Week 34 - Back in the Saddle

This weeks post is brought to you by the letter F.

I have finally got some progress to show! But true to form, not as much as I should have. This week I only managed to finish up 1 model, Kirai herself, allowing me to play with her once the new rules arrive. Picture is below.

So let me say that I did actually try to complete more than just her. Over the weekend I worked on no less than 34 other models. This fell over because of one of my most used paints has dried out, Battlefield Brown from the P3 range. This is not readily available in stores round here and my order from Aussie hasn't been shipped yet. No prizes for guessing which expletive I was using frequently today...

So seeing as how I haven't got much in the way of complete models to show I have got the WIP shots of this weeks progress. The Judwan and Robot teams are just waiting for the dip to be applied, this may be delayed a while as I need to wear out a brush before I ruin it with the varnish. I may finish up the rest of the Zzor, Judwan and Robots models I have before doing so as well. Maybe even some MVPs...

So once my hand recovered sufficiently I decided that I would focus on just churning out Corporation Marines. With this in mind I under coated all the remaining models I had already assembled and got started on those still on the base sprues. I made the concious decision that since Midnight Blue is no longer available that it was better to just use the Army Painter Deep Blue and go back and redo the 26 I had done before, given how many more I would have to do in the future. It was after the 20 were well under way that I noticed my brown paint had gone hard. It couldn't even be revived with water... That wasn't a good start to my morning! So here are the 20 who just need brown before I give them all a black wash and do the fine details to finish. This is all pending my new paint coming in, I am likely to get more to this stage next week as well.

So once I recovered from the disappointment I got to work on the Haqqislam models that had been sitting there for the last few weeks. I made some decent progress on them but I decided after doing the wash step that I needed to do more brown, setting me back and ending up not finishing them in time for my post this week. These will definitely be done next week, I am liking how they are shaping up so far.

Finally I have made some progress getting ready for the next phase of the animal print tutorials by getting another werewolf up to the right starting point. There is another one under way as well.

So having had a break has certainly helped my hand to recover. I still have to change how I hold things as it begins to ache if I find myself holding something by the base for more than a few minutes at a time. I cut an old broom handle up for this purpose a long time ago, it is only just now that I have begun using it for painting. It helps with my hand quite a lot but blue-tac is not sufficient to hold a metal model to it for very long. Luckily I have a preponderance of resin and plastic to work on while I figure out how to get it to work long term. I haven't had any time to try out the airbrush yet, I need to grab some higher volume paint for it, I am sorely tempted by the 'ready to use' airbrush ranges but for what is ultimately watered down paint, in the same volume, for the same price is a bit annoying. The airbrush primers are certainly tempting though...

Day 237
268/237 Painted/Days passed
268/366 Painted/Target (73.2%)
50/50 Dreadball: Season 1(100%)
6/6 Mercs - Kezai Wazza (100%)
71/71 Zombicide! (100%)
31/31 Dystopian Wars - Republique of France (100%)
32/40 Blindwater Congregation (80.0%)
11/15 Malifaux - Kirai Crew (73.3%)
18/55 Dreadball: Season 2 (32.7%)
21/89 Forge Fathers (23.6%)
26/150 Corporation Marines (17.3%)
1/85 Kings of War - Abyssal Dwarves (1.2%)
1/474 Kings of War - Undead (0.2%)

Week 33 - Another Year Older

So a short post this week. I'm another year older this week which is just a reminder that I haven't finished my quota for the last few weeks! In other news my painting time is about to plummet quite substantially (or so I am told) as my wife is pregnant! This is planned and was a precursor to the project this year, we are both very happy.

I need to get back on to finishing up this challenge, so I am going to focus on getting the Corp Marines sorted for the immediate future. I am still working on the Haqqislam models as well. I got to watch a game of Infinity on Monday which was good. I also tracked down some unit card summaries which is going to make playing easier.

I also managed to finally get a hose for the airbrush, it only required me to buy a new airbrush... At least this way I have a spare and it wasn't hugely expensive. I look forward to trying it out this week. I am also close to finishing up the hills for the club, they should hopefully be done by the middle of the week.

Week 32 - Roadblocks and Future Plans

So I have hit a bit of a snag with the painting challenge, I have injured my hand. I have overstrained it between painting every evening and trimming mould lines at work every day. So this week I have had to rest it up, only taking time to work on the hills I am making for the club, which don't stress my hand in the same way as tiny models do. So ultimately I have no new progress this week.

