How did I not title this post when I posted it?

Group shot looks better than the individual for once.

My painting mojo was in full swing this morning, right up until I had to stop.  I'm a painting nomad in that my paints are rarely at home, and when they are it's because I'm in transit to another painting locale.  This is by design and has worked well right up until today.  A new furnace was installed here last week, and today there's a follow-up visit to fix up some of the loose ends.  Someone has to be here to let the guy in, and that someone is me.  This isn't a problem, nor a surprise, but it did cause some unexpected problems today.  As you can see, I got some good progress in on the Doomies.  They'd probably be finished today if I hadn't had to break off early to wait for the furnace guy.  I got the greens and reds done, plus (most of) the bandages on the limbs.  I was having a good old time on the reds when my hurry-home-so-I-can-wait timer went off, so the front rank of the above picture got the TLC highlight treatment, while the back rank got a much quicker pass.  I have a bad feeling that when I get back to the models and compare the two batches there won't be much difference.  The good news hidden in there is that I was reminded that I'm trying to strike a balance between detailed painting and getting things done quickly.  The other silver lining is that, barring a catastrophe, I should have them finished next time I sit down, which is hopefully tomorrow.  If I can manage all that, I might even have them available for Thursday.  I have missed my bloody, crazy Doomie safety blanket these past few weeks.

Looks like I focused on the bottom.

Because I have another picture, you get another paragraph to nest it in.  Modelling with NGF didn't go quite as intended over the weekend.  Turns out he wants something already finished, which really isn't a surprise.  That's not going to happen of course, and I have a plan in place for Wednesday.  The original plan was to have NGF dive in to a fresh box himself, but it looks like I'll have to do a little prodding, so the new plan is that I'll start to slowly assemble a marine and stick NGF with a hobby knife until he gets the idea.  Once he gets rolling things should fall into place.  Overcoming his natural inertia is the key.

More space eh?  Perhaps a meditation on the Reaver's skirts.  They'll be the olive drab sort of green like the rest of the army, but in the course of painting them I'm thinking they aren't any sort of fabric at all, but rather skin stitched together.  This doesn't change my painting approach, but it does add a bit of character to the models.  I'm still pondering my approach to the heads, but I can save them for last.  The list of things to finish is as such: skirts, hair, heads, random metal bits, bases, the bit of bandaging I missed on the leader.  Not much at all.

Is there such a thing as a "quick" post?

The group, it progresses.

Though my previous estimate of completing the Doomies in another two sessions is probably off, I did get in some decent work today.  As you can hopefully tell by looking at them, I got the skin done.  Less noticeable is the leather bits, which also got finished.  To round out the day I did a coat of Red Gore to firm up the red which had gotten rather dark after the wash.  While I have a firm idea of what color is going where, the firmness is most squishy when it comes to the trophy heads.  Like all good maniacs, the Doomies have taken plenty of trophies and display them on their belts, or in your face in the case of the leader.  Pending a good, close examination to see if any are Skorne heads, Ogruns, anything other than human, I'm thinking of doing some sort of wash or unusual (for me) shading on the heads to show that they're not fresh.  Having never done decaying/putrefying skin before, I'm not sure where to start.  My current inclination is a green wash, though purple seems like a good idea too. 

Individual shots show details better.

Because I need another paragraph to put in the second picture, I'll continue.  Tomorrow is D-Day for NGF.  I'll be bringing a box of Devastators and my handy modelling box, which has all my tools and materials for assembling minis, when I pay him a visit tomorrow.  My natural inclination when assembling is to save the one I'm most excited about until the end so I can get all my learning out of the way before I care about a stray cut here or there.  Since I want to set the hook firmly on the first strike with NGF, I'm considering going the opposite route.  As much as I want to give him the full treatment on cleaning, basing, posing, all the modelling goodness, I think the better tactic will be to just have him open the box and see what catches his fancy.  My big bag of marine kits may stay at home to avoid option overload, as staring at 30-40 sprues might be a bit much.  In the meantime I have to actually go get that box of marines.  And go make that money to get marines with.

More boots approach

One of these things is not like the others.

