This Week in the Gnarls League, Part 3

vs Danny, part one.

Last week I was in a three-way tie for first in league, and on Monday I got in the first game of this week against one of the people I was tied with: Danny and his Cryx.  My first few trips to the FLGS for Thursday night Warmahordes I played against new or inexperienced players (which seems to apply to 50-60% of the regulars), including what was one of the first handful of games Danny played.  A nice guy who's eager to learn, I've kept an eye on Danny since then to see how he develops.  This game was the first since that initial game months ago and was a good opportunity to see first-hand how Danny has progressed (after a trip to Templecon no less).  We played at 50 points and I fielded the same Aby list I played last week (Typhon, Carni, Seraph, Angelius, Raek, 4 Shredders, 2 Forsakens, and a Shepherd).  I was concerned about facing 50 points worth of Cryx infantry, but fortunately the reality was slightly different as Danny fielded eSkarre with the Deathjack, Defiler, max Bane Thralls with UA and Tartarus, max Satyxis with UA and their solo, Darragh Wrathe, two Pistol Wraiths, and Saxon Orrik.  Our scenario was Whirling Gauntlet, which proved to be interesting.

vs Danny, part two.

The game was a tight one.  Unsure of how the Satyxis would perform, but none too happy with their innate high DEF, my first priority was to cripple the unit.  I gunned down the UA with the Angelius and then took a big chunk out of the rest of the unit before turning my attention to the Banes.  I was careful to stay out of their charge range but didn't account for the extra range that Tartarus gives them and ended up taking a charge from them anyway.  With a little help from the Deathjack (who finally did something) they took out my Carnivean and Angelius (who refused to tank at DEF 17 for most of the week).  During all that destruction I noticed eSkarre had crept rather far forward.  When the Whirling Gauntlet again cut through Danny's army and knocked down his Defiler, I saw that I needed to remove a single Bane to open up a charge lane for Aby.  While I didn't manage to kill the Bane, which made its Tough roll, I did knock it down.  One flying charge later and eSkarre was on the ground with Aby standing over her.  Danny had been cutting Skarre ruthlessly for upkeeps, plus her feat, and by the time I went in for the kill she was at half life (if not lower).  I meant to ask Danny why he kept cutting as he wasn't starved for Focus but forgot over the course of the week.

vs Ron

Next up was Ron on Thursday.  Though this was my first game against him, I'm relatively familiar with his collection through his blog (Miniatures armies, huge time sink), so I had to do less guessing for this game than previous 50 pointers.  I ran the same Aby list while Ron fielded Strakhov with the War Dog, Torch, Beast 09, the Great Bears, min IFP with UA, min Kayazy with UA, Kayazy Elminators, max Shock Troopers, a Widowmaker Marksman, and Reinholdt (because he had a point left over and I had Reinholdt in my bag).  The scenario was Most Pit. Like when I played Steve last week, I knew Ron's army at least as well as he did.  Despite this I still managed to walk more or less right into Strakhov's feat, which cost me Typhon and the (still refusing to tank) Angelius.  As with Danny, this game turned when Ron left his caster too close to the action (which is all but unavoidable with Strakhov).  It took a little bit of surgery and Slipstreaming, but I was ultimately able to get the Raek and Aby in against Strakhov.  When they couldn't seal the deal, I had to bring in the Carnivean to bat clean-up.  Ron played well enough, spreading his net wide for a good feat charge, but ultimately couldn't do enough damage on the feat turn to keep my gribblies at bay. 

vs Paul

My final game was against Paul and his Troll list.  I played with Paul in my first ever team game, though he was running Cygnar at the time, and I'd seen his Trolls on the table in the past few weeks so I had an idea of what to expect.  We played Occupy at 35 points.  My Aby list was the same from last week (Typhon, Carni, Seraph, 3 Shredders, 2 Shepherds, 2 Forsaken).  Paul ran an eDoomie brick of doom list with Mulg, an Earthborn, an Axer, a Runebearer (Trollses), Janissa, max Krielstone with UA, and the league Whelps.  I'm familiar with the basic concept of the list (clump up, Janissa puts a wall in front, everything in range of the stone), if not particularly familiar with eDoomie.  My basic plan was to spread out so that the brick either had to separate or else focus on a single target at a time instead of catching multiple pieces at once.  The lack of knowledge about eDoomie, combined with my plan of spreading out, nearly cost me the game real early.  Paul had warned me that his list was built to slingshot beasts forward, but when I had Mulg on Aby in turn 2 I was still surprised.  Fortunately Aby is a tough nut to crack (DEF 19 when B2B with the bonded Seraph and with Tenacity) and Mulg couldn't finish her off.  Even more fortunately, Mulg and his five Fury ended up between a pair of Forsaken.  After a pair of glorious 7 dice Blight Bomb Shrouds, and a bit of work by Aby, Mulg was down and Paul was distraught.  From there I was in the driver's seat, but I nearly threw it all away on the urging from my PG (who was eager for a team game as he also plays Legion).  I took an ill-advised run at Doomie and came up short, but Aby again managed to not get killed long enough for the Carnivean to come in and mop up.  Of note, the Angelius finally did some good evasion tanking in this game and held up the Earthborn for the whole match.

vs Ron again, this time at 15 points.

While the above was my last game that counted, I did play another on Thursday night.  After having put on reckless speed to finish the game against Paul, I found that my PG didn't have an opponent in mind for the team game he was so eager for.  It was soon too late to have any hope of getting in a team game, so I filled the remaining time with a 15 pointer against Ron.  I pulled out pVayl for this one, with a Carni, Seraph, and Shredder.  Ron took Strakhov with Beast 09 and Torch.  This one was over when I tried making a 15 point list, and despite barely budging from my deployment zone I still got charged at the top of turn two.  My two objectives for this game were (in order) to get a game in for Ron's third and to try and figure pVayl out a little bit.  The first I managed easily, the second not quite so much.  I did get to see how Incite looks on the table (pretty nice, especially with Chiller), so it wasn't a total loss.

