Week 51 - Done and Dusted

Well, here we are, the final post for 2014. Its been a good year overall, with the birth of my daughter and still managing to find time to paint models. My first KOW tournament as well. There were some not-so-good moments as well but you have to take the good with the bad. So just before I recap here is the last of what I will finish this year.

5 Elf palace guard and 2 Scourge vehicles. Unfortunately I haven't been able to finish my Dreadball, the paint stripper is still sticking to the resin so adding primer just isn't going to work. They will just have to wait for next year. Early though, I hope.

So to recap, I successfully:

• Made a gaming table (still unused though...) 
• Built and painted a KOW army.
• Made a Malifaux board and entered the Immortals terrain competition.
• Built and painted a strike team for Enforcers and Plague.
• Painted 368 models in a year.

Which isn't too shabby having had a new child in March. So now for the plans for next year:

• Paint another 365+ models.
• Build and paint a Malifaux faction.
• Build and paint all my remaining KOW Elves.
• Build and paint an Infinity faction.
• Build and paint a Warpath faction.
• Build and paint a DZC faction.
• Build and paint a Planetfall faction.
• Complete a Cosplay costume for Hamilton Armageddon 2015.

It looks a little ambitious but most of the 'complete factions' in the list are less than 20 models so the total is less than the 365+ target. I started on my Armageddon costume this weekend (the painting room was way too hot and stuffy for painting!) and have completed the shirt and I am about 60% of the way through making the pants. After that is a hooded vest, belt, boots and goggles and I'm done. No pictures just yet, got to keep some suspense for 2015...

Week 49 - Entering the Final Rush

Sorry for no post last week, a sudden death in the family caught us all off guard. You will be sorely missed Gordon.

I happened to have a day to myself yesterday so spent it as productively as I could, painting Robots, Elves and building Mars Attacks terrain while watching cartoons. A good day indeed. The fruits of my labour are shown below.

That is my last 9 robots and another 39 elves all painted up and ready for basing. Which leaves me just 4 Dreadball MVPs to paint to finish both my goal of completing Dreadball and painting 365 models this year. I have also undercoated my first 5 Martians and am about ready to start on them.

I received another Arcade block this week, the contents are: A Mario dissected T-shirt, Assassins Creed Pop! vinyl, Minecraft hanger (Zombie Pigman,) Star stressball, TF2 wrapping paper and a DOTA 2 bandana.

The shirt is cool (hopefully this one gets the wife's approval!) as is the Pop! figure. I had been planning on grabbing some Minecraft merchandise at some point (surprised it took this long to get one) and I had been wanting a stress ball. The TF2 wrapping paper is cool but I don't know anybody who would appreciate it, may have to get my presents wrapped in it I guess...

Day 341
361/341 Painted/Days passed
361/Too many! Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 47 - Mad Dash for the Finish Line

With the year wrapping up I have launched into it, painting up 28 elves and 3 robots. I'm pretty happy with how the robots are progressing, they aren't what I intended (Non-metallic metal gold) but they also don't take forever and I really want to finish all my Dreadball this year, before Xtreme ships. The elves didn't take long either and I have another 40 or so to work on this week, which will just about cover what I need to do for the year with the rest of my Dreadball stuff.

I would really like to finish my elf dragon before the year is out which shouldn't be too challenging. I played my first game of Mars Attacks this week. I played as the Martians and Knightwolf took the role of Humanity. I lost but it was a great game and quite close despite the first scenario being weighted to the Human force. I have 10 Martians lined up to do before the year ends, all things going well at least.

Day 327
313/327 Painted/Days passed
313/414 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 46 - Kings of War and Painting Targets

No photos this week I'm afraid, I've been a bit busy. That being said I played in the Kings of War tournament yesterday, it was great. The game plays very well in a tournament setting and the last few weeks of practice was enough to have a good handle on the rules (with the exception of a couple timing related things) and I ended up 7th overall out of 12. I played against three Kingdoms of Man armies and Knightwolf (upholding the long tradition of travelling across the country to play against the guy you travelled with.) and ended up with one win, two draws and a loss.