Due to some schedule swaps, I had a larger than usual amount of hobby time available yesterday.  As such I packed up quite the laundry list of potential modelling projects:

• The 2 player box, save the Destroyer chassis which is now Black Ivan
• Old Witch + Scrapjack
• Aiyana & Holt
• eIrusk
• Trollblood starter box

I also had my usual huge stack of books for flipping.  (As a side note, I want an all-inclusive Warmachine app that lets me flip through full entries for all the stuff in the game.  I realize this won't happen because it would invalidate the Forces books, plus all the cards, and basically give someone the whole of the game (minus the rules) in the one place, but isn't that what that program that rhymes with Smarmy Guilder does already?  iBodger is great and all, but sometimes I want to see the exact wording of a feat while on the crapper, in the car, at work, or elsewhere when my books aren't handy:)  While I didn't get as much out of that time as I hoped I would, I did make some progress, as you can see on the left.

Something is very wrong.

My first thought was to lead this paragraph with "I ran into a minor setback," or something in a similar vein.  That would be a misleading though, as the setback was not so minor.  As the pictures attest, the Annihilator Blades are warped worse than anything I've dealt with before.  The leader's blade was close enough to be glued on, but the others will all require work.  Trawling the forums confirmed my initial solution: dip into hot water and bend into the desired shape.  It looks like I'll have to boil the water and will also need some cold water handy to set the pieces when I'm done bending them.  This doesn't sound so bad at first, but it must be noted that there isn't much cooking that goes on here.  Using the stove, even for something as mundane as boiling water, constitutes an adventure.  Hopefully the process goes smoothly.  While building this set of Men-O-War I put the lessons I learned with the Bombardiers to use and puttied all the joints, except for the feet (but they'll get a sort of puttying when I fill in the gaps in the base).  Even so I had an arm come off on me, though I'll chalk that one up to pressing too hard on a shoulder join that wasn't even close to dry.  That said, this batch feels more stable than the Bombardiers did.  Still having issues with the loin cloths though.  In playing around with lists I used two full squads of Shock Troopers, plus Demo Corps, so chances are good that I'll have more bites at this particular apple.  Definitely disappointed with overall quality though (some of the pieces looked like they didn't fill the mould enough).  Since it will be a while before I look to more Men-O-War I can hope they clear the jams in the system between now and then.

Alternate angle.

In unexpected news, NGF asked after models yesterday.  He couched it in his usual manner ("So I guess all your marines are Blood Angels?"  "Pretty much, I have some odds and ends floating around."  "I don't suppose one of those might happen to possibly be a Devastator?  Those guys are kinda awesome."), but the gist of it was "I want a marine for my desk at work."  My gamer shame runs deep, so this motivation makes me a little skittish, but NGF is not hampered by any such notions.  I had him pegged for an Assault Marine guy, but the Devastator doesn't surprise me.  I'm calling it now: Heavy Bolter, wide stance, possibly a Dark Angel but more likely from the grey plastic chapter.  Assembly should be an easy sell as NGF likes putting things together (actually it's taking things apart and then putting them back together, but it's the same idea), but I expect painting to be akin to pulling teeth.  Still, the long con takes a step closer to completion.  I'll be making a trip to the FLGS today or tomorrow to get a box of Devs, and if that goes well then maybe I'll look into the Gears of War game.

Agendaless posting is a danerous thing

Real life Widowmakers.

Negligible hobby activity over the past few days makes me antsy to post for some reason, so here we are.  How about a nice list?

• UPS tells me the Deluge will arrive on Wednesday, which is the same day the two player starter box is set to release.  Said box is part of my order.  Half props to the Warstore for bringing the war to my door the day it's released.  The other half of the props will be issued when the package actually arrives.

• I'm torn on where to start when the flood hits.  Men-o-War have been calling to me since I first looked into Warmachine, so finally having them in my hands will be the culmination of roughly 18 months of yearning.  But recently Black Ivan has been proving his worth and I'd love to stop proxying him as soon as possible.  Assembling a jack would be a new experience, as would painting one to completion.  Choices, I am awash in them.

I'm skeptical.  Bear cav is pretty fearsome.

• If the weather ever breaks I'll be varnishing up Orsus so he can take the field while properly screened behind medium based infantry.  I've looked at the numbers on Iron Fleshed Shocktroopers.  They make me happy in the pants.

• If I were the kind of person that cosplays, I'd probably do the Butcher.  It'd pain me to shave properly instead of half-assing it with my beard trimmer, but some sacrifices must be made.

