plans other than to relax. It's a week for me to unwind, get stuff done around the house, and generally bum around. So, of course, I have grand plans for painting.

Currently I'm working on epic Severius, who has been sitting in my unpainted bin since his original release date some months ago. The picture here is pretty terrible, but it gives you the general idea. It's a pretty detailed model, and I like the depth variation in his robes.

In parallel I'm starting the Fire of Salvation, and also doing the initial prep work on the Avatar (which has been sitting around for a very long time). I want to do some more serious conversion work on the Avatar because, to be frank, I think the sculpt is lacking a bit in the awesomeness department. I'll probably do a series of posts on it like I did with the DTMX.

Airbrushes

Despite the poor economy that I keep hearing about, I received a bit of a raise this year. So, to celebrate, I'm looking into buying an airbrush. As is becoming typical for me, I'm doing some research on whether it's worth getting, what to get, and what I can expect in terms of learning curve. Mostly I've been trolling around BrushThralls, CMON and the Privateer forums for information as those are places that I routinely haunt and find useful information on. Below I'll put a list of links, but first is the summary of my research and my current plan.

History:
I should mention, I've actually had a small amount of experience with an airbrush before. Nothing really valuable except to have an idea what I'm getting into. Long ago (back in college) I bought a Testors airbrush kit. I think it was about $50 and included a single action, external mix, siphon fed airbrush that used compressed air cans for propellant. It was a pretty feeble tool and not especially good for models, but it did give me some experience with what an airbrush is all about. I used it back then a couple of times for basecoating 40k stuff and doing some random things to larger vehicle models from that 40k line. That being said, if I'm going to try out airbrushing again, it's time to upgrade to an adult version.

Requirements:
Yes, yes... my developer side is showing through. My first step was to determine my requirements for an airbrush.
* Double Action - Absolutely necessary. I want the added control of how much paint is coming out.
* Internal Mix - External mixing is just too random. I want control. If I've learned anything from the W&N S7 brushes it's that tool quality and consistency does make a noticable difference.
* Separate Compressor - No compressed air cans. I'll splurge for the compressor even if it costs me. This gets back to that whole tool quality and consistency issue. The compressor must have a pressure regulator (variable) and moisture filter. Ideally it has a tank option as well.
* Budget - My working budget here is about $250. I'm not really willing to go more for now, but am also working under the assumption that if I really like it, I may get another airbrush further down the road (although hopefully not replacing the compressor).

Candidates:
Right now I have 2 leading candidates. First is the Paasche VL Millennium which has the advantages of being relatively cheap and entirely metal. Second is the Aztek 470 which seems to get a lot of recommendations. I'm not in any immediate rush to get one, so I'm going to take my time and ask around at a local hobby store and get further recommendations.

Links:
* BrushThralls has an excellent brief article about airbrushing that gets right to the point and, most importantly, includes a couple examples of actually using the airbrush on models. Yay ArkenTyre!
* CMON Has a good article about Airbrushing basics that I found very useful.
* Not to advertise, but DickBlick's airbrush section was useful to get an idea of accessories for further down the road.
* Privateer forums had a couple of posts that I found informative about selecting airbrushes and compressors.
* How To Airbrush.com - An interesting site, I guess, but there are so many spelling and grammar mistakes that it is rather hard to sort through the information.

Schism Tournament Report

The Schism event today was a ton of fun. I brought 3 lists but only ended up playing 2 of them.

Battle 1: My list: Grissel, Blitzer, Mauler, Axer, Impaler, Fell Caller, Gudrun, Krielstones(6), Champs, Stone Scribe Chronicler, and Gobbers. Opponent's list: Testament, Vengers, Cleansers, TFG, Zealots, Seneschals, Redeemer, Paladins (I think he cheated here, but I forgot to double check), and some other stuff. It was a pretty typical ToM infantry swarm list. This was the same guy that played drop-and-pop in the last tournament. I nearly won this battle when he failed to kill Grissel on a charge at her, but unfortunately I rolled poorly and didn't lay out enough damage. He didn't win because he out played me. He won because I got unlucky. It was a lot like the previous tournament. I've decided that If he brings another boring "fanboy" Protectorate list and I have to face him, I'll just forfeit. Not very sportsmanlike I guess but I'm not so interested in playing another boring game.