I've started doing some work on the robots team, my last incomplete Dreadball team. They are likely to be the last painting goal I can get done before the year ends. I really want to finish Dreadball off by then. I have 6 weeks left to finish 83 models if I hope to keep up the 'one a day' goal, which would be nice. I will almost certainly have to paint more elves to pull it off though!

Day 320
282/320 Painted/Days passed
282/414 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 44 - If the Price is Right

A short post this week. I finished up the commission work today. It was a bit of a challenge to remember my old colour scheme (even with the unit examples provided) especially since most of the colours I used had either dried up or been used up. I think I got them close, hopefully the client is happy. I also kind of hope that he doesn't need any more done, trying to mix specific colours (most are now out of production too, darn GW) was not worth the effort in my opinion.

I also received my second Arcade Block this week. It contained a Half-life T-shirt, Mario plushie, Bowser cart racer, Portal key cover, Ken Street Fighter block set and a pair of Zelda magnetic whiteboards. Pretty happy with the contents, the Wife hates the T-shirt though so it is up on Trademe.

If you are interested in the shirt my Trademe is here. I've also got some terrain and Warmachine stuff up right now if you want to check it out.

Day 306
282/306 Painted/Days passed
282/414 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 43 - Elven Progress Report #8

Woo! The Elves are done! What I need to use for the tournament anyway. They are all on movement trays and the trays have been given a cursory coat of paint and some flocking. This was all done for Sunday last week but I came down with a rather bad stomach bug and by the time I was well enough to post it was worth waiting for the weekend. Speaking of, this post is a day early because I am at the Auckland Armageddon Comic Expo for the next two days. This will be my first trip to this event (I've been to the last two smaller local ones) so it will be interesting to see how it fares.

So I finished up 4 cavalry and 2 drakons in order to finish up the elves. Their photos are below, followed by a couple of group shots with everybody based.

I managed another game with the elves last week, playing 1100 points. It was another good learning experience as I found out how hardy the Basilean knight horde is! They rather casually chewed through an entire flank and my back line while the rest of my forces dealt with the bulk of the Basileans. In the end I won, but it was very close early on. With these guys all done I can get back to my main goals, the Combined Army models got a base coat of purple (except the last guy I have to assemble...) in preparation for working on them next. I want to do a proper paint job on my skirmish stuff after all those elves. This will likely mean that I wont finish all my goals this year but I think I can live with that.

The first lot of my Mars Attacks stuff arrived this week, which is exciting. I look forward to playing through the scenarios and learning the game so that when my bucket of Martian goodies arrive I can try out the mass battles version. Once I find the time that is, at least they are all pre assembled which saves me some effort!

Fairly soon I need to decide on what projects I will focus on for next year. Painting more than I buy has been difficult to track, what with kickstarters arriving late or generally forgetting what I have added to the totals each week. It does look like I can get through 365 models in a year still, even with my decreased painting time, as long as I am happy to sacrifice overall painting quality. Something I would really like to achieve is having a full faction (of what I currently own) complete for every game system that I own. This may be a bit ambitious for some things and may be a target for a couple of years work.

Day 298
279/298 Painted/Days passed
279/414 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 41 - Elven Progress Report #7

More progress on the Elves this week, finishing up a horseman, spellcaster and 4 bolt throwers. This leaves me with just four horsemen and two drakons to finish in time for the tournament. This is of course assuming that in learning to play the game I don't make any emergency changes to my list. I still have 10 more cavalry, 40 scouts, 100 archers, 5 palace guard and a dragon available to sub in, each requiring varying amounts of work. I may also be lending Knightwolf some models for his army, depending on what he needs...

I also felt that it was time to get to work on some Scourge models for DZC, managing to get my first unit of infantry painted. I have no idea on how to do the base just yet, possibly some freehand rather than adding sand etc.

