Thursday 24 April 2014

Today's progress

A step in the right direction 
Clan Pestilens plague monks unit nearly finished, the rest are in the strip jar, it'll be awhile before they're ready to emerge. In the meantime I've 28 Clanrats who are ready for cleaning, trimming, basing and painting. 
Also managed to finish:
Some old and middle aged plague censer bearers
Not that pleased with the paint jobs, but the unit's overall aesthetic I find quite pleasing. 
I've just recently started using green stuff. 
About a week ago I posted my first attempt, 
Here's the finished result:

I'm happy with it. He blends in fine with his unit and gave me the confidence to fix this dude:


I've always wanted this fig I think he is THE Skavenslaves leader model, But I could never get my hands on him. U can understand I was more than a bit pissed off when I snapped his feet at the ankle trying to rip him from his base enroute to the strip jar. This one was quite a bit harder than the arm job (ha no hand jobs here Chico!) but in the end I'm glad I stuck with it.
After reading Nico's banner tutorial I started on this: 
I'm really proud of this so far, it's a work in progress so be kind. 
The joint I'm very pleased with 
As you can see I was able to actually bore out half the shaft and pin into the actual grasping fingers. Thank you dremel stylus!! 
Eventually I want to do the "your doom cometh man things" banner a la heroes for wargames but with a skaven twist.  
I had a Pretty productive day (by my standards) more tomorrow I hope; the (near) last of my Skavenslaves and some rat ogres. 
Laters.






Sunday 20 April 2014

The knight project

Made a bit of progress this weekend on my caribou knight.

The fig is from Ax-Faction. It was a real pleasure to assemble, virtually no mold lines and the pieces lined up perfectly with no warping to speak of... Unlike anything I've received from FW. 
The only screw up was on my part by snapping the tail's pin and so I had to fashion another. 
The feet pinned into the base no problem at all. Based on this kit I would highly recommend Ax-Faction to anyone looking for a centrepiece hero for their army. 
What do you think of the base? I'm pretty happy with it but I'm sure it will need some work after painting. 


Friday 18 April 2014

Today's progress

Been pretty active at the painting table past couple days. Here's the horde as it stands now

Comes out to 541pts all together, without characters 812pts total viable with them included. That's nearly 1/3 of the way there.
 
I've also put my new dremel to work when I found this after emptying my last jar of stripping: 
Er can someone give me a hand? (Ha)
So, for the first time in 18 years I piched up a dremel, inserted a paper clip pin and trimmed an extra zombie arm laying (ha, get it laying not lying, because zombies are dead... Nevermind) around and then for the first time ever...I used greenstuff!
And from the back
Pretty happy with myself. In the past I would've just bunged him out, I'm glad he was salvaged. 

Thursday at the bi weekly parental meeting I was given a box by the maternal full of "little men" as she put it. 
It was quite the haul of 90s lead, which I will not get into as I hate the na-na-look-what-I-got-posts. Below is a teenage paint job;
Gaudy huh? So they wen in the dip with an assortment of figs I thought lost forever. Sadly two of them were the last plague monks I need to finish the unit so the unit will not be finished this weekend. It sucks that you have to put a regular infantryman in place of a hidden model inside a unit until the hidden model is revealed. It puts the onus on the collector to dish out more dough for old lead. Ah well c'est la vie. 
I'm off to a friends to get a little drunk, maybe I can finally get some work on the "knight project" (gasp) 

Happy Easter everyone. 

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Today's progress

Just a pair of rat ogres and a handful of Clanrats/Skavenslaves. I'm not that happy with the paint job but I am happy with the overall army's esthetic . I'll be able to target paint some of the more exciting elements of the army now and to that effect; next up are 10 plague monks and a pair of plague censer bearers which will actually finish a unit (gasp!)

Sunday 6 April 2014

2nd Batch

I've neglected my skaven long enough. Mr. Saturday's post last week really opened my eyes to the unfortunate reality that time, especially time for wargames is finite. I've had the majority of these figs for over a year and they've been my principal focus, but they still aren't done. This is inexcusable. I'm pissed, more so regretful that I've not got them done. So, I've got my second batch on the go:

I've got four projects that I've got to get finished before I croak. 
Maybe by writing them down it'll give me the impetus to get my ass in gear and stop fragging about. 
1: 3k+ skaven 3rd edition, with terrain depicting the successful conquest of a slann temple with stepped pyramid, desecrated spawning pool and some lavish jungle sections.

2: The Kinstrife Project: High elves are and always have been my first love. Their history is what makes the warhammer world. They stopped the warp-gates collapse, they defunctly created their dark kin, and their abandonment of the old world created the wood elves, they taught the first of the human mages how to control the winds of magic and much much more. 
Anyway I want to do a 3 part campaign depicting an dark elf invasion of Ulthuan. I've got my favourite high elves already; war wain, wardancers, 4th edition spearmen and archers (from the original big box) and a pair of bolt throwers and the marauder silver helms. Naturally none of it's painted. I've got all the dark elves I'll ever need: 8 original cold one knights, 24 crossbowmen from 4th, and 40 of the 4th edition corsairs with 2 sets of full command. But the terrain is what really has me excited; I'd love to do a 4 foot long beachhead section (how often do you see something like that?) about a foot deep and just really take my time wet blending the depth gradient and micro thin layers if wet effect. I'd also love a 12" inch tall Ulthuan tower. If like to create an eldar warp gate as well.

3: Beastmen 3k+: I love beastmen of all types and I've got about 80 metal ones.  30 with double handed weapons, 20 with halberds and I've got 12 minotaurs with two standard bearers (totally not worth their points but that's another story) and 10 centaurs (which are totally not worth their points either) and, wait for it: 3 chariots.
Pricing them out came to 92pts a pop with scythed wheels, beastmen with shields and war boars. None of it painted.
If you've read the "tale of four gamers" in WD 218-223 then you've seen Paul sawyer's beastmen. They are phenomenol. I'd love to do mine the same way. I'd like a heavily gnarled set of forests and a burned out empire settlement all done in a winter theme. 

4: The Battle for Macgagge in Epic40k.  I've got a bunch of space marines (2 companies worth) only 10 rhinos a company of land raiders and 3 whirlwinds. I'm trying really hard to get a pair of thunderhawks and a company of terminators. None of it painted but I think I'd pass on ultramarines and go for post heresy dark angels and keep the painting interesting with deathwing and (eventually) ravenwing. 
I'd like to splurge of a bunch of Onslaught miniatures tyranids and an alpine mat from Frontline gaming. I've seen one up close and man it is nice. I've got 2 sets of the classic cardboard buildings with plastic tops, that coupled with some vast stretches of coniferous trees and some bunker emplacements would complete the look. Some hills done like these:
http://www.3t-studios.com/archives/2642
Would be the bees knees.

So that's it. A bit long winded but I had to get that off my chest. The projects are not impossible. I can't crank out the gargantuan armies like Chico or Goblin Lee and definately not with that kind of consistent quality on each troop. 
I'm incapable of the works of art created by Don Hans, Blue in VT or Nico. 
I gotta find a happy balance, sit down every day for at least a half hour and grind, because that what painting these skaven feels like now.
I should mention my 5th and most important project would be getting across the pond for the oldhammer weekend. 
Someday. 

Wish me luck God knows I'll need it.