I held a pretty healthy lead on the league for most of the week, though as results from the rest of Thursday and the weekend are updated that lead will be much smaller and possibly non-existent.  Despite playing larger games this week, I haven't been maximizing points through scenarios (some are worth more than others at equal points), which may be my undoing.  While I maintain a healthy level of skepticism, if I can manage one more solid week I have a good shot at finishing atop the league standings.  After a 3-0 record this week (in games that counted for me), I'm at 7-2 for the league, which is a mighty fine mark.  Over those games I've gotten to know my Aby list(s) very well, to the point where I don't need to check cards for stats, which is a first for me.  I'm having a hard time putting together a 25 point list for her though, so there's a real possibility I'll be running a different caster (and list) for the league finale tournament this weekend, which would be a real shame.  In happier news, I primed my objective markers this morning (WIP shots still to come) and hope to get them painted up on Wednesday.

A long drive for a pretty hike

I never got around to blogging about our Savannah trip, so since I am on another trip now (posts coming on that), I thought I'd catch up.

We wanted to get out of town. Well, I wanted to get out of town, and Livy and Aaron were their usual "up-for-my-adventures selves. We talked about going north to Clingman's Dome in TN, but there was a snowstorm, so we decided to drive south. We didn't know where we wanted to go, but we packed our stuff and starting driving south on I-75.

Finally, we decided on Savannah. We left in the mid-afternoon on a Saturday and arrive in Savannah about 5 hours later, after dark. We drove through the downtown just to see it, and then we got a hotel, ate our picnic supper on the floor, and went to bed. The drive down was nice. Aaron and I took turns driving and reading Anne of Green Gables out loud, and Livy read a book to us as well.

The next morning, we got up kind of early and headed to Skidaway Island State Park. It was very cold, but we took an awesome hike. A lot of the ground was sandy, and there were tons of palm trees and saw palmetto on the path. We saw beautiful marshes, and there was even an observation tower to climb and look down over all the grasses and marshland. Livy loved playing on all the twisty coastal trees, and she liked the live oaks with Spanish moss in them enough that on the way home she drew a picture of one for her nature journal.

After our hike, we went to the Visitor Center to see the reptile feeding. We were the only people there, so the park ranger talked to us the whole time. We learned a lot about their animals. We saw 2 different snakes swallow mice, a baby alligator under a heat lamp, and tons of turtles and frogs and lizards.

The visitor center also had an amazing bird viewing room with big glass windows that looked out onto a patio with lots of bird feeders. We sat with binoculars and a bird book and identified cardinals, a blue jay, tufted titmice, and Carolina chickadees. There were so many birds swooping this way and that, and we could have stayed there a long time. Except that we were HUNGRY!

So we drove into Savannah for lunch. I wanted seafood, but we wandered up and down the street a while and ended up in a non-so great brunch kind of place. It was overpriced and not fantastic, but I did have an amazing bowl of she-crab soup.

After lunch, we headed home. It was really nice mini-trip!

Let's encourage, support...and stop the attacks

Yesterday, I posted this article and said the following:

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is why so many people look at lactivists and think we're nutty. I do NOT agree with everything this article says however there are a few things I want to say. 1. How did the protestors of this ad know anything about the situation that lead to this baby being fed a bottle? Perhaps mom died, perhaps she works, perhaps she was at the dr, perhaps she exclusively pumps, perhaps she has cancer and is on chemo and can't breastfeed...WHO KNOWS!? 2. If we're going to portray an ad that includes a daddy bottle feeding his babe, don't we want it to look JUST LIKE THIS ONE?! We always say that feeding time should be an intimate experience, regardless of if it's bottle or breast...how could this be any less intimate? Daddy is holding his baby close, kissing baby's head, snuggling baby...that's about as perfect of a bottle feeding as it gets. 
What do you think?

Of course, as soon as I posted that some of our readers got defensive about using the word "protesters" and said we were calling lactivists nutty...among others. Le sigh. I knew this would happen when I dared to disagree with the breastfeeding community, but I really do feel that the removal of this picture is just simply unnecessary. I know I know...that's going to make people angry that I said that. I accept that but I really want to say something here.

Why I'm upset about people being upset about this image is that it shows a daddy being so loving, so involved with his childs feeding....it's such a sweet, beautiful image. Absolutely, breastfeeding is best and normal. We KNOW that. I mean come on people..do some people honestly think that we have some hidden agenda trying to normalize bottlefeeding and The Good Letdown is just a front? No. We take hours of time our of our lives to normalize breastfeeding, to assist mothers, to answer questions. We moderate our facebook page, comb through the list of people who joined to look for obvious trolls, we communicate with other breastfeeding pages on facebook about potential trolls...we do this all free. We get together and have meetings about how we can make this the best blog and support group for all the mamas out there...simply because we care. We do not make a single cent off this page. Often times, we buy things for giveaways...just because we want to. Our time, energy, research...it's all because we are passionate about breastfeeding and we truly want to normalize it and help others. That being said, I still disagree that this picture needs to be removed.

There are situations where bottles are necessary. Maybe mama works full time and daddy stays at home. Maybe mama died. Maybe he's a gay dad. Maybe both parents work split shifts so that someone is always home with baby. Maybe mama has severe postpartum depression and needed to go to the doctor. Maybe mama just wanted to go to the freaking grocery store along for 45 minutes and drink a cup of coffee. We don't know what the situation is that leads to this image of this papa feeding his baby. Maybe it's expressed breastmilk and maybe it's formula. In a perfect world, all babies would be breastfed and all mamas would breastfeed whenever and whereever. In a perfect world, breastfeeding would be shown on TV shows, talked about in novels, would be on Sesame Street and Sid the Science Kid. But as we know, there are babies who are bottle fed. And there are babies who are on formula. And as strongly as I believe all babies deserve breastmilk, I also understand that it's simply not always going to be the case. And if that's the case, I am comforted by the fact that the papas in the world would feed their babies like this papa is feeding his baby. Snuggled closely, kissing baby's head, not propping the bottle...he is involved with the feeding.

I am NOT saying that daddy's need to feed their baby to bond with them. That's not what I'm saying AT ALL. What I AM saying is that IF daddy has to feed the baby a bottle, for whatever reason, this is the way to do it. What we have here is a picture of a young daddy, snuggling his baby close to him so baby can hear his heartbeat, feel his breathing and kissing baby's head while he feeds him. This image is the perfect example of how we should feed a baby IF baby cannot be breastfed.