I have made a start on more of the Scourge, I just have to even out the washes and pick out some details. I have also started on the Circle models for a mate. Trying to match colours is a PITA, it is a shame I cant get any more of the original paints. I only have 3 of the dozen or so colours and GW doesn't make most of them any more. I've got 2/3 of the base colours down now and they are starting to look the part. Hopefully he will be happy with them...

Day 285
273/285 Painted/Days passed
273/334 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 40 - Elven Progress Report #6

I have spent the last two weeks working hard on my Elves, trying to get them done as efficiently as possible. The weather has been a limiting factor in getting spray painting done but I am now down to just 2 Drakons to spray paint. In that time I also managed to paint 60 more elves, leaving me with just the cavalry and bolt throwers to get done. Pictures are below.

No group shot this time as I am part way through the multi-basing process. Unfortunately my original plan of making the bases and removing the circular tabs from the elves feet fell through. It takes far to much time and effort to remove so many, so I am attempting to use builders putty to fill in the spaces. This is also proving challenging. Even painting them will be difficult, I may have to do them in stages. This is why it was so important to have a month or so to get them done!

I've also made a start on my Scourge for DZC. My initial test model has been re-done as I am a little tired of having so many models in dark colour schemes. I am trying for something lighter for a change. They are just a distraction while I wait for spray paint to dry on my elf cavalry though, so will take a while to finish. Basing the infantry will be a challenge, I not used to the much smaller scale when basing. I also picked up some Dust stuff recently, I will add them in to the Wall soon, but that is another 40 models between Allies and Axis. And my Infinity starter arrived this week too...

I caved and picked up the Galaxy Lootcrate. My Nerdblock arrived the following day so I can do a comparison of the two. First up is Lootcrate:

This month came with: A Firefly Mal figure and money, Tribble, Retro Alien figure, Star wars magnet and poster, 3 digital Halo comics, pop rocks and a lootcrate badge. I was quite lucky with the alien figure, the other 4 figure options weren't that great. The tribble is pretty cool and I enjoyed the Halo comics. Next up, the Arcade block:

The arcade block contained: A Legend of Zelda shirt, Tomb Raider Statuette, Pacman pen, Luigi keychain, Gears of war dog tags and a Tetris ice tray. The shirt print is good, I really like the ice tray and the statue is high quality.

So for the comparison, the Lootcrate cost me $51.80 and the Arcade block cost $39.75. I felt that the Galaxy theme of the Lootcrate was good, but expected Star Wars to be represented by more than just a poster and magnet... That being said, the tribble is neat, as is the Mal figure. The wife has already claimed the firefly money too. I would be much less happy with this box if the Alien figure was one of the other options.

The Arcade block was good, even if I just kept the shirt and the tetris tray I got my moneys worth out of it. The biggest issue with Lootcrate in general is having to go through Youshop to get it and the fluctuation in shipping as a result. I think Arcade block wins this time, so I am glad that I am going that way in the future!

Day 278
264/278 Painted/Days passed
264/334 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 38 - Elven Progress Report #5

Posting a day late, but better than never! A few developments in the last couple weeks, the first being that the KOW tournament has been postponed to November, meaning that Knightwolf and I can go again, yay! This also means that I have to get the Elves finished but with a bit more time... So with this revelation I made a point of working on some more, finishing up another 6 spearmen this week. I've also got down to the last half dozen elves to assemble for the tournament and started to work on the multi-bases.

I also spent a bit of time working on my Dreadball models, finishing up my Human team. This was very quick as the scheme is the same as my Corporation (being the team sponsor) and all they need now is hex bases and player numbers. Next I need to figure out a scheme for my Robots team, sponsored by the R&D part of the same Corporation sponsor.

This brings my total for the week to 20 models, which isn't too shabby. I've restocked my spray paint supply, which will let me get the rest of the elves ready for painting and let me work on some of my other models. Deadzone wave 2 arrived this week, adding a large number of models to my 'to do' pile. This kind of sinks the 'paint more than you buy' counter but never mind...