• In non-PP news, I might know someone who might work at a place where people might come in to buy things.  One of those people might work at a local store of a company that may (or may not) produce games that rhyme with Goreslammer, Goreslammer Wartyhousesand, and Fjord of the Frings.  When describing a game that could rhyme with Breadmeat, this person may have said something along the lines of "That game is going to break my balls."  With a price tag in excess of $114 I can see how that might fracture the testicles of the workers who may labor under sales quotas.  Or so I hear.

• I do rather like the sea mat that comes with the box, but I already made one for myself (plus I have one that EV made as well) and the price tag was well under $114 dollars.  The models are nice enough, but you don't get many of them for your dollars. I guess a two week blitz on your company blog pimping your brand new, limited-time-only game doesn't pay for itself.

I have no idea what's going on here.

• Gears of War 3 came out this week.  The first few forays into multiplayer were a rude reawakening.  After feeling pretty good about my skills in Space Marine, getting killed within ~15 seconds of spawning every single time was like returning to the house where you grew up with an abusive "Uncle."  The latest installment of Gears will be a good litmus test of how much NGF has been corrupted indoctrinated made curious about 40k.

• Speaking of Space Marine, the Lascannon has a double zoom.  Using that double zoom made my appreciation of the weapon go from "It's nice" to "Replace the Heavy Bolter in my default Devastator loadout."

Lack of hobbying leads to random posts

Search "things to do that aren't painting" and you get this.

Another odds and ends post as hockey progress has slowed to a crawl.  EV was stuck in schoolworkland on Thursday, which is our kinda usual unofficial gaming day.  I intended to get in some painting during the time I'd normally be slinging dice.  Instead I finished off Oryx and Crake, a book I first encountered on a list of works that influenced 40k.   How a book that's eight years old influenced a game that's better than thirty years old is beyond me.  There are some parallels in genetic manipulation and dehumanizing a population, but overall I don't really see the resemblance.  Great book though.



On the painting front, the Paint the Target deadline for this month is the 28th.  That's a week and a half to get Harkevich done.  This is plenty of time assuming I actually get to work.  My inner painting hummingbird is clawing to the surface though.  Plans for a Space Marine diorama are still fluid and still demanding attention.  I've been wanting to paint the Doom Reavers for a while, but I've been having a hard time keeping them out of lists long enough to get them painted.  Empire troops are still calling, there's poor Sir Ekkrion waiting patiently for some love now that he's primed, plus the siren song of random Marines.

To complicate matters, I'm gearing up to put in an order for the new Warmachine starter box and some Bombardiers.  This will dump a big chunk of models on the to-do list which is already far too long.  Plus hockey season is starting, which will hoover up free time.  Meanwhile I'm dithering about with random books (hello The Year of the Flood) and other things that aren't painting.  Harkevich is getting done at the very least and hopefully I can cross some other things off the list as well.

An odd bit of trivia: this blog has gotten 4 hits from a Wii.  Who knew that you could even surf the net on a Wii?

Finally a Space Marine update.  I finished the campaign this week and found it rather entertaining.  The feel of Space Marines as the Emperor's scalpel is there as your "squad" of three Marines is all over the place, wherever the fighting is thickest.  The power armor wasn't quite as protective as I thought it should be, especially when faced with a horde of Orks as is often the case, but the game has a great healing system.  It encourages you to rush into melee and dispatch foes in cinematic, and bloody, finishing moves that refill your health bar.  A few small quibbles.  The storyline is very predictable, though in keeping with the universe.  If I didn't have the extensive knowledge of the setting that I do this might not have been an issue, I'll have to ask NGF when he finishes the game.  (He's been reading Marine codices recently with minimal prodding.  I think I may bring a box of Assault Marines over this week and see how that goes.)  More troubling is this somewhat spoilery one:  the final battle is a Quicktime "mash the button that flashes on the screen" affair.  I was looking forward to fighting a Terminator, but he ascends to Daemon Prince status just before you fight.  There are no other Quicktime events in the game, so this one sticks out like a sore thumb.  Cinematic fight though.

Next time should see some painting progress.  For now, back to reading and perhaps some multiplayer goodness.

Between a rock and a hard place. And a chunk of ice.