Battle 2: This game was awesome. My list: eDoomshaper, 2 Maulers, Blitzer, Impaler, Fell Caller, Krielstones(6), Champs, Gobbers and Totem Hunter. Opponent's list: eButcher, Kodiak, Spriggan, Doom Reavers, Fenris, Yuri, Manhunter, Wardog and Great Bears. In all fairness, my opponent had me dead to rights. Despite rolling minimum focus, he got 3 rage tokens and had Fenris in melee with Doomshaper and I only had 2 fury to transfer with. Unfortunately for him he rolled poorly. Then I managed to orchestrate enough to get a Mauler around onto a knocked-down Butcher and paste him in nothing flat. I honestly felt bad for him cause his rolling was terrible. But it did afford me a win.

Battle 3: Same list as above, but I played my buddy Lance. He had Hexeris, Bronzeback, 2 Cannoneers, Krea, Brute, Paingivers, Bone Grinders, Gobbers, Midwinter and 2 Extolers. We ran out of time early, but played out the game anyway for fun. I totally forgot to snap a picture. All I have to say is that eDoomshaper's feat with a Blitzer is hugely amusing cause you can run the blitzers 20" and then fire the slugger. I tried to use Doomshaper's weapon on a Cannoneer, but got very unlucky on dice rolling and failed to damage it three times. I lost that battle shortly thereafter.

In the end, I won the painting award though. Only non-warlock/warcaster character models were eligible. This part was sort of amusing. I had brought Alten to enter (who was in my third list with Grim and Impalers), but the tournament organizer Marco (who totally rocks), came by and saw my Totem Hunter and said "Enter this instead. I think it's way better." Before waiting for my confirmation he wandered off with the Totem Hunter, started the voting, and I totally won by popular vote. It wasn't super stiff competition, but honestly I was quite honored by Marco's comments.

Epic Doomshaper was a blast to play. His feat is outrageous, and combined with Mayhem I was able to do things like a 15" trample up through a smoke cloud and then us the bonded Mauler's fury to buy extra power attacks. His "arc node"-like attack spell is quite amusing as well. I think if I'm going to keep playing more trolls, I'm going to want an Earthborn and a Bouncer to go with him. Fortunately they happen to be very cool models as well.

All in all, another fun tournament experience. I'm looking forward to another SR4 event in 3 weeks that Marco is organizing at the LGS. Until then, it's back to painting.

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia

I did it! My wife's painting challenge was just what I needed apparently. I'm not sure how many painting hours it was (probably 8 to 10), but it was basically just 2 evenings and some time on a Saturday. I'm sort of amazed that I pulled it off. I'm really looking forward to fielding him today at the Schism tournament. I'll make sure to post about the tournament tonight or tomorrow and include a review of how he performed. Fortunately I've got the DTMX to be his bonded beast as well!

Things that went right:
* The scrolls went fairly well. I started with Thrall Flesh and then worked up through MWB to MWH and a couple of spots of pure white on paper edges. A bit of a wash of Beast Hide helped give more definition to the paper as well.
* His flesh went well. I started with Underbelly Blue and then did a combination of washes and 2BB using layers and combinations of Trollblood Highlight, Trollblood Base, Exile Blue, Sanguine Base and Ryn Flesh.
* The basing went great. More on that below.
* The leathers worked out well despite some failed starts early on. Mostly it was a matter of starting with Bootstrap Leather, washing it heavily with Armor Wash and Battlefield Brown, then working it back up using more Bootstrap Leather, Beast Hide and Rucksack Tan. Man I do love those colors from the P3 range!
* GW's Devlan Mud wash worked out great this time too. I used it in some select spots and now I think I've figured out how to use it effectively. On the cloth on his feat I used Beast Hide, then some rough highlights with MWB, and then washed it with Devlan Mud. The results were quite good despite not doing any further highlights. It's definitely a shortcut, but it does look pretty nice for the amount of time needed. The key was to highlight first, then lay on the wash quite thick.