Now, all that being said (man, I can't believe how I have to defend this), I do see why LLL leaders in NZ did what they did but I do think they could have handled it differently. What if, instead of removing this lovely image of papa feeding his baby, they put their efforts into normalizing nursing another way? Could we have two commercials? Could we have two families in the commercial (which, by the way, is a non smoking commercial)? I mean...can't we find another way that doesn't take away this image of a daddy feeding his baby in the most loving way possible? To me, this picture is empowering for young fathers who may not be as involved. Let's fight the bottle propping, the formula advertisements and continue normalizing breastfeeding and breastfeeding in public instead of fighting an ad like this. If it the mother had ANYTHING to do with this ad, I could see an argument but the mother isn't present.

I'm not saying lactivists are nutty. I'm a lactivist. An outspoken one. Every single person I know, friend, family member, acquaintance, neighbor...they all know it. My book shelves are lined with all breastfeeding books, my mind thinks about breastfeeding way more than it should, I talk about it multiple times a day, I hand out "thank you for nursing in public" cards...I am a lactivist. And I've been called a boob nazi, a breastfeeding nut..etc etc etc. I don't' like that we're viewed that way. WHAT I SAID was NOT that lactivists are nutty. What I SAID was that we are viewed that way and when we get pissed off and jump on this type of thing...it furthers that myth about us. That is all I said. And I also said I didn't agree with much of the way the article was written. But sometimes, people are SO quick to jump onto a few words and it gets out of hand.

Let's fight this:

And let's support and encourage this (and more!):

Kovnik Joe Ready, Objectives WIP #2

Inspiration is available again.

I hadn't planned on painting today, but when I took a look at Joe to see how much was left to do I found the list wasn't that long.  After a brief bit of detail work and a wash, Joe is finished and no doubt eager to be back on the field.  Unfortunately it's raining, with occasional deluges, here in the DMV today, so Joe will have to wait a bit for the first pass of varnish.  Once that pass goes through my opponents will once again have the opportunity to experience the firepower of a fully armed and operational (and painted!) Death Star battle station.

When I sit down to make fully painted lists, I often run into the problem of having the WGI done, but not Joe.  This has less to do with it being hard to make a list that doesn't feature the full Death Star (really not that hard, Khador has plenty of other options), but rather that the WGI are the only "core" infantry unit that I have painted.  (I define "core" Khadoran infantry as Winter Guard Infantry, Kayazy Assassins, and Iron Fang Pikemen.  I have the Kayazy but they aren't painted, and I have no IFP yet.)  I've gone on before about how Khador, and Warmachine in general, doesn't support multiple jacks very well, so this lack of infantry is a large problem.  While Joe isn't absolutely required for the WGI, it's as close as possible.  He just does so much for his two points that it's all but impossible to leave him in the bag if there's any sort of Winter Guard on the table, much less the WGI.  He puts the "super" in "super solo."

Construction is finished.

More work on the objective markers.  Last night I mixed up more greenstuff than I've ever used at one time before, then applied it to the sides of the jack parts in a muddy/hilly/drifting sort of manner.  Ballast followed a few minutes ago, which covers up most of the greenstuff.  While unfortunate, as it deprives you all of wonderful photographic evidence of my handiwork, the plan made it unavoidable.  When the rain breaks I'll be priming these, then rushing them through the paint booth next week to get them done for the league.

Speaking of leagues and markers, I saw a fellow player's objective markers last night and really liked them.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture and don't know his name, but they're easy enough to describe.  He took banner bits from the WGI and the Stormclad, plus a third I didn't get a good look at, then built up a little pile of rocks for them to stand on.  This is very similar to what I was planning on doing for flag markers except that he used the bits instead of trying to sculpt them, an idea that I plan on stealing with no shame.  I'll have to look around at the bits to see which will work, though I'm leaning towards the IFP banner just now, and I think I'll have them flat against the base instead of standing upright, but however I end up doing it I'll be skipping the sculpting by going with the bits, which should both look better and be quicker to do.  A classic double-win.

Carnivean WIP #4, Starting Objectives

All but done.

The Carnivean is all finished except for the base, hence the WIP label.  I went with all the options listed in the last WIP post, namely orange edge highlighting with brown tips and orange barnacles.  The results are most pleasing.  The base is unfinished as I've yet to decide how to base the army, though I'm leaning towards fairly simple snow bases.  My only reservation there is that the scheme is already on the light side, so adding white base will only make it that much lighter.  Then again, if the bases are dark they might draw attention away from the actual models.



As for the painting itself, it went like this.  First off, black primer to start and all paints are Vallejo Game Colors.  For the skin I started with Sombre Grey, then a 50/50 mix of Sombre and Wolf Grey.  This was darker than anticipated, so next time I'll try a 2:1 Wolf/Sombre mix.  Next was straight Wolf Grey as a first highlight, then Dead White as a final highlight.  The underplates began with Heavy Warmgrey, then got a wash of Devlan Mud, then Bonewhite and Dead White highlights with a final wash of Gryphonne Sepia.  The upperplates started with Leather Brown, followed by the nigh-ubiquitous Devlan Mud, Scrofulous Brown (a nice orangey brown), and Filthy Brown as a highlight.  To finish the upperplates I picked out the "baranacles" with Hot Orange, then did an edge highlight of the plates and barnacles with Orange Fire, and finished off the larger tips with Beasty Brown.  The Carni painted up fairly quick except for the upperplates.  Granted I did everything after the wash with a detail brush which added some time on, but there are lots of nooks and crannies that I didn't want to fill in.  Overall I'm very pleased with the results.

Objectified.

In other news, I got a start on the objective markers for the Gnarls league.  I had lofty plans for these at the beginning that involved sculpting Khadoran anvils and 5th Border Legion symbols, but having never tried sculpting on that scale before I went with the safer (and quicker) alternative of using excess jack parts.  I'll be adding plenty of greenstuff to create hills/dirt covering the bits as if they've been cut off their owners and left to rust on the battlefield.  Most of the markers will get ballast, but I'll leave the greenstuff exposed in areas and paint it up like mud.  I'm also considering doing hazard stripes on the edge of the bases to really make them pop, and hopefully keep them from being mistaken for wreck markers.

In still other news, I just finished pinning the top set of wings on the Angelius.  Hopefully the smaller sets attach as easily.  I have a 50 pointer scheduled for early afternoon and hope to get a team game in after that which will complete both my three games for the week and my second team game of the league.  Then I'll just have to finish the markers to check off all the patches, which will let me focus on playing games next week to finish the league strong.