It begins.

Quick post here, for reasons that will soon manifest.  First the hobby side.  You've no doubt already noticed the dynamic duo to the left.  I've been meaning to get to painting for a week or so.  Today I finally decided to stop meaning and get to doing, so I roughed in the colors on Harkevich and Strakhov.  As usual I'm not entirely sold on the scheme, and also as usual I'll probably run with it anyway.  Somehow I had to push to get going on Harkevich, but Strakhov promises to be smoother sailing.  This is the rock.

On the gaming side, though not the kind you're thinking of, I had a novel experience today.  NGF called me up to ask if I'd gotten Space Marine yet so we could try and arrange some play time as he'd just picked a copy up himself.  While I knew that the game released sometime soon, I didn't know it was today, hence the novel experience of being informed of a gaming development by the so-called Non-Gaming Friend.  I all but had to hang up on him to get to work on time when he called again to pick my brain about 40k fluff.  The long, slow con may finally be bearing fruit.  Now I'm hurrying to do this post so I can get to chainswording people in the face.  This is the hard place.

Unrelated to gaming, I've been reading Dan Simmons' The Terror over the past week or so.  It's really good, so good that it's been the main impediment to painting.  I still have about 25% to go, but if the rest holds up to the standard set thus far, and I have no reason to think that it won't, The Terror may give perennial favorite Guy Gavreil Kay's Under Heaven a run for Best Book I've Read This Year.  Considering how highly I regard Kay as an author this is quite a feat.  This is the chunk of ice.

There's my dilemma, three things I want to do at once.  For now it's off to the grimdark future where there's war, war, and more war.  Tomorrow though, who knows?

Closing in on the finish line

Dark pictures aside, they're pretty close.

For once my painting plans went as intended.  I had a pretty good afternoon at the table and finished the day where I wanted to: (hopefully) a single session away from finishing the Winter Guard.  I got the metals done, washed the flesh, and put in work on the browns and black.  I'm on the fence about the browns.  They look good enough to leave alone, but as always there's room for improvement.  I started by giving all the brown areas a Devlan Mud wash, then went in with Snakebite Leather on the leather areas.  Wood and leather are distinct now, which was my intention, but the wood areas are just base coated with a wash, though I'd like to add some graining.  The leather looks better, but could still use a highlight or perhaps another wash.  Then there are the interminable buttons and clasps on the bandoliers that want some attention, to say nothing of buckles.  Since this is a unit that's as much about boots on the ground as it is about quality of troops, I'm trying to not get hung up on shading and highlighting each beard hair in the name of getting the squad done.

Better lighting would show the different browns.

The black is in a similar situation.  I base coated all the areas, but haven't done any highlighting and doubt that I'll be doing any.  The problem with the black areas is that they're mostly fiddly detail: the Khadoran anvil on the shoulder, the stripe at the bottom of the coat, and the bottom edge/corner of the shoulders.  These areas have hard edges, which means edge highlighting, but are also sculpted in such a way that edge highlighting would be a pain at best.  I think the anvil would really benefit from some highlights though, so we'll see how that goes.  I used BoltGunmetal thinned with Umber Shade to base coat the metal areas, notably all the big rivets at the bottom of the coats and shoulders.  These weren't too bad to do, but the detail brush I was using is past its prime so there was a fair bit of painting outside the lines, so I'll be going back for touch-ups before everything is finished.  It's during this touch-up phase that I'll consider highlighting.  The metals got a Devlan Mud wash at the same time the browns did.  I followed the wash up with (Mithril) Silver as a highlight/accent on the silver areas and used Brassy Brass to break up the gun barrels.  The brass in particular looks good, though highlighting metal produced the same mediocre results it always has.  All that remains now are the fur collars, flesh, and hair, plus the touch-ups.  Of note are the various little armor plates on the boots and gloves that I missed in the first pass.  These will be red like the rest of the armor, and I'll get the anvils on the hats at the same time.  Then basing, varnish, done!  That looks like a lot listed out, but it should be easy enough to finish when I have the chance, which is probably Monday.

Looks a lot like the last one, but it's different.  Subtly.