Things that could have been better:
* The tartan didn't go so great. I often struggle with them, but this one was so wavy and folded that it made it quite hard to paint effective lines. It also just sticks out in small places, making it harder to keep a coherent look to it. But, in the end, I'm not completely unhappy with it.
* The rune stones aren't great. The runes on them don't really jump out so well. Next time I think I'll need to hold off on the washes and stick to proper highlighting.
* Having no sprue tab was a pain. I had to work from a paperclip stuck through a cork, which is rather small for my hands. It doesn't afford the same stability that an empty mattcoat can affords. Next time I should look for a way to mount the paperclip-cork combo to the can.
* Mounting to base didn't go very smoothly. I should have better fit him down. His left foot is floating just a tiny bit above the stone slab of the base. Oh well, too late now.

One last note before I head out to the tournament: The base was an amusing departure for me. I wanted to make a base that was at least somewhat epic for Hoarluk so I figured I'd create a rune-carved slab on a pile of stones like a small altar. You can sort of see it in the picture. I too one of the prominent runes from his armor and from the artwork and carved it into the face of the top stone. It wasn't too hard to do actually. The base is made from Super Sculpy which hardens well enough for basing, but is still easy to carve into with cutters and a knife. He's standing directly on the run though so it makes it hard to see properly without having it up close to look at.

Anyway, off to breakfast, and then to play!

From the Desk: Doomshaper day 3

No picture. Hoarluk is done other than sealing him. The last terrain work on the base is drying right now and then I'll seal him later tonight and snap pictures in the morning.

Something interesting about this model was the lack of a mounting tab on the bottom. This is why I had it on a pin for painting instead of on a typical empty dullcoat can. I'm wondering if it's part of their metal-saving techniques that they are enhancing.

Well, the tournament is tomorrow, and I probably should finalize my third list before it gets too much later. I'll post pictures tomorrow assuming I get up early enough to snap the pics and post before the tournament.

From the desk: Doomshaper day 2

Late last night (around midnight) I snapped a quick picture before heading to sleep. I made some significant progress. At least enough to get to the point where I don't feel like the paint job is going nowhere. It helped to get the flesh painted I think. I spent a decent amount of time on the base actually, roughing up the sides of the stones and carving a rune into the top rock face.

I'm going to try a much more light skin tone for Hoarluk this time around. I'd never been a fan of the albino look before, but this model has a lot of leather on him, so I needed a lighter and cooler color to balance out the overall look. So far it's working out pretty well.

Anyway, it's a new day and just 27 hours until the Schism tournament so it's time for me to get crackin and paint like I have a pair!

From the desk: Doomshaper day 1-ish

There's a point, when I'm painting a miniature, particularly when using black primer, where I think to myself "This is never going to look good." Eventually I make enough progress to get past that point and it starts to look good. However, I'm right in that zone right now. However, I figured I'd snap a quick picture.

I'm not going for any special departure from the studio scheme. Tan tartan, brown leathers, bronze scrolls. I made a slight alteration to the angle of his head from the normal sculpt. Otherwise he's pretty much stock. I decided to make a slightly more epic base for him as well, which you can see pictured here in its initial stage while the green stuff hardens.

Well, it's late, and I'm still sick with the flu and have to go to work tomorrow, so I'm going to sign off now instead of punishing myself with another late night of painting. Until tomorrow!

Funny Story...

So I get home from a late night run to my LGS after picking up the latest NQ issue along with more white paint, epic Thagrosh, and epic Doomshaper. And... wait... let me back up...

This weekend is the Hordes Schism tournament at my LGS. I decided it would be fun to play epic Doomshaper at the tournament, so I figured I'd pick him up today so that I can get him assembled for the tournament. So an evening run was in order. Ok, back to now...

So I get home and my wife says to me "How much did you buy?" And... wait... let me back up again...

My wife and I have an agreement. We have a "magic jar". Into this jar I put receipts from when I buy anything relating to this miniatures hobby. Then she gets to take the receipts out and get an equivalent amount of money to spend as she sees fit. This creates a fun little dynamic where she actually encourages me to spend money on this hobby. It makes us both happy. Ok, back to now...