This Week in the Gnarls League, Part 2

Against Jason.

Week two of the Gnarls league wraps up today, but for me it finished yesterday with my third game.  Let's start at the beginning.  The first game was Thursday against Jason, a regular Menoth player who I had not yet faced off against.  I ran a newish Absylonia list with Typhon, a Carnivean, a Seraph, four Shredders, and a pair of both Shepherds and Forsaken.  Jason used Amon with a horde of light jacks, 8 in all, with a pair of min choirs and some wracks.  The scenario was Hold the Line, one that I enjoy for its straight-forwardness.  As usual when facing a new caster/army, I read the cards and took note of abilities, then promptly forgot or underestimated them.  Synergy caught me with my pants not down, but off and in another room.  I lost Typhon and the Carni, both undamaged, on the same turn and that was about it.  I almost shot down Amon with the Seraph, then couldn't quite manage to get Aby in charge range of him.  This game was a fairly ugly case of learning by taking it in the face for me, but that knowledge would come in handy in the next game.



That next game was a team game.  My ally was Hawk, who I gather is a Mk. 1 veteran who has less time for the game of late.  Our opponents were Jason and Jeff, who I played last week, which set up a Legion/Mercs vs Menoth game.  We played at 25 per person, so I dropped the Carnivean and was able to maintain a tier 4 list.  Hawk ran pMagnus with a Mule, two pirate jacks, some Sea Dogs, Ragman, and Dougal MacNaile.  Jason went the same route I did by dropping a couple jacks from our previous game.  Jeff ran pKreoss, a Templar, a Reckoner, a Repenter, Exemplars, a choir, and perhaps Rhupert.  We played Fight Club which was all about killing jacks/beasts.  I gained a healthy appreciation for what a Mule can do in this game when one cleared out most of a choir, most of the Errants, and also put some damage on a couple heavies.  With a single shot.  This was a game that felt close at the time, but in retrospect I think we had the edge from the first volley.  The plan was to piece trade with Hawk's jacks as bait, but we didn't have to do much trading and probably engaged in far too much planning (hence the lack of pictures).  We made a final push as the store was about to close and I cleared out both casters, including a brutal dicing of pKreoss.  He deserves it though, more than any caster that doesn't serve Toruk.

Before all hell breaks loose.

My final game was Saturday morning against Steve, another returning Mk. 1 vet.  We played a couple weeks ago in his first game using Mk. 2.  I have pictures of that one but haven't done up a report for it yet.  I also posted a side-by-side of my plastic Ivan and his metal one a while back.  I fielded the same list I took against Jason plus an Angelius and a Raek to make 50 points, my first foray into a game that size.  I spent a decent chunk of Friday night and Saturday morning thinking of ways to counter a WGI Deathstar and Iron Fleshed Kayazys, which were my biggest concerns.  My preparation was in vain when Steve plunked down Harkevich, Sylyas, Black Ivan, a Decimator, Frostwind Lord (the seasonal Koldun Lord) marshaling a Devastator, min Bombardiers, min Demo Corps, min Mechanics with the new UA, Drakhun without dismount, and Alten Ashley.  The lack of high DEF troops made me happy, as did the scenario (King of the Hill), which suited me perfectly.

The end of the Iron Wolf.

This last game was a new experience for me as I knew Steve's list better than he did.  Under normal circumstances I would have taken a very casual approach, since this was his third game with the Mk. 2 rules, but time dictated otherwise.  Steve was late showing up and I was on a hard time limit, so when Harkevich wandered too far up field I applied the Angelius and Typhon for the win.  Steve had a few things working against him beyond the knowledge handicap.  The scenario required casters to be on the hill, and with my superior speed (plus going first) I was able to get to the hill first and set up a hefty beast screen in front of Aby.  Putting the MoW behind woods meant they had little impact on the game, leaving too little firepower to cut through my big slabs of beef.  The Angelius (still under construction) performed well.  It's animus let me collapse the pocket around Harkevich and open a lane for Typhon, and sitting at DEF 17 (19 on the hill vs shooting) meant it was immune to all but the most concerted attack.  The lack of initial melee attacks is unfortunate, but when the sole initial is a POW 14 (base) Armor Piercing attack the quality vs quantity tradeoff is acceptable.

Another week, another 2-1 record.  Barring any late reports for the week I'm tired for the lead, which is nice, but I don't expect it to last.  My preference for smaller, mano-a-mano games doesn't fit the league's emphasis on larger team games, so I'm bound to get caught by people with the time for, and inclination towards, the big multiplayer brawls.  That said, I have a 50 pointer lined up for tomorrow before work, which should let me get in a smaller game early Thursday and then have time for a big team match later that night.  With luck I'll have two more league patches sewn up this week as I'll be facing my fifth different faction tomorrow (Cryx...) and if I can get a team game in it'll be my second.  Then I'll just have objective/flag markers to do and I'll have checked off all the boxes.  That last one is going to be the trick as I have some grandiose (for me) plans for those markers that I'll have to squeeze in amongst assembling the Legion models I still have in boxes, painting the Legion stuff that's ready to go, playing all these league games, knocking the dust off my Blood Angels to face off against EV's new Dark Eldar, work, hockey, life in general...

Carni WIP #3, A Crossroads

Pretty much how the scheme will work out.

The Carnivean stomps on towards completion.  I probably could have finished it today had I pushed it, but as previously noted I have others things on the plate that preclude such a push.  The base color (I should find a better term for that as it's not really a basecoat, maybe midtone?  Also need something better than upperplates) on the upperplates got finished, along with a first highlight.  One more layer of highlights and I'll call it finished.  That's the problem though: where to take the highlights.  My initial plan was to use orange for the final highlight, and I probably will end up doing that, but looking at Cloudfang's Orange Blight tutorial makes me curious about "highlighting" with a darker color to show older, harder growth on the plates.  What I'd like to do is the orange highlight, then do an edge highlight (as much as possible on something as organic as the Carni) with a darker brown, perhaps the VGC Leather Brown that was the initial layer on the upperplates, then round the whole thing out with a nice wash of some sort.  My concern is that there may be too much going on if I do all those steps.  Once again I summon opinions from you, oh Internet who is full of little but opinions.  Go with orange, brown, wash?  Skip the orange and/or brown?  Dark wash (Badab Black), light(Ogryn Flesh), or somewhere in between (Devlan Mud)?  I won't be getting back to the Carni until next week, so you have some time to consider.