An unexpected development occurred yesterday while visiting NGF (Non-Gaming Friend).  I've been somewhat patiently awaiting the release of Kill Team, which came out last week on the 360 and was supposed to release this week on the PS3.  I got a taste on Monday at EV's place and my suspicions were confirmed: this is a game that I'll enjoy.  I was fairly sure NGF would also enjoy it, so I encouraged him to have it ready to go when I arrived yesterday.  Unfortunately the PS3 release has been pushed back, so I'll be waiting as I have a PS3 but no 360.  Fortunately NGF has both and disregarded my suggestion that we wait for the PS3 release.  While we cleared a bloody swathe NGF peppered me with questions about the 40k universe and even asked, in a very roundabout manner, about the game itself.  I'm heading back there tomorrow and I'll have the big 3rd edition rulebook and Let the Galaxy Burn in tow.  Under normal circumstances I'd bring the 5th edition book and maybe the vanilla Marine codex, but considering there's a newly hatched kid in the house I'm none too eager to have my books suffer beneath curious fingers and gums.  Also the only 5th edition rule book I have is the pocket sized one from Assault on Black Reach which is great if you want the rules, but piss-poor if you want the background and a general introduction.  Let the Galaxy Burn may not be the best fluff ever written and might not be the ideal entry point, but I have it on hand and am less worried about it than I am about my vanilla Marine book, plus there are some decent enough stories in it.  I've been pursuing a low pressure sales pitch with NGF for a couple years now, butt his latest development is the best sign I've had thus far.  If he's asking after fluff then it's a short throw to getting models and brushes in hand, and then it's all over.  I've been trying to extoll the virtues of gaming when you have a family to him, especially the parts where you get the hell out of the house to game elsewhere or flood the house with other gamers while driving non-gamers out in a panic.  Perhaps the benefits of these activities are starting to dawn on him.  In any case a door is opening wider than it has before, and with any luck the gaming population will grow.

What can you do with an hour? Or a Dethcopta?

Adjusting is the name of the game.

Had another game of Warhammer Quest on Tuesday.  This time our party was successful in spite of losing the Barbarian in the second room.  Quest remains a brutal game, but perhaps not unworkable.  Throughout the game I was considering house rules on the number of extra events via power dice.  Limiting it to one at a time was my first thought, but on reflection I think that might be a bit much.  Two at a time is intriguing as it allows for problems to compound on each other, potentially 3 events at a time if you get two extra events while dealing with the standard room event, while not overwhelming the party with 4+ events in a row.  I've had some horrific power rolls in these latest games, so 4+ is neither impossible nor terribly rare.  Since more events take longer to do, which leads to more power rolls and more potential extra events, once the ball starts rolling it soon becomes unwieldy.  Next time around I may start tweaking and seeing how it works.  NGF also asked a question that had me stumped.  We did the good gamer thing for dinner: ordered pizza.  Said pizza arrived when we still had (potentially) 5 rooms to go, so we hurried along to the finish to avoid mixing pizza and cardboard tiles/cards.  NGF remarked on the length of the game, around 2.5 hours including dicking around time.  This is pretty standard for gaming and I told him as much, and in return he asked if there was anything that took around an hour.  This is where I'm stumped.  I have a few ideas, mostly combat patrol/40k in 40 minutes and battlebox Warmahordes.  Neither of those options represents the parent game well, though battlebox games aren't far off, so I'd like to find something that's a better fit.  I want something that is based around minis, something that requires collecting and painting which will eliminate most boardgames.  I'd also like something that doesn't take a full-sized (6x4) table to play and something that requires little to no terrain.  Not too much to ask for, right?

In other news I saw a post about lots of orks on 3++ this morning, one that reminded me of another post I had seen on fester 40k a while ago.  I have 6 Dethcoptas, mostly in pieces, none of which is a lock to ever see the table.  At the same time I have a single rocket buggy, and a trak at that, which is featured in every ork list I've written.  Since these examples look so nice, and I have a surplus of coptas with a deficit of buggies, I'm thinking I'll convert up at least 3 of the coptas into buggies.  I would change them all over if the base Dethcopta model wasn't so nice, plus there's always the chance that FAQs and new editions will make the coptas more attractive than buggies.  I have 3 buggies already, two wheeled shootas and one trakked rokkit, so I may do two conversions with trakks and one with wheels to make two coherent squadrons.  Of course if I did all of the coptas I have I'd be maxed out on rokkit buggies, which would be nice.  Plus I can always get more copta models via AoBR, Ebay, or something similar.  They should be pretty cheap.  I also think I'm gonna take a pass on converting the AoBR boys.  They should only be about half of the Slugga boys and they aren't all the same model, just similar poses, so hopefully they blend in well enough and everything looks nice.

