Tuesday 23 June 2020

WHFB3rd Beastmen Infantry Update

It’s been a long month or so since the last post. TBH I’m over this project, sitting down to lay paint on these figs has become more pain than pleasure. In fact the first draft of this post read as being a bit whiney; why am I taking so long, I have other stuff to work on, excuses for not painting. Blah blah blah. Well nobody wants to read that. I’ve hoarded armies. I have an injury. These are obstacles, not insurmountable challenges.
They actually look ok from 4 feet away.  I have another standard bearer to convert (because I’m not paying over $100 on eBay for the BSB that I want).
This one wasn’t too bad, I’ll just do another with a different plastic banner.
Next up will be a general, couple heroes and a wizard; that’s not too bad. Then I get to move onto some big guys. Hopefully it will be a nice change and will encourage me to speed up a bit. I hope next month’s post will have a finished army to present. My good friend has gotten into epic 40k, I’d like to join in. There’s got to be some of that in this shameful collection. 
Thanks for stopping by

Sunday 24 May 2020

It’s been awhile...

It’s been far too long since I posted something on this ramshackle blog. My pile of shame seems to grow no matter the circumstance; have a kid; buy into Batman miniatures, work overtime; buy into Star Wars Legion, have another kid; buy swathes of old lead (to be fair that last one never really stops), Covid knocks the world on its ass; actually paint something? (gasp!).
I suppose it took being barred from doing anything outside of the house but yes, I’ve finally gotten started on a 3rd edition Chaos Army. Although, to be fair it wasn’t really Covid at all. 

Sometime in 2019 I’d messaged the admin of the old world army challenge asking to be included in the group’s next endeavour and then promptly forgot all about it. If you haven’t checked out the old world army painting challenge - DO, you won’t be disappointed. During a bi-weekly search of Facebook I received his reply asking if I was interested in joining. Was I though? Honestly I haven’t played a game of anything old school since 2017. Hell I haven’t had a game of dark heresy since then either, so did I still have it in me to take on a project? Was it even going to be fun at this point? I have no time to paint with work (now deemed essential), kids, wife, life. But I figured why not, I’ll give it a go, but once I started leafing through the 3rd Armies Book the old feeling came back. 
At first I thought about my dark elves, then I started looking through realms of chaos, eventually I perused some old white dwarfs (old for me) when the tale of four gamers articles jumped out at me. Paul Sawyer’s (Fat Bloke, man that name would not be printed these days) Beasts of Chaos Army from that era the most incredible looking armies I’ve ever laid eyes on; the contrast between the jet black skin tones and off white assorted garb really pops. You also have to consider it’s from the 90’s a time when GW armies were either red or insanely brightly painted with goblin green bases! His painting was fresh, and his writing is quite good, IMHO. It was settled. Chaos with a Sawyeresque (Blokesque?) paintjob (I cant paint as well as him as I cannot highlight black worth a damn, see my eldar weapons; any of them - shiver). 
I opened up a box of shame in my hobby room, took stock and started piecing together an army list. This is the most enjoyable part of the hobby for me; creating an army that fits my narrative and will be fair to my opponent; I want them to have fun as well without having to engineer a grand tournament worthy army list just to have a chance. Let’s crack a couple beers, chat, and have the only pressure applied be on our livers, not on camaraderie. 
Of course I quickly flunked out of the old world army challenge; an invasive surgery threw a wrench in the works for me. I realize everyone that takes part in the OWAC overcomes real life to make it through, so I make no excuses. Congrats to all those that triumph. Maybe next year, maybe dark elves.