The next development of the last couple weeks was that I now have a DSLR camera for taking photos! Not only that but it has a macro lens, which will let me get some better close shots. When time permits I will be able to re-shoot some finished models for the gallery page, probably over the Xmas period.

The last thing to happen was I got asked to paint some models for somebody else! Admittedly it is because I sold them some models and they have since added to the units, so want the models to match. Works for me anyway! So they are high priority on my painting table, they still need some trimming before I can start on them.

Day 265
204/265 Painted/Days passed
204/279 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 36 - Elven Progress Report #4

So there was no progress this week. I have trimmed up the two drakons and the three bolt throwers but have not assembled them yet. As it turns out Knightwolf isn't able to make it to the tournament any more and neither am I. We both have other inescapable commitments that have arisen, leaving the last months efforts unfulfilled. The positive here is that I got a lot of things done in that month and am quite close to having all the elves assembled, which is nice. This lets me go back to my main goals at any rate.

So as for the goals, here is where I am up to:
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - I have two crews to choose from for ease of completion, Ramos or Kirai. Kirai's crew needs a few models assembled and based before they can be painted. Ramos's crew needs the same (but more fiddly) and they all need painting. I'm split on which crew to do, I'm not fond of Ramos playstyle but don't have the 2E cards for Kirai...

Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs - I am ready to brush off the paint from the four stripped MVPs, who will need a good rinse and then get a quick paint job before dipping. Then I have a set of humans and robots teams to paint more thoroughly.

Finish painting an Infinity group - I still have to finish off the last test model to decide which colour scheme to use for my Combined Army. From there I have one more model to assemble before I apply the scheme to the remaining models. Alternatively there are the Nomads in Operation: Icestorm, which I plan on doing in the stock red.

Make some headway on my Warpath fluff - The least specific of my goals, I have a document with bullet points on what I would like to cover. The next step is to expand on those points and form a bit of a narrative (in a bureaucratic tone) before drawing up a background to make the story look and feel suitably sci-fi rather than just a Wikipedia entry.

I recently sold my Blindwater, which gives me some funds to make more progress on my business prototypes. I also intend to make another terrain table with the proceeds, once I narrow down what system and concept I want to build.

Day 250
184/250 Painted/Days passed
184/136 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 35 - Elven Progress Report #3

This week was a rather busy one, not in the good way. While things were off to a good start on Monday, (I got some time to paint!) that was also the only opportunity to paint until this evening. As a result I have only painted 8 elves this week. I did however finish assembling all the spearmen, which leaves me with just the bolt throwers, cavalry, drakons and archers to trim and assemble. I had a go at trimming the cavalry this week, it took almost an hour to do just one (blasted restic) so I will do the bolt throwers and drakons first I think.

Assembled but not yet painted.

Painted so far.

This weeks efforts.

I received my latest Lootcrate this week as well, photo below.

This one contained a glow-in-the-dark Groot Pop! figure, Leonardo TMNT figure, TMNT sunglasses, Sonic the hedgehog air freshener, the Flash shoelace lightning bolts, Deadpool magnet and some online download codes for digital items and a Steam game. Overall I'm not super happy with this crate. The Groot is cool, as is the Leo. The glasses aren't any use to me (I wear prescription glasses and don't use contacts) and the lightning bolts aren't great on black workboots. The sonic air freshener is really strong. The free game is kind of cool. Overall I've lost a little on this crate, which is why I decided to cancel my subscription. At least with a guaranteed shirt I knew I was getting my moneys worth, which is why I have swapped to Nerdblocks new Gamer box. Of course within hours of cancelling my Lootcrate they reveal next months crate theme: Galaxy, with an item from each of Firefly, Star Trek and Star Wars. It is another figure based crate too. Nuts. I may have to gift myself one...

Oh and my Relic Knights have shown up! Never thought I would see the day. I will update the Wall of Shame when I have gone through and counted everything.