In its place I will talk about some other things. Firstly, the tutorial I posted last week seems to have been quite popular, garnering over 150 page views in a week! With this in mind I will make sure to post an add on going through how to paint the spotted breeds of large cat. This is going to be a little while as I wont be able to paint next weekend either and still have work to do on the hills in the mean time.

I am also working on some sci-fi terrain with lighting so that will be up as a tutorial once I finish it up. I have to order in a hose and fittings for my airbrush, which while frustrating will at least mean I will have it sorted. Once I have it though I plan to practice using it by painting up a space table. It seems like it is an easy thing to learn from the tutorials and would certainly look impressive for a game of Firestorm: Armada or X-Wing.

Something that I have been thinking about a bit lately is a question my wife has asked me, more than once... "When will I be finished?" Most specifically, what do I want to achieve with my hobby? Do I have any goals? So I have been mulling this over while I haven't been able to complete any more models. Now many people I know would immediately answer with more competitive goals, like 'Winning X tournament' or 'Having a full set of trophies.' For me I just like playing the games, I have found more recently that the competitive environment just isn't for me. While it is often a good time to play with unfamiliar faces (or old friends as time moves on) I have been finding that I would rather play a far more light-hearted game. So for me the goals are far more material. So below is a compiled (yet not exhaustive) list of things that I would like to achieve over the coming years. Bear in mind that being painted is also a requirement!

• Own a complete Warmachine/Hordes faction. This one I have already completed and parted with. Being able to field any list I could imagine was quite fun and really helped me understand my chosen faction. If only I had started with a better faction I may have done a bit better over the last couple years of tournament play.
• Command a true undead horde. Few things on a table can compare to an unbreakable army of the dead. This shouldn't be too hard with the quantity of models I already own, I will just need to pad out the options for playing Kings of War as I go.
• Own an apocalypse of zombies. Ties in with the last one this also shouldn't be so hard. Between the 150 or so KoW zombies, 65 from Zombicide S1, 150 or so from Season 2 and 40 from Deadzone I am quite close already I imagine. You can never have too many zombies though...
• Drown in a tide of goblins. The only thing more imposing than a horde of undead is a carpet of goblins. Now this one requires a lot more work on my part. If I can fill a deployment zone full of goblins, I will be happy. With Mantic prices this won't cost the earth like it would have in the past. Having done this with orks years ago I know what it entails, which is why this isn't a goal for an ork army.
• Lead the human expansion for the corporations. A human guard army is really playing to the underdog theme, something I quite enjoy as it can make for very cinematic challenges.
• Manage a fleet of starships. This one is more recent but still feels right. I want to have an imposing fleet, airbrushed and with damage details and all. This one I want to be particularly impressive. I have been thinking a Dindrenzi fleet from Spartan Games.
• Build a cityscape. Quality armies make the game but playing on a empty table is boring. A bustling city for games of Infinity and Warpath will make for really good gaming moments.
• Paint the universe. This I mentioned above but still deserves a spot here. Fighting amongst the stars is great but I want some really nice nebulae, asteroids, planetoids and more to really set the tone of deep space.

What this list does is put my current efforts in perspective. It is not the be-all-end-all as ultimately I still want to play games and try new things. It does help me focus my spending however and gives me things to focus on as I wrap up this years challenge. With the injury to my hand I need to focus more on models that are already assembled, meaning the Corporation Marines are going to get some attention. This brings me to a little gripe though, as I have run out of the blue I use for them. I used Midnight Blue from the GW range, which of course has been discontinued. It has no new equivalent, nor is there one from Army Painter or P3. So I have had to settle for and Army Painter colour which is hopefully close enough. Time will tell.

Finally, I have trimmed down the list of models that I end my posts with. With everything documented on the Wall of Shame I don't need to keep repeating things that I just can't seem to get round to. I am expecting Zombicide Season 2 to ship by the end of this month, as well as the final Kings of War shipment. I expect to spend next year working on Mantic models given how much of my collection they consume but who knows what will take my fancy by then?

Day 223

267/223 Painted/Days passed

267/366 Painted/Target (73.0%)

50/50 Dreadball: Season 1(100%)

6/6 Mercs - Kezai Wazza (100%)

71/71 Zombicide! (100%)

31/31 Dystopian Wars - Republique of France (100%)

32/40 Blindwater Congregation (80.0%)

10/15 Malifaux - Kirai Crew (66.7%)

18/55 Dreadball: Season 2 (32.7%)

21/89 Forge Fathers (23.6%)

26/150 Corporation Marines (17.3%)

1/85 Kings of War - Abyssal Dwarves (1.2%)

1/474 Kings of War - Undead (0.2%)

Tutorial - How to Paint Animal Print

So I was asked to write up a guide on how I paint my animal print schemes. So this guide focusses on building up the base colours to look more like fur and then ends with painting up a tiger colour scheme. I use the same methods for leopard, cheetah and other patterned cats just with some variation for spots or stripes. I will do a smaller tutorial for the leopard spots once I get another werewolf trimmed up.