In a way though flunking turned out better for me, as I had originally plotted an army list containing Chaos thugs, well a lot of thugs really; mounted thugs, shooty thugs , flail wielding thugs, double handed weapon thugs, you get the idea, and only a handful of beastmen. Sometime in February I changed gears and committed to a cloven hoof army of beastmen and Minotaurs, well perhaps with a sorcerer as beastmen shamans are a lot of points more, they are pretty competent in close combat over other mages. Even without casting hammer-hand? Digress.
For the army I wanted good sized units ~ not mighty avenging lord of chaos 30+ but big enough to survive a round of shooting and last awhile in close combat. I also wanted more that just hand weapons, I also had halberdiers, and double handed weapons with standard, musician and a leader in stock, I wanted to use them! I realize my figs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea; they’re circa 1996 and are all goats. If I had thousands of dollars lying around for 50 beastmen from the 80’s to buy off eBay I’d be all over them. Hell, I’d have a whole damn unit of flamingo men, but I don’t. These are the line of beastmen figs I grew up playing against and Ive always wanted an army of my own. They have an old school vibe to me, that may be nostalgia talking. At least they’re all metal (mostly).
All of these figs were purchased “used” off eBay (mostly in 2011) painted in varying states or in disrepair. I stripped the paint off all of them (except my plastic halberdiers) and had to pin most of them to their bases. 
 I don’t mean to go off on a tangent but I do my best during assembly; I always fill slota-base insert corners with putty, usually tamiya but I’ve even used blue poster tac.  I’ve seen a lot of armies with models that have gaps between the insert tab and the edge of the slotta “slot”. I want my models to stand straight up; sometimes adjusting the tab isn’t enough and  a dab of putty to bind them in place works great. I’ve never had a puttied model break apart either even when dropped from 5 feet or so, on plastic figs it does help to add a bit of weight as well. More than anything assembly related; even more than 10 part plastic models; it’s mould lines that I despise most. I’m pretty diligent that I “wipe them out - all of them”. Once that tedium is over they all get a rinse/bath in warm soapy water before putty/glue assembly so nothing gets trapped under the primer. I based them carefully with a mix of stuff in a tin I’ve been adding to for a long time; chopped cork, GF9 ultra fine, fine, medium sediment, beach sand from all over the Caribbean and Mexico, even glitter as I find it is super duper ultra fine. On a few models I super glued woodland scenics small talus stone in place then used watered down PVA for the sandy mix. When using a tub full of different mediums you get some bases more heavily modelled than others. But doing so adds a lot of variety and great detail with virtually no effort - glue, dip, brush or shake excess, wipe rim with finger (or paper towel - if you’re Guy’s friend, MWM reference there).
I really think these small assembly steps make a huge contribution to the overall finish. I’m keenly aware that I’m not the best painter, so it’s unfortunate seeing paint jobs far ~ FAR superior to mine kind of taken down a peg by mould lines or falling forwards or back or maybe worse an untouched base. 
Once painting is finished and some matt varnishing they will get flocked and tufts will be placed liberally. Shields will be done en masse somewhere down the line. 


And so here we are 3 months later and I’ve managed to get 41 beastmen painted and based to 90% completion. I still have some small bits to pick out in greater detail and the skin tone is not consistent enough for me and the bases need highlighting but at least I’m enjoying coming back into the hobby, I hope to post every month, perhaps bi-weekly if I make good progress (just NOT so long a read next time).
Thanks for reading, thanks for sticking around really, I hope to catch up with a lot of your blogs soon.
As ever; Thanks for stopping by!




Friday 27 January 2017

Speedpainting complete

Well lesson learned. Speedpainted tyranids is completed and, well, 
They look kind of shitty
But isn't the idea of a speed paint to get shit done? 
I've seen worse painted nids and they look alright packed together in a swarm 
Sadly the speed paint technique worked best on the little dudes so big daddy looks kind of crayoned which sucks but good enough for RPG 
Kind of disappointing. Onto the next!
Thanks for stopping by! 

Thursday 12 January 2017

From small beginnings...

Low and behold, the fledgling vanguard of my Hive Fleet; Spectre with around two hours of work put in using a fast wash approach. These will be used in my amigo's excellent dark Heresy game soon hypothetically. I know they're not strictly speaking oldhammer but they've got an OG hybrid and a trio of ripperjacks from the necromunda Wyrd Beastmaster range; hard to find figs for a reasonable price; not one to brag but I got them in a job lot for 15 cents for all 3, Oh happy day. They look like GW versions of face-huggers ala Aliens to me. They're a bit big for 28mm but they are absolutely perfect fo Inquisitor 54mm, a game which I am positively enamoured by. The sculpts themselves are quite nice, a shame WYRD beastmasters were not popular in necromunda as these are the first I've laid eyes on in person. 
This army is an exercise in speed painting, they've all taken to the wash very well. The most fun I've had in awhile was putting the ripperswarms onto 40mm circular bases, the lines are quite clean with no sediment overlapping on them and I believe their poses give the illusion of movement. 
There is a good selection of vanguard organisms here; stealers with feeder tendrils, implant attacks, scything talons and rending claws which will add some diversity in the darkheresy game and provide a bit of spice in the painting. Ive included a lictor just because they're my favourite tyrannid organism of all time, the OG sculpt with feeder tendril is NOT my fave but I do love the deathleaper! Some rippers with spine fists will provide a little ranged action for the GM and keep the players on their toes.
I've got three battleforces lying around, if I continue to enjoy painting them I might crack em open, speed paint em up and hypothetically re-enact the tyrannid attack on Iyanden against my Eldar space pirates; that would be grand indeed! 
Another 6 hours I would say at the most before they are playable; I've come to the realization that as a father I must tightly budget hobby time; I've got to start using speed painting techniques or I'll have nothing to show for it and after 2016's dismal performance I've got to step it up. These figures aren't going to win any golden daemons but the only way to get better at speed painting is to practice, but once you can speed paint the hobby world is your oyster.
Do you like the effect thus far? I'm digging it especially considering the quick turn around. 
Hope you're all enjoying the new year and thanks for stopping by! 