Day 243
184/243 Painted/Days passed
184/136 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 34 - Elven Progress Report #2

Here we are at week two of my efforts to build and paint a 1500 point KOW army in eight weeks. This week I assembled another 30 spearmen and rebuilt my dragon. Painting-wise I have finished another 24 elves, mostly more spearmen. This brings me to a total of 66 painted elves with a further 56 assembled and undercoated. I have another 20 or so spearmen left before I get into the more time consuming models, the cavalry and bolt throwers. There doesn't seem to be any movement on my extra scouts from Mantic, so I may have to adjust my list. I will hopefully get my two drakons this week which could be suitable replacements. I have an idea on what I will do for the multi-bases, I just need the appropriate materials and a pair of horde sized bases...

This weeks contributions.

I also found some time to finish off the second Morat prototype, I kind of like this scheme but will do another test model before making up my mind. I have some blasted earth bases that I will do the Morats in once the colour scheme has been narrowed down.

So I didn't make as much progress this week as I would have liked but I am still relatively on track for completing my Elf army for the tournament. I can always take one of the pricier characters in order to pad things out if it comes to it. As for my other goals I may be able to find some time to finish them off while working on the elves. No guarantees though!

Day 236
176/236 Painted/Days passed
176/116 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 33 - Elven Progress Report #1

I'm now one week in to trying to build and paint a 1500 point KOW army in eight weeks. This week I managed to assemble 40 more elf spearmen and get them undercoated. I also managed to completely paint 42 of the elves that were already assembled. There are 3 more that are almost done, they are command models that need additional attention. The photos below show the painted models so far and close-ups on two of the completed units.

So if everything goes to plan I will keep up the current pace. This should mean that each week I will have 40-50 models waiting for undercoat while I paint up the 40 ish from the previous week. This will fall over in about two weeks time, when I start doing the more complicated cavalry models. I expect that they will take more time to build and paint (as they are plastic resin) but I only need 10 of them. I am also waiting for some models to be shipped to me, so I may have to adjust my army list to compensate. If I have time (or will) I may be able to do the leftover models once the army is done, leaving me with a fully painted set of KOW models, which would be pretty awesome.

I have also worked a little bit on my Combined Army Infinity test models and I have finished the first one. I'm not convinced that I will use this colour scheme, I need to see how the other ones come out first. I am working on a purple based one and need to decide on another base colour for the last test model.

It is a little rough around the edges but it conveys the general feeling of what I was aiming for. There will be some time between the next ones getting done, considering my primary project but I am still working on my goals in the background. I even have a test model under way for my DZC Scourge...

Day 229
152/229 Painted/Days passed
152/116 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 32 - March of the Elves

So there is quite a bit to cover this week. I have the individual team shots of last weeks Dreadball progress and the 40 new ones I finished up this week. I also have a mad little project to cover... Anyway, on to the pictures!

Asterians

Cheerleaders

Free agents, Zees in pairs

More free agents

Zzor knockdown tokens and two giants

Judwan free agent and knockdown tokens

Marauders

MVPs

Nameless

Teratons

So that effort leaves me with three giants, one MVP to do via the dip method (the ones that had their paint melt last week,) a human team (able to do both kinds) and a robots team being done properly. This is a much more reasonable point to try and finish the Dreadball goal from.

In other news there is a KOW tournament, mid October in Auckland that KnightWolf and I are thinking of attending. It is a 1500 point event, which of course neither of us have enough assembled to even get close to playing. So I/we can either a) borrow one of the spare armies available or b) try and get ~1500 point of KOW models assembled and painted in just two months. So of course the only sensible option is b!

Rather than just blindly start throwing stuff together I did a little maths. The obvious starting point would be my 600 points of Abyssal Dwarves that were already assembled. I drafted up a list from what I had available and ended up needing 50 more models built. Not too bad, until I realised that about 40 of those were Mantics plastic resin, which from experience takes about an hour to trim and assemble just one large or complicated model. This would take too long, not to mention the colour scheme, archive photo below.

