Four guys who want to win at painting... AT ALL COSTS!

Wednesday 31 August 2011

The moment NO ONE has been waiting for!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Time for my orks to be unleashed as well.  Now, let's put a proper caveat out there.  I didn't use a lightbox and I'm not half the painter Green Feevah is.  Still, in person I am really, really happy with the way everything turned out.  More after the break.

This Is It! The Moment You've All Been Waiting For!

Okay fine, the moment I've been waiting for.

Project X is about to be unleashed on the world!

Here's the background:  About a week into the WAAAAGH off, and after an army change and a paint mishap, I figured out there was no way I was going to match Wallshammer model for model.  There was just no way.  What Wallshammer did is nothing short of godly.  However, I figured if I couldn't match him model for model, I would match him point for point.

Wait, did I say point for point?  I meant DOUBLE points for point!

More after the break:

Are You Ready?

The big reveal is tomorrow...

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Almost There!

I'm very excited (and a little bit sad) to say I have everything painted!  The only thing I need to do now is paint the bases, which are fully sanded and rocked and whatnot.  So that should be done today.

I was a little sad to be finished honestly.  I really enjoyed this project.  Though I've put a lot more on my plate, so I now have many projects to look forward to.

Speaking of which: I finished my craters last night, though I'm thinking about doing another round of browns in the centres of the craters, since they show up so dark in pictures.  Also, I'm trimming the plastic edging off them. Walls said I should keep them on for structure, but I was browsing painting threads on Warseer and a couple of other places, and several people had trimmed them, and they look much better in my opinion, so I'm trimming them.  I also put some base colours down on the Blastscape craters but those are barely started.  It was more that I had still had paint on my tray than anything else.

And lastly, another big congratulations to Walls hammer for getting all those Orks done.  WAAAAAAAAGH!

Monday 29 August 2011

COMPLETION!

Yeah, you heard me.  I did my 1200pts of Orks in just a tad over 3 weeks.  Warboss, 8 nobz, 2 units of 30 boys, 6 koptas, battlewagon.  Highlights, details, bases.

Pics to come after Wednesday plus more from the tournament upcoming this weekend.

That all said, I must say this is one of the more fulfilling Warhammer adventures I've done.   I've painted lots of models in a set time before.  Guard for a big apocalypse game, the beastmen I did previous to these orks (for the same event actually) but not really this quantity to this quality.   As odd as it may sound, and I am NOT looking for accolades or anything, is that I am actually proud of this.  Weird to say for a hobby, but I am indeed.

I know I can do this now, so perhaps I will need to further the challenge again in the future.  Maybe during April when my accountant wife isn't home for a month except to sleep.

Putting My "Money" Where My Mouth Is

Quick update on project X. I decided not to get a replacement model for my poor, doomed, stripped to death model.  Instead, after conferring with Wallshammer, I'm going to get a replacement model for it via my usual methods, and have it painted up for October 1st.  So that means I have only 3 models left to paint.  And they are now primed.  And the rest of the models have the basing material on them.  Now to paint the bases, then add some finishing touches and viola!

But more to the point, I've joined more painting competitions (or challenges or whatever you want to call them).  Over on Warseer, they have the Tale of... series (Tale of Fantasy Painters, Tale of 40k Painters, Tale of Skirmish Painters and Tale of Terrain Painters).  Well I joined 'em all!  If I'm going to say I'm all about the hobby, I should put my money where my mouth is.  So to speak.

More after the break:

Sunday 28 August 2011

Tragedy Strikes... Again...

So I got all the model I could paint finished last night.  I had two models 'in tha drink' waiting to be stripped, and 2 more models just awaiting primer.

I stripped the first model, no problem.  Things are looking good.  Then I go to strip the second model.  The one that I had tried stripping before and was being very difficult.  I thought it just needed to sit longer.  I was wrong.

Almost an hour later, and a whole lot of elbow grease what do I have to show for my efforts?  A ruined model.  Patches of thick primer still clinging to the model, pieces broken from scrubbing so hard.  She's dead Jim.

So, here I am in a real bind.  Just days to go before the deadline and I just lost a chunk of my army.  Now I'll have to scrounge up some cash, bite the bullet on my 'no buying retail' boycott of GW.

Of course this is also making me re-think what I am doing.  Should I get the same model as before?  Or go with something a little different?

Saturday Night Live Weekend Update (Get it?)

