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.