P.S.:  Had an idea just now, moments after finishing the post.  Perhaps I'll do some of the little bumps and juts in a bright orange.  That way I could still work in the overt orange without making half the model look like a pumpkin...

Carnivean WIP #2

Getting there.

Lots of progress yesterday on most hobby fronts.  Let's start with the painting, since I have a picture of that.  The various plates got washed, then underplates were finished, and the upperplates got a start.  Turns out those will take longer than anticipated.  I didn't quite finish the initial coat on the yesterday, but with just those plates to finish I'm relatively confident that I can get the Carni done today.  Then again, there's plenty on the docket for today that isn't painting, so I can't sink the whole day into it despite my desire to do just that.  The picture on the left isn't from the best angle progress-wise, but it was the only angle I could get that showed the underplates.  Just the one arm and the rest of the upperplates need the initial coat of brown, the rest of them are ready for highlighting.  I'll do a breakdown of what colors went where when I'm done with the whole thing, as much for me as for anyone else.  I'm pleased with how it's turning out so far, but final judgement is reserved until the end as always.



I've had foam, and a box, to cut up a custom transport for my beasts for the last week or more, and I finally got to cutting yesterday.  No pictures yet, but there are still plenty more holes to cut.  The important thing right now is that my Seraph is no longer wedged into a less than ideal transport.  That it shares the box with Typhon and a Raek is gravy.  I have a game scheduled for noon on Saturday, my first 50 point game.  To hit such a lofty total with Legion I need to build an Angelius and another Forsaken.  Last night I got the Forsaken done, which has a spine piece that I first took for a tail, and got a start on the Angelius.  The body is pinned together and glued to the base and should be pinned to the base shortly.  The wings are going to pose a problem.  The top wings are huge and the contact points are just the right size to be a little too small for comfort, yet not quite big enough to allow for a thorough pinning.  Worst case scenario sees me fielding a wingless Angelius, but hopefully I can get at least some of the wings on by game time.

I Bleed For My Hobby, Carnivean WIP #1

So many pins...

While getting curb-stomped by EV on Tuesday I noticed I had some skin peeling off my left index finger.  What caused this wasn't immediately apparent.  At the time I thought perhaps it was from scraping mold lines, though in that case it should have been on the thumb and on my right hand.  Yesterday I figured out what the cause was: pinning.  To be more accurate, pinning spiky Legion models.  In constructing Typhon and the Raek you see on the left, I did a lot of pinning.  A whole lot of pinning.  More pinning than I've ever done on a pair of models before.  Except for one of Typhon's heads, every piece on both models has at least one pin in it, for a grand total of twenty four (24) pins between the two.  Greenstuffing is still underway.  The bad news is that I rubbed off a couple layers of skin and drilled straight into my thumb twice.  The good news is that I should never have to worry about these models coming apart, even if I manage to pick up Typhon by one of his teeny T-Rex arms.  Hopefully the taste of blood they got makes them more vicious on the table.

Rawr.

It will still be a day or two of greenstuffing before Typhon and the Raek are ready to be primed, which means at least two weeks (from today) until they'd be ready for the table.  With an apparent shift to 25 points games underway for the league, not to mention the need for some team games, I wanted the extra list building flexibility that having a lesser would bring.  Plus I want to play with Typhon.  As such I got started painting a Carnivean last night.  I plowed straight through the skin and the mouth (minus the teeth), plus got a basecoat on the other bits and got some purple lining in.  It's too early to be sure, but the early returns on the purple look good.  Credit to Cloudfang of Live to CRUSH for that addition, plus other tweaks to the scheme.  The purple I used previously on the Shredders was darker and dirtier, but the arrival of a bottle of VGC Warlock Purple gave me a much brighter shade to work with.  As a result it leaps off the model in a most pleasing way.  With two colors left to do (cream on the under-plates, an orangey-brown on the over-plates) there's an outside chance I get the Carni finished today, but Friday is more realistic.  My biggest concern with this model is rubbing the paint off one part while painting another.  You can see a bit of metal peeking out from the peak of the shoulder plate in the picture above.  I'm trying to only hold the base, but some contact to other areas is unavoidable with a model of this size and weight.

In addition to painting I hope to cut some foam that I got a week or two ago for a custom beast case.  My Seraph transport leaves much to be desired, and the box I'll be using should be large enough for all my beasts (and perhaps all my Legion in general), so this should be a good quality of life upgrade.  With any luck I'll be able to get in all three league games tonight, but if not I hope to be able to squeeze another in Saturday morning/Sunday night.  Getting them all done tonight is definitely option number one.

Torch Finished, Beasts Arrive, LotR?

Ready to rip and burn for your entertainment.

There wasn't much left to do on Torch, as I mentioned in a previous post, so today I did those few things and called it done.  The 5th Border Legion icon didn't turn out as well as it did on Black Ivan.  I'll put a little of the blame on the scheme since the gold on black really popped, but mostly I'll fault my own brush work.  The spikes on the bottom of the 5 are a bit chunky, the arrows in the corners don't look quite right, and in retrospect a bit of black lining would have helped as well.  All that is academic at this point since Torch has a coat of varnish drying at the moment, and it's just nitpicking really.



My Legion reinforcements arrived a few minutes ago.  This was my first sizeable shipment from Miniature Market and despite EV's chronicle of his experiences I was curious how the packing would be.  It was acceptable, but somewhat below the Warstore's standard.  The packing material they used was a coarse brown paper which I'm familiar with from my days in receiving.  I had expected packing peanuts since that's what EV got, though admittedly my box was far smaller than his, and also because the Warstore has never sent me a box with peanuts in it.  Nothing was damaged (the bag holding the Legion counters broke in the box but there were none missing) and I got all the things I ordered which is the most important thing.  Considering the savings of Miniature Market vs the Warstore I'll probably do my big orders through MM in the future, but if I'm getting anything especially delicate I'll stick with the Warstore.  The beasts I got, especially the Angelius and Typhon, are going to use every ounce of greenstuff I have to fill all the gaps and keep pins wedged into place.  I'd like to have them assembled and primed by Wednesday, which will be my next good painting opportunity, but that's probably too optimistic.  At least the construction time will let me continue pondering what order to paint my various beasts in.