So I pull out the receipt from the bag and stuff it into the magic jar and my wife smiles. They she asks where the model I got for this weekend is. After pulling a bunch of bits out of the blister pack, she says to me "You could easily finish that by Sunday couldn't you?" So, long story short, I'm now challenging myself to have eDoomshaper painted for the Schism tournament this weekend. Whee!!!

Hierophant

I feel like I'm really on a roll with my Protectorate backlog. It was nice to get this guy painted since he's really an auto-include now for most Protectorate casters. Not an especially remarkable model though.
Nothing special to mention here. Similar techniques to before. I'm still sick so my mental capacity is pretty low. Fortunately painting doesn't seem to require much brainpower. Ironically, I haven't got anything primed and ready to start next, nor do I have enough brainpower to decide what I want to work on next. Perhaps the rest of this week will be a break.

Legion Color Scheme Thoughts

Over the last several weeks my pile of unpainted miniatures has shifted pretty noticeably. Instead of 4 unpainted factions, I only have 2. However my pile of unpainted Legion models continues to grow and admittedly, I haven't painted a single one yet. I've been getting them trimmed, pinned, assembled and in some cases even based. However not a single one has been primed, nor have I even played a game with them yet. A big reason for that is that I'm stuck on a color scheme for them.

Something I learned from doing Cryx was that I really enjoyed having a consistent scheme for them. Well, ok, my Cryx isn't all consistent. It's got 2 different types of bases and some models are NMM while others are MM. But, the point still holds. I love the way the models look together. I want to handle Legion the same way. To that end, today's post will be half stream-of-consciousness, and half "research" notes on various color schemes that I've found previously.

Nyss: When I did Cylena Raefyll and the Nyss Hunters, I really did enjoy painting them in the studio scheme. The black was challenging, but I loved how the flesh looked. I think regardless of what other scheme choices I make, I want to stick with the pale blue skin for the Nyss warriors themselves. Beasts are, of course, up for debate.

Painting Practice: When I started working on Cryx, I specifically wanted to do a little practicing of NMM, and a lot of practicing with washes. I found that experience to be very valuable, and likewise I'd like to focus on something specific when doing Legion. To that end, something I haven't worked on much up to this point is greens. I've done a fair amount of whites, reds, blacks, and blues. However I haven't done much work with green and I'd like some practice. Somehow I need to work that into the scheme. Perhaps light green flesh for the Nyss instead of light blue? Hmm...
Also, I want to practice the whole "layered streaking" of chiton/bone. There's a really great tutorial on this here.

Basing: Ok, as cool as those snow bases were to make for the Nyss Hunters, I do not want to be making those on a large scale. It was fine for on-offs, but I'd like something more jungle-ish instead. Below are a couple prototypes for bases that I made.

Personally, I like the right one better, but the contrast in it is lower. To that end I'm probably going to get some alternate moss colors to fill in and create more of an autumn look to it. However, this is generally the style I want to go for; rocky and mossy. To that end, I want my Legion scheme to not look wildly out of place. Greens and browns would make good predominant colors.

Prior Work: Here's a few links of various Legion beasts I've seen painted by other folks:
* Dead Dogg's Carnivean for NQ - I love the paint job, but honestly I feel like the carapace and the soft tissue are too similar in color and reduce the "readability" of the model. However the green skin is excellent.
* Speed Painted post on Privateer Forums - Not a huge fan overall (the green skin is a little too "ghostly"), but the brown carapace is magnificent. Hints of purple really create an interesting effect.
* Another post on the Privateer Forums - I specifically don't like the brown armor, but the browns and greens are about the level of brightness and contrast that I like. If nothing else, it makes for a nice reference.
* Deathstalker from Jarrett Lee's blog - Love this paint job. Jarrett's very impressive. The interplay of blue and purple on the cloak is remarkable.
* Raek from CMON - Not particularly a fan of the color scheme, but it illustrates the "streak" look of the carapace that the studio scheme also has. I definitely want to practice that technique.

And now for something completely different:

Nature rocks. Just look at this frog! I love how there's massive contrast and conflicting colors, and yet somehow it works. I love the idea of contrasting spots on my beasts' soft tissue.