1. So to start I do a dark brown base coat over a black spray undercoat, making sure to get it everywhere. This is important as this is what will show in those hard to reach spots or deep features.

2. This is then covered in a dark brown wash to add some shading, making it easier for you to see where the high and low points are.

3. Now begins the shading colours, each layer is dry-brushed on, this enhances the appearance that the model is covered in fur. Visible brush strokes are ideal in this case. I built the colour up to light brown, the stages are below. You need to make sure you hit everywhere on the model with these layers, leaving only the deep recesses.

4. Because I am painting up a tiger I added some orange to the light brown, just to get that vibrant tiger colouring but without going to the real strong orange usually reserved for fire.

5. Now we use the same dry-brushing techniques to paint in the 'under-coat fur,' this time targeting just the chest, insides of the arms, insides of the legs and the hands and feet. This colour is built up to pure white from the light brown used at the end of step 3. The white will come through a bit darker due to the levels painted under it so wont look out of place like white sometimes can. You should also try to leave a little of the last layer visible so the blend looks more realistic. This is hard to tell from the photos.

6. Now if print isn't for you this is where you would stop painting the fur and move on to finishing details. This looks quite nice and is a bit more visually appealing than just stopping at step 4 as many people do. Otherwise we press on to the stripes for our tiger. Start in the middle of the back painting down towards the chest with straight black paint. This is a good time to have a reference shot of a tiger handy. You will notice that tiger stripes don't wrap around to the other side, they start and stop erratically. This needs to be reflected in how you paint yours too.

7. Keep building up stripes down the back, stopping before getting to the shoulders and the legs. These areas need more attention to get right. The lines can and should split and change thickness as you go. Wobbly hands are OK for this!

8. When moving from the shoulders to the hands you should bend some of the stripes, they should end up wrapping around the arm, not running down its length. They should also become shorter and still shouldn't wrap all the way around.

9. The same applies to the legs as the arms, short lines, wrapping around the leg but not completely. These lines should also stop at about the knee.

10. The next step is to finish up the other arm and leg. I personally don't paint rings on the tail as it is very difficult to get looking good.

11. To finish up we paint the chest and head. This is the same as before, trying not to connect to the lines across the back. It pays to look at tiger faces for the head as well. Because the wolf head is narrower than a tigers' a 'less is more' approach is needed on the head, or it can go very badly.

12. So that is it. Just finishing details like the claws, mouth, teeth and eyes to go, then it is all finished! The final product is below.

I would quite like to see a full pack of these, I may need to pick up a few more werewolves... You can choose a colour print that fits better with your colour scheme or add some cloth scraps to tie them in properly with the rest of your force as you desire. I haven't made any such choices yet so this one is done until then!

Week 31 - A Lot, Yet a Little...

So this week I have a few updates yet very little painting. I was asked on the Mantic forums to give a guide on how I paint my tiger print wolves so that will be added shortly after this post goes up. Otherwise I painted up 4 more of Kirais Crew this week as well as a tiger print Mantic Werewolf. Pics are below.

I made some progress on the Haqqislam models as well, they should be wrapped up in a week or two. I also added a new page to the blog, the 'Wall of Shame.' This page lists all the models I have found and counted so far, and is where I will keep some of the projects I am not working on just yet, or projects that have been sidelined for more urgent or interesting projects. I will eventually add up another page for finished projects, once the year is wrapped up I think. The new page is accessible from the top bar, next to the gallery link. I expect to add more to the gallery soon too, as I finish up more Dreadball teams. And hey, just 99 models to go!

Day 216
267/216 Painted/Days passed
267/366 Painted/Target (73.0%)
50/50 Dreadball: Season 1(100%)
6/6 Mercs - Kezai Wazza (100%)
71/71 Zombicide! (100%)
31/31 Dystopian Wars - Republique of France (100%)
32/40 Blindwater Congregation (80.0%)
10/15 Malifaux - Kirai Crew (66.7%)
18/55 Dreadball: Season 2 (32.7%)
21/89 Forge Fathers (23.6%)
26/150 Corporation Marines (17.3%)
1/85 Kings of War - Abyssal Dwarves (1.2%)
1/474 Kings of War - Undead (0.2%)
With more to come...