I'm still trying to get caught up on my internettery from the time of horribly slow internets.  Part of that is mowing through the backlog of What's New Today posts at the GW site.  I picked up where I left off previously, in the midst of a lot of Lord of the Rings posts.  The LotR game has never really interested me for a variety of reasons, but last night I was taken by the idea of having a small Gondor/Rohan cavalry-heavy force.  EV likes the system and I think he has enough models to field two sides at once, so I started poking around in the GW online store to see what I was thinking about getting myself into.  The models aren't bad, though well below GW's usual standard, and are (a bit) cheaper as a result, though Finecast is an obvious exception there.  The bit that stopped my momentum was, as usual, the books.  $58 for the main book, $25 for a 48 page army book.  I just don't get their book pricing.  If you're a model company that happens to produce a game for you to use the models in, as GW says it is, then why the hefty price tag on the books?  I get that they want to make money on the books, that time and effort goes in, but wouldn't in encourage more people (like myself) to pick one up out of curiosity if they were more reasonably priced?  The 40k and Fantasy books are $60 and I refuse to get either one, for systems that I already have models for and experience with, because it's a ridiculous price point.  Mini companies already have their hooks in the customers through the models themselves, which are impossible to pirate as PDFs and are guaranteed to at least as many copies as the books (in the case of special characters) and probably a lot more (troops), so why not make your money there?  I'm no business major, but it just doesn't add up.  Thus I'll be sticking to the games I'm already invested in and funneling any funds that would have gone towards some Rohan cavalry into, say, Uhlans or Raptors or even Blood Angels bikers.

This Week in the Gnarls League, Part 1

Not these Gnarls.

The Gnarls League started this week and despite some scheduling difficulties (read: hockey on Thursday night) I managed to get my three games in for the week.  These seasonal leagues have intrigued me since I first heard about them.  The idea that some models are taken out and replaced with variations on them is a novel one.  This year's leagues take the novelty a step further by allying two factions (Legion pairs up with Mercs for the Gnarls)  and allowing them to field each others' seasonal model.  The Merc's model (grape shot cannon) doesn't do much for me, and a lot of the pairings are odd, but it's a good way to add in some variety without actually adding new pieces to the game which astute readers will remember is a plus for me.  Looks like I've finally encased my first picture in text, so on to the mini battle reports.



Actually a brief  aside first.  I like my veil of internet psuedo-anonymity, though it's a little less thorough as I merge the online and real life worlds at the FLGS.  I imagine others might enjoy the veil like I do, so if I've outed you below and you'd like me to swap out an online identity for your real one I'll be happy to do so.

Aby takes it in the face.

My first game was against Rusty and his angry elves.  I've played him once before as part of a team game, which was my only game against Ret up to that point, so I both knew a little bit of what to expect and also had plenty left to learn.  I played an Absylonia tier 4 list that hasn't featured in a battle report here yet (it's in the queue), so here's a mini version: two Carniveans, a Seraph, and pair of Forsaken, a Shepherd, and Shredders to fill.  Rusty played Vyros with two Manticores, Sylyas, an Arcanist per jack, min Invictors and Halberdiers (both with UA), eEiryss, Nayl, and Lanyssa Ryssyl.  We played the scenario with three flags where one disappears at the end of turn one.

I lost this one by overlooking a buff and (once again) not fully reading and comprehending an ability.  You can see a Carni in the picture to the right.  In the last turn it charged and killed a Manticore, which was standing close by the Manticore still visible.  I think I had range on both of them but went after the closer one.  Turns out the other had an Admonition-like upkeep (Hallowed Avenger? something like that) which allowed it to charge when a friendly model was destroyed under certain circumstances.  I had placed the Shredder just above Aby to avoid a Slam taking down both models, which allowed the Manticore to get a charge off on Aby.  By itself this wasn't so bad, but when Vyros came in during Rusty's half of the turn it got worse.  Turns out Flank is a +2 on the attack and an additional die on damage (when engaging a model already engaged by a warjack, or something similar), and not a +2 on damage.  Thanks to a combination of Reach and my anti-Slam Shredder placement, Vyros also had a charge lane and took Aby down without much effort.  In addition to learning about those two abilities, I also learned that you can't Reave from a beast you kill by transferring damage.

Not a man's land, but a woman's.  Sort of.

Game two was against Charlie and his Pigs.  I played Charlie a couple weeks ago when he fielded pCaine and shot me up real good.  Pigs are a faction I've been intrigued by so I was curious to see how they'd do in person.  I went with the same Aby list while Charlie ran Carver, three Warhogs (!), min Bone Grinders, max Brigands, a pair of the Ret seasonal models (Mage Hunter solos), and Alten Ashley.  His list was a point short but he said he didn't have anything to fill it with.  Charlie handicapped himself a bit by having one of his beasts outside his control area for a turn or two, which allowed me to take out the other two while losing a single Carni.  Carver's feat is supposed to be monstrous, and it certainly read that way, but I think I had chewed down enough infantry to make it less effective.  I won this game by scenario thanks in large part to an optimistic charge by one of the Mage Hunters from the left edge of the board which fell short of the intended target, but brought the elf within range of my white Shredder who promptly ate the elf.  This is relevant because the Mage Hunter was holding the zone (we were playing No Man's Land) and was far enough away that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to reach it.  After the elf was down the Carni took out a Warhog that was the only other piece in the zone, giving me the victory.  Best part of this game was Alten Ashley pumping two shots into the Shredder on the far right and failing to kill it.

Kreoss noms are yummy.

Both of those games were on Thursday morning/afternoon before the Caps gave up a two goal lead in the last two minutes that night.  When I had the opportunity to get in a third game tonight, filling my weekly quota, I jumped right at it.  This time I played Jeff, who I had played a couple months back in what was (I think) one of his first games.  He was playing pKreoss then, so I took pSorscha for the similarity in feats and also because I'm not too good with her and didn't want to give a new player all the dirty business.  It didn't take long for me to learn that pKreoss' feat is more effective than pSorscha's and that it can take you from fine to dead in short order.  Fast forward to now and Jeff is fresh off of Templecon, so I'm curious to see how he's progressed.  Aby was my girl/thing again, and Jeff fielded pKreoss with the Avatar, a Reckoner, a Vassal, min Choir, max Errants, Exemplars, Rhupert, and Gorman.  This game was also No Man's Land.  With Jeff going first I was able to respond to his deployment, which featured the Errants and Exemplars on opposite flanks, with my old favorite: the refused flank.  I managed to keep his Errants completely out of the fight as a result, and the Avatar didn't do too much either as it was also on that side of the board.  After chewing through the Errants and dinging the Reckoner good with a spray, Slam, and some bites while it was down, I lost a Carnivean but found an assassination lane as a result.  A couple models needed to be removed, notably the Reckoner which Aby finished off personally, but in the end I got a charging Carnivean into Kreoss with predictable results. 