Saturday 7 January 2017

Happy New Year

2016 has held my greatest accomplishments and lowest moments, I've gained a son and lost a father. Time will never heal these wounds and everyday feels like a blessing.
2016 has been a real double edged sword, luckily I have my hobby and good friends to hold onto. Some of you out there have no idea of the joy perusing your blogs brings to me; oldenhammer in Toronto, lead plague, somewhere the tea is getting cold, blue in VT, the privates eternal, chaos demons 40k, mr saturdays mumblings, takes from the big board, classic 40k, rabs digest, snikkit's tale and of course warhammer for adults are just to name a few that have really been a highlight on some of my darkest days and so I thank you.
I did manage to actually paint a couple of things; Vescin First Born my dark Heresy character
He's in his 5th career and now an inquisitorial legate investigator quite a step up from a lowly guardsman. I have a great GM who allows our team to investigate every facet of a mission which is what I play for, and on our own terms. So far we've remained covert and is very rewarding to play. Going in guns blazing does not fit the bill in my mind for secret agents of the Inquisition better to get in do work and be gone leaving no trace.Our games have great terrain and lush figs. I really enjoy all the background fluff which rewards meta game knowledge. 1st edition is where it's at for me, the new one has the ridiculous principle where you can buy skills and talent so from one unified list; better to be confined within your career I say. Otherwise it feels like a video game on paper which has no appeal to me.Be warned Dark Heresy is not for the faint of heart and death can come quite easily, the 41st millennium is unforgiving.
Ive also finished vanqual my elven envoy from whfrp
Not my favourite game system but better than nothing. Long live D&D 3.5 I say 
Ive tried to apply new techniques on both models and strive to make common practice. Each figure was completed in a single evening and I will attempt to put a half hour in everyday (Baby permitting) I will soon purchase a light box for better photos. Next up is my Genestealer cult, fat running patriarch here I come! I'm using the build from the yellow compendium not this deathwatch overkill crap although the cultists from dark vengeance are ok I guess. I'm on the hunt for an original magus with staff, the other with pistol and the payer with large head. If you have these and are willing to part I'd be delighted. 
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy 2017 friends!

Friday 16 September 2016

Today's Progress; lessons learned.

Another 4 Eldar finished, 2 in powered armour and a pair with missile launcher (to be used as heavy plasma gun in dragon squads) 
Yet again I've changed the painting execution and I believe these to be the best looking troops in the army thus far! 
That is not to say these are exceptionally well painted; far from it. What sets these 4 apart from the others is the uniformity  of the green basecoat (XF 74 Tamiya). I've learned now the more uniform your basecoat is the more your fine line highlight will pop. All I have to do now is go back and repaint 25 figs. 
Nup. 
This sculpt is really epic, not only does it help with WYSIWYG for the Vyper squad (powered armour and shuriken catapult) but the pose itself is dead hard; as it should be considering the lethality of the shuriken catapult! 
I think the lenses turned out fairly spiff as well. This brings the army to 29 painted figs, 6 to completion. 
I am extremely burnt out with space elves and I'll be switching gears to a small antagonist project for a D&D 3.5 Campaign I've been mulling over for a very long time. 
Regular service to resume shortly (HA!)
Thanks for stopping by! 

Sunday 21 August 2016

Today's progress

Another 10 Eldar Pirates finished. These have been on the table for far too long.
A prefector 
Dragon squad leader
A nice warrior with lasgun.
These paintjobs aren't my best however in the grand scheme of things it really won't matter. 11 more to go and the infantry is finished, then on to a pair of war walkers, 5 dreadnoughts, 10 jetbikes, ghost warriors. 
No es bueno. 
Thanks for stopping by.