So instead, for a laugh, I worked out an elf list, seeing as I had quite a few and that they are plastic (not plastic resin.) It worked out that I needed about 200 of my elves to make a 1500 point list. Which is even less possible, surely? Well... As it turns out (I tested this) I can trim and assemble about 10 elves in an hour.  So in a working week I can get 1/4 of my elf army built, the next challenge is the paint job. After a bit of thinking I came up with this:

Now it may not be pretty, but it is quick. This was done with just a white undercoat, two paint colours and three wash colours. With how simple this paint scheme is I think I can batch paint a weeks worth of models in just a few hours. From there it will just be getting them on a set of multi bases and doing the details on those. There are some advantages other than just speed with this. The paint scheme is easy to touch up, I can improve things when I have more time like adding detail colours or highlights. The other advantage of this is that when unit based I only have to focus on the models on the edges, the middle ones should have enough colour to conceal the lower paint jobs. I'm also pretty keen on having another 200 models done!

So that was a lot of talk, how about some results? Here is what I have got done so far on the elves. I'm just waiting on some pinning gear to get the wings back on my dragon...

Day 222
109/222 Painted/Days passed
109/114 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 31 - When the Cat is Away...

The mouse gets some painting done! Or something like that... So this week the Wife and Child went out of town on a day trip to help a friend with wedding dress shopping. This left me home alone for most of a day so (since I had some warning) I spent the week building as many Dreadball figures as I could and laying down some undercoats, all in preparation for busting out as many playable quality (dipped) models as I could. (I emptied 5 cans of spray paint this week!) The end result was 34 painted of the 95 I had ready to go. Not as many as I had hoped to do (all 95) but not a bad effort nonetheless. Unfortunately I had four more ready to go but the dip caused the spray undercoat to melt on the first two... So now I have to strip them back. Anyway, an overview photo is below, close-ups to follow when they are fully dry.

This makes me feel a lot more comfortable about finishing the Dreadball stuff off by years end. I have since then got another 22 ready to dip, I just want to get the last 9 models assembled and the remainder painted to go with them first. I then have about 30 that will get a proper paint job (well, speed painted anyway) to finish everything up.

Also, as promised, I have some photos of the Malifaux board I entered into the competition the other week. There were only two people who entered and unfortunately I lost (it was 13 votes to 15) but maybe next time... The 8ft long snow table definitely had me on terrain quantity so looked rather impressive.

I played a good game of Malifaux on the board and got some feedback from a veteran player, I need a bit more terrain in the middle of the board to stop ranged crews from dominating but otherwise it is good. I'm thinking maybe a rail station and/or a stable would be a good idea...

My July Lootcrate came through, this month was Villains. I got another shirt, fridge magnet, key-chain, socks, comic book, a Villains DVD and a pair of prints. I'm pretty happy with this one, my key-chain had just broken, the comic was funny and the shirt and socks are awesome. I also really like the prints and hope the DVD is cool. Next month is Heroes, with an exclusive Pop! figure, which sounds good. This will be my first crate without a shirt so I hope it is good.

So one more thing this month is that I was accepted into the MightyApe referral program. Rather than let ads be plastered all over my blog this will hopefully be a bit less intrusive (whoever designed those auto-playing video ads with sound needs a good flogging) and maintain some of my integrity... The deal is that by clicking on the links I post (like the Dreadball one here and above) you will be taken to the MightyApe store page, if you buy something from MightyApe in that window I get a small commission. That will let me buy more things (I have my eye on a Dust Allied Starter...) and in turn let me post about more on my blog. The Wall of Shame will have the relevant titles updated with permanent links and generally there will be one or two links in my weekly (~ish) posts. Hopefully this won't upset too many people or change the function or operation of the blog. Of course if you are shopping at MightyApe anyway if you click through one of my links I still get some commission...

Day 215
69/215 Painted/Days passed
69/73 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.