After this first week of the league I'm at 2-1, which should put me at the sharp end thus far.  There may be one person who went 3-0, but I think everyone else was 2-1 at best.  Next week is better schedule-wise so hopefully I can get in a team game or two while I have a good opportunity (one of the patches for the league is for getting in at least two team games).  If I can get in a pair of team games then I should finish off two of the three league patches (two team games and play against five different factions) which would leave just painting three objective markers to finish off the group.  I have an idea for what I want to do with the markers (from scratch with a Khador theme, though I may get the PP ones at some point) and want to do three flag markers while I'm at it.  Then it's all down to winning games and going for the overall lead.  Since the league favors large and/or group games I don't know that I'll be in the running for the win, but I'm certain to have a good time trying.

Joe WIP #4, Torch WIP #3

Just needs a little more work.

I've been waffling about what to post for a few days, with the result of not posting anything.  Instead of continuing this trend, I decided to just do a painting post and let the rest of it keep simmering.  Most of the week has been spent reading, so there hasn't been a whole lot of painting.  On Friday I decided I had to get some work done on something.  What did I pick?  Rivets.  There was some other little work, doing the few black areas, some bronze, starting on the base.  As a result, Torch is almost done.  There are some lingering details I haven't gotten to and a couple I've missed, but I could call Torch finished right now (base aside) and be happy with it.  That won't happen as I still have plans for a 5th Border Legion logo on the top hatch (like Black Ivan) and I'm not ready to let the other details slide just yet.  It's awful nice to be all-but finished though.  I'm always amazed at how quick jacks paint up compared to infantry.  You'd think the larger model would take longer, yet I can do a jack in a day or two while infantry takes about a week.  Hopefully beasts paint as quick as jacks.  If so, I could (in theory) get all my Legion painted up before the league is finished.

Limping along.

Joe got a little love as well, getting some silver basecoated, but he was an after thought.  I also picked out his hat symbol with red.  As with Torch I have plans to drop some freehand on Joe's coat.  Unlike Torch, I don't know that I'll be doing it.  Joe has become a bit of a slog.  While I'll push through and finish him up, there hasn't been a lot of entertainment in painting him lately.  Hopefully this changes before too long.  With a batch of Legion reinforcements due in on Monday it would have been ideal to get these two pieces finished up so I'd have a clean slate to fill with blighted goodness.  Then again it's obviously impossible to have models ready to paint in the morning when the package won't arrive until that same afternoon, so perhaps an adjustment of that mental deadline to Monday is appropriate.

On the Legion front, I'm pondering two approaches: cycle out pieces I'm currently using to paint while plugging those gaps with the new arrivals, or paint the new stuff before it sees the table at all.  The first approach rewards the pieces that have been performing well for me so far (Carnivean and Seraph mostly) while also getting the new stuff into the fray quickly.  The second approach puts off stripping models for as long as possible, plus it forces me to get things painted if I want to use them (which I obviously do).  Decisions, decisions.

Nature Journal: Mountain View

We stayed one night at Jenn's awesome mountain cabin, and early that morning, Livy and I went out for a nature walk. This post, the first of two, includes the pictures we took right by the cabin.

Livy says: There are mountains. You see them every day when you get up. And the good part is that they make pretty pictures.

Kelly says: This is the view from the cabin's back porch. This tree leaning in from the left looks amazing. I think this is one of the best pictures Livy has ever taken.

Livy says: We found this tree in the backyard of Jenn's cabin.

Kelly says: We saw this little pine tree standing out among all the grey winter trees. I loved how green it looked in contrast.

Livy says: This picture is a brown flower by Jenn's cabin. I think it looks pretty because it's leaning into the picture. I think it looks pretty because it's kind of brownish and it's an unusual picture.

Kelly says: This is a dried hydrangea bloom. I love hydrangea bushes for just this reason: they look amazing all year round, even in the winter. I actually took this picture! Woot!

Livy says: This fern was taken at Jenn's cabin in her backyard. I think it's pretty because it's a little bit purplish around its leaves. I also liked that it's just growing down the mountain.

Kelly says: These ferns were growing down the mountain like Livy said. You can't really see that from the picture, but they were spilling down a large hill.

Livy says: These are berries taken in Jenn's sideyard. These berries were hanging down from the bush. You can't see it from the picture.

Kelly says: This is a nandina bush. I remember that my Papaw had a really big one in the front yard, and I used to love to pick the berries and try to get birds to come and land in my hand to eat the berries. Of course, they never did, but it was great fun to call them to me by made-up names.

Livy says: These berries were the same ones as the picture on top of this one, except it's more close-up and has more sunlight on them.

Kelly says: I am so proud of this picture. I took it, and it turned out to be so shiny and beautiful. Nandina berries have never looked so good. If those birds from my childhood saw berries that looked like this, they would have come to me for sure. :)

Nature Journal: Jump, Squirrel!

Livy says: This picture is from Aidan's neighborhood. 

Kelly says: On the way to a friend's birthday party, we saw several black birds (I think they were crows.), and we pulled over to take their pictures.

Livy says: This picture is also a crow.

Kelly says: I thought this picture turned out great. I love how the crow shows up so well in the leafless tree.

Livy says: This is a squirrel that was running into a bush in Aidan's neighborhood. I was trying to take his picture, but the squirrel ran away. All it left showing was his tail.

Kelly says: Darn you, squirrel! But it did turn out to look kind of cool.

New Living Room Picture And More

I found this picture of our new living room set up that Livy must have taken. You can see our table against the left window, my desk against the far wall (no shelves up above it yet), the fireplace on the right, and Aaron's rocking chair in the foreground. Where his rocking chair is we now have a TV, DVD player, and Wii. You can see my the bookcase where I keep some fiction and some school stuff to the left of my desk. We have also set up a computer for Livy on the left end of my desk beside the bookshelf.