Back to the...past

Remember this one?

No painting to speak of since the last time.  Instead I got in a bit of gaming.  I have a non-gaming friend who causes me to be locked in an eternal debate: whether or not to try and bring him into the hobby.  The benefits are obvious, while the drawbacks are less so, but in the end I decided to give it another shot over the weekend.  To that end, I pulled out an old gem: Warhammer Quest.  I've tried a toned-down version of Uncharted Seas with this guy before, who I'll go ahead and acronymize as NGF, with a modicum of success at the time, but no real retention afterwards.  I thought Warhammer Quest might work a little better as it's a familiar game type, being Diablo the board game in effect, plus the various little gribblies that need paint would be an easy introduction to painting should things get that far.



We played two rounds on Saturday, with a healthy yard work break in between.  Both games ended in the same way, with the heroes worn down by a string of random encounters and finished off by a minotaur(s).  While we were playing I was reminded of all the things I like and dislike about the game.  It is, for good or bad, a well-defined system.  Everything has a rule or procedure, from what monsters attack what heroes to how to divide treasure.  While I'm sure these rules were implemented to avoid arguments by the younger part of GW's target audience over who got what loot or how the minotaur splats first, they keep the game moving regardless of player age by minimizing rules interpretations.  It's a pretty simple game and the basic mechanics are quickly grasped.  Much as I love Warmachine, and even regular Warhammer, the complex interaction of rules (I'm looking at you, Watcher + Bulldoze) can make both learning and playing a time consuming thing.  Warhammer Quest just rolls right along once you know what you're doing.

That ease of play is also one of the problems though.  At its core, Warhammer Quest is a simple and repetitive game: kill monsters, explore new board sections, kill more monsters, explore more.  While there is more depth to the game via the Roleplay book, we weren't getting that deep into it and ultimately said book just has different monsters to kill and an advancement system to let you kill them better.  During our second game I got the feeling that NGF was looking for more depth, or at least more options, but there wasn't much more I could do.  The lack of options was stood out the most at two points: character death and repeated 1s in the 'roll a 1' phase.  When refreshing myself with the rules, I was at first surprised that there's no first aid option, no real way to heal your character outside of magic, let alone a Raise Dead sort of spell.  On reflection this fits in well with the grimdark feel of GW fluff, but at the same time it seems harsh in what is meant to be an introduction to the hobby in general.  The extra encounters are a different sort of problem, and one that is easier to fix.  Once in each game we had a string of 3+ rounds of extra encounters, with predictable results.  While the rooms quickly filled with cannon-fodder, which was just as quickly cleared by ax and sword, inevitably the big boys showed up and finished the party off.  While some of this is the vagaries of luck and dice, it's a problem that doesn't have to exist at all.  The fix is pretty simple: one extra encounter at a time, or two, or however many.  There are a finite number of monsters in any dungeon, even one randomly generated.  The worse part of these extended encounters is that you can see the end when the card flips.  A mountain of goblins or skaven is a roadbump, something that slows you down and maybe forces you to use an item or stored power before you want to, but ultimately nothing to really be concerned about.  When the minotaurs hit the table though, you can make a very quick assessment of what resources your part has and how many monsters there are, then come to the conclusion that you're boned and there's nothing you can do about it.  That's how these things work, you don't win all the time, but knowing that doesn't make it any less deflating.

I think Warhammer Quest succeeds in the goal that (I imagine) it sets for itself: it's a fun game that's quick to learn and serves as a gateway into the hobby for the uninitiated.  While it has a campaign system, I don't know that it's necessary.  Whenever I got to wondering how said system would work, I ended up thinking I'd be better off just playing D&D, especially with the new direction the fourth edition took.  Then there are the direct competitors like Descent.  I also found myself cursing GW for making Space Hulk such a limited run as it's the perfect counterpart to Quest.  Ultimately this game is a good way to introduce someone to the hobby, and a fun afternoon for a veteran gamer, but lacks the substance to satisfy in the long term.