Summary: So, where does this leave me? Well, after putting all this together, letting it tumble around in my head, here's what my plan is looking like:
* Carapace - Browns with white/black streaks in it
* Beast flesh - Green with spots
* Armor - metal
* Warrior flesh - Light blue
* Cloth - Dark blue/purple
Odds are things will change as I go, but this is my working plan for now.

High Executioner Servath Reznik

This is going to be a relatively short post. I finished the last details on Reznik today while home sick with the flu. Nothing quite like trying to paint while being assaulted by body aches and hacking coughs. However the painting must continue! There's not a whole lot to say on this one. A lot of the techniques used here were the same as for the Protectorate jacks I finished recently. The "Burninate" is another tribute to Trogdor.

Steamroller 4 Rocks!

The tournament yesterday was a blast! In the past I've bagged on tournament formats and complained about how they aren't very fun. Well, Steamroller4 seems to have turned that around finally. Well, as much as a tournament format can. It's still going to be chocked full of people just trying to win (more on that later), but at least the format and timing makes it better.

My List:
I only brought one list. Here's a crappy picture of it. Terminus, Nightmare, 9 Bane Thralls, Pistol Wraith, Skarlock, Gudrun, Bokur, and Gorman. I put this list together rather hastily and primarily based on a Cryx force that I liked the look of. Gudrun got thrown in to help deal with stuff tactically, the Bokur was more just for fun, and Gorman was to give Terminus a little more protection.

Battle 1 (the most fun):

The first battle was huge fun. It's also the only one I snapped any pictures of. My opponent was playing a Krueger list and I have to say, it was a super fun battle. He had Krueger, a Woldwarden, a Woldwatcher, a Woldstalker, Tharn Ravagers with a White Mane, Shifting Stones, and Bone Grinders. The mission was Mosh Pit. We both headed for the center. There was a fair amount of punching each other in the face. In the end, I made a run on Krueger with Terminus and failed to get enough hits in. Then, stuck in the middle with no focus, he tried to leverage as much as he could on Terminus. Fortunately I had knocked down the Woldwarden. He got Terminus down to 3 life left and ran out of stuff to hit me with. At that point it was done. I moved Terminus out of the fray, behind Krueger and shanked him. There was unfortunate dice rolling on both sides, but it was a hugely fun battle and my opponent was both gracious and friendly. This battle was easily the most fun tournament battle I've had.

Battle 2 (the lamest):
Some guy brought a Kreoss drop-and-pop list. It was lame. He almost failed at killing Terminus in melee though, which would have meant I'd have shanked his ass for sure. But alas, his dice were with him. If he hadn't had Eiryss, I'd have easily survived.

I totally kept that guy nailed on his timed turns though, once causing him to not even get to do anything with Kreoss. He complained afterwards and I told him "You bring pop-and-drop, I'm going to hold you to the time limit cause that's the drawback of that list." I think he didn't catch my intention though.

Ironically, in the last round, that guy played a different Circle player who, in my opinion, is a clearly superior opponent. The Circle player just marched Kaya forward and let him kill her without even trying. The Kreoss player seemed to think he had earned that victory which I find highly amusing. I totally gave the Circle player a high-5 at the end when he told me that. If I face that same guy and he brings the same list, I'll just forfeit before the match even starts.

Battle 3 (quite fun):
The last battle was against a Goreshade list using the Break The Line scenario. I'd only ever played against Goreshade once before. At this point I wasn't in the running for 1st anyway, so I played pretty fast and loose. The battle was quite fun though. I got a run on Goreshade but just barely missed killing him. I'd thrown the Deathjack out of the way and Death Chilled it as well, but he was still able to leverage just enough to take out Terminus. To my opponent's credit, he actually won on scenario as well by using a Helldiver. It was like a double victory, for which I gave the guy a hearty handshake on a very well played game. Not only did he play well, but he was pretty bold with moving Goreshade up and didn't have any arc nodes.

In the end...
I had a great time, despite my usual tournament record of 1 win and 2 losses. The 10 minute rounds makes for a speedy game, and pretty much every game I got at least 4 turns in which I very much enjoyed. The 10 minute turns are pretty rough, but it forces the game to play faster, and you have to take a more streamlined force. We played out the whole tournament in under 5 hours too (3 games) which was very cool. I'm very much looking forward to the next Steamroller 4 match!

