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.

Borka Kegslayer

Shortcuts: yes. Top quality: no. Happy: yes. This was actually quite a fun model to paint. It was a little intimidating to start with, but I really did enjoy it a lot. There's plenty of detail, but not overdone with little tiny bits of detail, and his scale and pose makes everything accessible. I could have easily spent more time on him, but I'm trying to stick to an already tight schedule. Plus I spent some time working on basing ideas for my forthcoming Legion projects.

Something in particular that could have gone better is the fur. I used a combination of drybrushing and washes, but unfortunately it created kind of a dirty effect due to the wash's liquid cohesion. I need to remember to add something to break down that cohesion on washes that go into "high texture" areas.

Something in particular that worked out well was the tartan. I managed to get nice crisp lines, relatively smooth shading, and added a little highlighting to even the lines.

Pyg Keg Carrier

I was going to wait to post this guy until after I finished Borka as well, but Borka is still a ways from complete. Plus I wanted to feel like I'm still on track to finish up my trolls by the end of February. The three day weekend is exactly what I needed to unwind from a long hard stretch of work and get re-energized to paint. It seems like every once in a while I hit a wall for painting and have a hard time picking up the brush again. This time at least I didn't have that initial trepidation.

In all fairness, this was just a tabletop quality job. I didn't try for anything great here. All three of these remaining trolls are in this boat. I did spend a fair amount of time on the keg though. I wanted to really work on he wood grain.

This was the first model in a while that I primed black. I'd gotten so used to painting over white primer that I sort of felt like I'd lost my chops at first. White primer is certainly nice for some things, and speeds up some processes. However painting over black has one distinct advantage for me: It forces me to be more disciplined about how I lay down paint. My base coats get a better treatment for sure, and I find that I think more carefully about my colors.

Ok, anyway, back to work on Borka.

From The Desk: Things I Saw While Walking To Work

I'm officially in a slump. I'm still getting some painting done, but very little. The usual suspects are to blame: work, personal events, house projects. There's definitely some lack of motivation in there as well. I've got Borka, the Keg Carrier, and the Stone Scribe all started on my desk (the Key Carrier is practically finished actually). However at this rate, I won't finish them until the end of February.

As part of a house-wide experiment, my wife has designated February as "no unnecessary purchases" month. It's a good exercise for many reasons, but particularly because it will keep me focused on the unpainted miniatures I have rather than picking up anything new. I figure if I can finish my remaining trolls and be down to two factions with unpainted models, I'll be feeling better about getting new models.

So, now to the main reason for this post. Despite my lack of time and motivation to paint, I've still been thinking about painting. The other day I was able to walk to work and opted to take my camera. Now, I'm not photographer. Not by any stretch of the imagination do I fancy myself as good with a camera. However, I've been trying to train my artist's eye to be more conscious of color in the real world. So I snapped these pictures while I was walking because they got me thinking.

	Bark fascinates me. The many types, the varied textures, the variety of color... It's amazing. I took this picture because I particularly liked the "scaly hard skin" look of this bark.
	I have always held a motto of "Life Erupts", and this is an example of it. In the midst of bleached gravel are these clumps of grass and weeds. They sprout up in irregular spots. This picture was more about the pattern of the grass than the color, although the greens make an interesting counter to the mainly gray-scale rocks. The lighter yellow-ish greens tend to hide themselves as a result.
	Colored from exposure, this rock was an interesting study in hue. The rock itself sports light blues and faded reds and oranges in addition to its natural gray tones. This particularly interested me because the colors shift dramatically in a small space, but due to the irregularity and dispersion of color, I didn't notice it immediately. I somewhat liken the effect to stippling.
	Lance introduced me to a term from the computer effects industry: read. The use of this term is in regards to the eyes being able to see and understand what it is looking at. Images that are complex, lack contrast, or the visual information is irregular, can make it difficult for the eyes to identify what they are looking at quickly. This picture is an example. When I walked by, this pipe-valve assembly confused my eyes and I actually stopped to look more closely. Upon doing so, I recognized it quickly since I've seen these many times before. However this particular one was even more chaotic than usual with insulation partially pulled away and so much exposure to the elements over the years. Sometimes I encounter this same problem when painting a miniature. Grim Angus was an example where I was trying to balance creating contrast for the many items on his person, and not create an overly complex mosaic of color. In the end I failed in a couple ways, but learned much, and this picture reminded me of those lessons.
	This was a mark on a concrete barrier. You might not realize it to look at it, but it was apparently due to something inside the concrete. These spots occurred at regular intervals along the barrier. I took this picture because it was curious to me how the cracks formed.
	Now this was an interesting subject to look at. The dirty water lines are an intriguing study. On the top portion, dirt has been washed off by rain, runs over he edge, and the down the concave surface. The edges of the water marks are very hard and abrupt. However, further down there is a rougher stucco-like surface where the water does not form those hard lines. In this case, the surface texture naturally prevents those lines from forming apparently. Instead, any abrupt lines are formed to the higher textured parts of the surface. Well, at least that's my guess as to why it looks that way.
	I just loved the color of these. Nothing more.
	Wood grain is something I've been struggling with lately as a painter. These crates gave me yet another opportunity to study it.

Well, that's it for now. Time to tackle a couple more projects to get myself unburied and hopefully free up more time for painting.

Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast

Now this was a remarkable model to paint. Beautiful pose. Great detail. I think I'm in love! Seriously, this was one of the most fun models to paint out of all my Privateer collection. After rushing through all the other Cryx stuff, it was nice to hit the fully painted mark on Cryx with this model. Definitely worth spending the last 2 weeks working on her.

There were a number of things that went well, and a number that went poorly. First the good stuff. The skin worked out great. I used purple to shade the skin, bringing it fairly dark underneath where the light wouldn't hit directly, but not completely to purple. I feel it gives a rather warm feel to it. The detail on the face worked out pretty well too. I spent a lot of time trying to get the details to a level I was happy with. I'm still no expert, but it was a marked improvement over previous projects.

The base worked out great. Two key things here. First, it was pre-sculpted, and had lots of detail. After doing probably 5 or 6 washes and 3 or so highlights, I was pretty happy with the level of variation. Creating two different wood styles worked out better than I expected as well. It really helps the whole thing pop without being overpowering. Second, I used beach sand to fill in around the base. I didn't even paint it. Just superglued it down and it looks good. Gotta love natural beach sand.

Highlighting overall worked quite well. I used a combination of washes and highlights on some places, and multiple layers of two-brush-blending on others. The coat in particular was a good learning experience. I tried to get a bit more hue variation, and then do some decent blending while not changing contrast too quickly on the blends.

Ok, now a couple bad things. First, not attaching the sculpted base to a normal plastic base beforehand was a mistake. I ended up rubbing the paint too much and having to do some touch ups afterwards. I had debated it initially, but just decided to deal with it later. I'm starting to consider the merits of completely assembling the solid parts of a base before priming.

Second, and much worse, the model fell. At least twice. It cause some paint chipping. Mostly this happened because I hadn't attached it to a proper base, and just used a pin which I stuck to an old spray can. Being the clever monkey I am, I forgot to properly glue the pin in, so it fell off and landed on the edge of my porcelain palette. Fortunately it missed the wet paint, but unfortunately it chipped the paint in multiple places. I really hate doing cleanup work like that.

Well, enough of that. Again, this model was awesome, and I'm glad I spent so much time on it. Now that Cryx is done, it's time to obsess on a Legion paint scheme!