This picture is just gratuitous cute. I found it in the same camera dump. Miranda must have taken it the night she took Livy and Morgan to a play with an ASL interpreter. I can't remember what play it was. They are playing checkers at a Cracker Barrel where she took them to eat. I remember how THRILLED they both were to be out for a night on the town down in Atlanta with their most coolest and most beloved friend and sitter.

Joe WIP #3, Torch WIP#2

Stomping towards completion.

Why do I always wait so long before I start writing?  Inevitably time slips up on me and I have to hurry to not be late for work.  One day I'll learn, but not today.

Things did happen today.  Painting things.  The greens got finished, along with the reds, and I got started on some of the gold details as well.  A while back I switched up how I highlighted the olive drab green that forms the base of the 5th Border Legion scheme.  I had been mixin in Bleached Bone to do highlights with, but the result never quite looked right.  Then one day I had an idea: what if I use a light grey instead of a light brown?  In goes the Stonewall Grey and miraculously the highlights look (to my eye) much better, like actual highlights instead of a completely different color slapped on top of the green base.  One day I may do a tutorial for my scheme but in case I don't I wanted to note that little nugget of wisdom.  Torch is progressing nicely and may well be done by the end of the week, depending on how much painting time I get and how any freehanding goes.

Two steps forward, two steps back?

Kovnik Joe is clipping along as well, but I hit a snag with him today.  It's a product of poor planning, because I just waded into these minis without really looking at them and figuring out how to proceed.  Joe has some fairly detailed bracers that really want more attention that the "paint it gold" approach I had been going with.  This isn't a big problem but it's still bothersome.  I hate repainting something I've already painted, even if it isn't more than a basecoat.  Joe's collection of medals will also require more work than I thought.  He's packed with detail, as well he should be.  While it'll help him pop a bit on the table and show that he's a couple cuts above the regular grunts, more detail still means more work.  Large swathes of Joe are finished though, everything except for details and metals really, so taking a little extra time on those details won't hurt much.  Like Torch, Joe may be done before the week is over.  I'll be very happy to be able to field a fully painted Deathstar.

In other, non-photographed news, I finally sat down after the Super Bowl to put some models together.  Absylonia, Yuri, and a pair of Shepherds all got assembled.  There wasn't as much pinning as I would have liked, due in large part to sinking a drill bit in my thumb early on in the process.  This means there's far too much glue+greenstuff holding these models together.  While it makes the assembly process quicker, pIrusk has shown that it doesn't form a super solid bond (his hand came off when I was taking him out of my bag).  I think I learned some lessons from that particular debacle, ones that I was careful not to repeat on this batch, but I'm still skeptical.  Hopefully that skepticism is misplaced.  However it turns out in the future for now they're assembled, might get based tonight, and could get primed in the morning.  Absylonia was the caster I wanted to play when I first went over the Legion book, so it'll be good to see how she does on the table.  I don't have all the pieces I'd like for her, but I'm also assembling an order for reinforcements so that issue should be rectified before too long.  With the Gnarls league starting today, I want to get on the Legion train soon so I can have as good a showing as possible.

Three and a Half

I've been breastfeeding Chicken Little for three and a half years. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine nursing a child passed a year... but here we are... still going strong.  He's the oldest of all the nurslings in my little circle by a few weeks.

I remember sitting on New Years Eve chatting online with folks and wondering if this would be our last year nursing. He is well within the window of natural age self weaning.  It'll be completely up to him on when that window will come to a close. Right now he nurses about 3-4 times a day, mostly just ones that are in our daily routine.

Unlike baby sister Chicklett, Chicken Little has always been the kid that could stay on the nipple for hours. When he was a baby I would watch movie after movie during the day while he lazily slept and boobed during the day. I've almost always had to physically unlatch him with my hands to get him to stop. Now at three years old it's a little inside joke we have. At his pre-naptime boob I usually start to get a little antsy about ten minutes in. He can sense it... and usually smooshes his face into my boob so that I can't get my fingers in there to unlatch him. Fortunately for me, his laughing and antics usually free up space for me to sneak in.

There has been a joke in this house that our daughter would wean before her big brother. She is not quite the boob monster that he has always been. Don't get me wrong, she loves booby milk... but she's always been a "drink and dash" kid. Been a totally different relationship than what I have with the boy. They are 25 months apart, and it could be possible that Chicklett self weans at two years old and Chicken Little is still nursing strong at four. I don't know if that's ever happened to anyone before, but I suppose anything is possible.

At this point we've never gone more than 24 hours without a boob and he is obviously very interested in nursing. From conversations with previous full term nursing mothers it seems like the self weaning process is a slow one. I really don't anticipate this being the year of his weaning, but there is a little birdy in the back of my head saying that if it is his time I will be ready to follow his lead.

Nature Journal: Squawking Birds

Livy and I recently joined a nature journaling homeschool group. We meet once a month to look at the journals and see what everyone else has done, and we have plans to go together to some parks and hikes and to do the Backyard Bird Count. Livy and I decided that we wanted to work together on the journal and to put our entries online instead of in a print journal. We may eventually get a blog just for our journaling, but for now, we are going to post our entries on this blog. Livy loves to take pictures, so most of our entries will be photographs. She took them all, unless I specifically say that I did.

Our first set of pictures is from our own house and neighborhood.

Livy says: I was standing on the porch. The tree is across the street from our house. The birds were squawking.

Kelly says: Aaron came to get us because he heard this loud sound. There were about a million birds all squawking at the top of their little birdy lungs.

Livy says: This flower was in our front yard. They grow right when it gets hot during winter.

Kelly says: Livy sometimes picks these for me. They are really tiny weeds that spread all over the yard, and you have to look really closely to notice them. But Livy always notices them and says how pretty they are.

Livy says: This mossy tree is across the street.

Kelly says: I never noticed this until Livy pointed it out to me, even though it is right across the street. She really has an eye for finding interesting details. I hope this nature journaling will help me to get better at noticing all the pretty things and the interesting things that we pass by every day.

Livy says: This bush is from our front yard. It blooms lots of pretty purple flowers each year.

Kelly says: I really should trim this loropetalum bush (it covers our entire bay window), but I never do because it is so humongous and lovely. I just can't bear it. Livy says that I just don't like to trim bushes or mow the lawn. Hmph.