The list was a lot of fun to play. Terminus is easy to run in tournaments and really fun to play. Attaching the Bokur to Gudrun was not as useful as attaching him to Terminus I think. However, the list was more about putting my Cryx on display. My reward for losing was getting a lot of comments about my nicely painted army, which I value more than a trophy for sure.

Reckoner

Well, the jack factory rolls on. This big boy is a very significant lump of metal. I actually reverted to painting in pieces on this one, leaving the arms separate, so that it would be a bit easier to manage the weight of the model. Again, not super interesting to paint personally, but there were some parts that I did enjoy like the giant mace.

I actually had this mostly done in just a couple nights' work, but it took me a few extra days to do the last touches, basing and sealing due to my work/life balance challenges lately.

Things that went well:
* I did the metals first which actually made things much easier. I could be sloppy and fast with the washes and not worry about messing up the whites. This sped up the work noticably.
* Painting in parts was a huge use here. I only left the arms off but that was plenty help.

Things that could have been better:
* Battle damage would probably have been a nice addition.
* I feel like the reds are a tad flat. I probably could have deepened the shading closer to black to make it pop more.

Well, nothing else fancy to say right now. This weekend I'm going to hit a Steamroller4 tournament at my LGS for the first time in ages. I'll try to post some pics of the event.

Blessing of Vengeance

I've come to the realization that I don't really enjoy painting Protectorate jacks that much. It's a shame really, cause the sculpts of the newer ones are pretty good. It has something to do with the hard lines of the model I think. Just not terribly interesting to paint. Plus it's a fairly limited color range necessary. Unfortunately I still have more to paint.

Stuff that went well:
* The inscriptions on the shield and seals worked out pretty well. I used thinned Umbral Umber and Armor Wash for the first sketching in of the lines, then went back with purple ink and added some depth to them.
* Bronzes went pretty well overall. Used the same formula as before. I'm really liking them.
* Red armor plates came together pretty well, with fairly smooth blending.

Things that could have been better:
* I tried to widen the hips a bit, and in the end the hip joints ended up being fairly weak.
* Whites were a bit challenging, and I struggled to get them right.
* Inks gave me fits, and a couple times I just couldn't keep them contained. Given my desire to just "get done", I didn't bother touching up the mistakes.

Stone Scribe Chronicler

This is one of those models that I'm sure got got because at the time I thought it was a great model. Then it went into my queue... deep into the queue. I lost interest in it and after reviewing it, decided it wasn't such a great model. However, now that I've painted it, I have to say it was relatively nice to paint. The pose is pretty open, and everything was easy to get to. I'll admit it's not my favorite of the troll models, but it does help reinforce what makes a model pleasant to paint.

Things that went well:
* The wood worked out quite well for being speed painted. I used a base of Rucksack Tan, then washed it a couple times using a slightly thinned coat of Sepia ink, and then a thinned wash of Armor wash.
* The scroll went well too. I did some layers of heavy pseudo-drybrushing on it to give it that aged paper look. Then I used a mix of Umbral Umber and Armor wash to do the runes.
* The tartan went smoothly. I used the same pattern as on Borka. In hindsight, it would be nice to go back and do all my trolls that way.
* Overall color balance worked out pretty well I feel. It's a relatively dark model, but I sort of like that about it.
* The brass metals went nicely. I used VMC Brass as my base, then used washes of chesnut ink, turquoise ink, and armor wash, then highlighed back up with some GW shinning gold, and then some P3 Quicksilver. I like the depth it gives the brass metals, with sort of an aged and weathered look, but also creates some natural brushed metal texturing.

Things that could have gone better:
* The leather armor could have gotten more work, but honestly I spent enough time on it that I was disinclined to do any further shading work.
* The skin is not completely satisfactory. I used Sanguine Base to shade the skin, and although I like the color interplay, my execution of it was sub-par unfortunately. Borka had this same problem.
* His eyes could have used a little more effort.
Overall the whole model could have used a little more effort, but that's sort of a running theme for me these days. Once again, I'm focusing on getting paint to the model and not trying to perfect every blend. Color variation and balance is more of my focus right now when it comes to developing my skills, and that requires painting more models rather than painting for quality.