Just another quick update, but it's doozy!  I have one more model to paint this weekend.  With a little luck I might even finish it tonight, but I kind of doubt it, as I was thinking of watching a movie instead.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not finished everything.  I still have to finish stripping two models, and then to prime two more models on top of that (so four).  But, I only have to paint four models by Wednesday!  This should mean I will finish on time, and have everything based and ready to go.

So my plan is to finish my last model tonight or tomorrow, strip those minis tomorrow, then prime on Monday, and paint Monday/Tuesday (Wednesday if needed).  I do all the basing on Wednesday and present Thursday!

A good night indeed.

Saturday 27 August 2011

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 21 THREE WEEKS IN!

Wow, I kept this going for three weeks?  That might be a record for me.

Not a TON to report as I didn't get all the normal time I've been putting in available tonight.  Still, I got some important parts done.

I finished the koptas.  I also did the first layering of the patterns on the first mob.  I am going to differentiate the mobz with dags and checkers.  So, I laid down all the checkers in Iyanden Darksun on the first mob.  Tomorrow night or Sunday (gotta work early so may not be able to paint Saturday) I will finish them and maybe even get started on my next unit.  Depends if I go see Conan or not.

But yeah, it's abundantly clear that I am awesome.

Friday 26 August 2011

Awwww Yeah!


Just another quick update, as I'm still in the middle of things.  Bases for the Orks?  Done.  Kromac?  Almost finished, probably within the hour.  Project X?  A little farther along than I thought I'd be, but still a LOT of work to do.

I still have to clean/repair two minis, and I need to get primer on Monday to finish off 3 more models.  I'm really hoping to have everything I'm working on right now done by Monday morning, and if possible one of the minis I'm stripping at least part done.  Then I can spend the rest of the week finishing off those last three models and and adding the finishing touches I want to put on some models.  Ideally I can get this all done by Tuesday night and spend Wednesday basing everything.  If I run into some hiccups (which if you look back at my posts, is almost a given) I might take the long weekend to finish things up and present on the Monday.  We'll see.

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 20 It's all in the details

I must admit I am pretty excited for the possibilities of the final product.  Everything is painted.  Everything has sand.  Now it's details and painting rims. 

As for the aforementioned details, I have the Nobz and Battlewagon completed.   Koptas tonight I am hoping!   The Boyz mobz won't actually take long as they don't have a lot of armor on them.

Should be done in plenty of time to show 'em off Wednesday at the club.

Thursday 25 August 2011

Progress Report

I still haven't finished those last three model of my second grouping in stage one.  However, I did get almost all the models cleaned and primed for stage two.  And I got some base colours down on one model, as a test model for my colours.  I think it looks pretty good.

I then went and checked my list on army builder, and realized I was short points, and therefore models.  But I managed to put together one final unit that makes everything work.  But I'm out of primer, my wife is gone for the weekend with the car, and the closest place that sells good primer is on the opposite end of the city.  So that's going to set me back a bit.

Oh, and I might have ruined one of my models.  I had acquired this model sight-unseen, and figured I could just strip it and re-paint it.  However, it's not stripping very well.  I'm going to let it soak for another couple of days and try again.  If that doesn't work, I might have to break my GW boycott to grab a replacement model before the time is up.

One week to go, things are not looking good...

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 19: It's legal!

Well... I got all my stuff painted to a very good table stop, 3 color standard.  I have my vehicle painted.  I could actually play in a tournament right now.

HOWEVER... this does NOT mean I am done.  It's detail time!   I started on the battlewagon tonight with some checkers, some flames, a lightning bolt, etc.  Iyanden Darksun-yellow-highlight a bit with whites added.  Simple formula really.  Then when that's done I will go add battle damage here and there and blammo.  I expect tomorrow night it's done.  Then move onto the rest of the army, getting yellow on everyone to tie them in better.

I must say... this is pretty snazzy on the table top!  

How do I know this?  Why I played another practice game tonight, this time against foot heavy Tau and some kabalite styled Dark Eldar.  It did teach me some more things:

1) Orks aren't really an alpha strike army.  I must be patient, take the licks in the first couple turns and then just SMASHFACE~! once I am close enough to fight.  It looked DIRE in the first couple turns but once we came to grips with them, it was all over.  The kommandoes really help with this, coming in backfield and multi assaulting thanks to Snikrot.
2) Remember the Koptas!  They have twin linked rokkits.  They have hit and run.  They're nasty lil buggers against the right targets.  I do hate that they take dangerous terrain checks in assaults, but still...
3) Patience!
4) Keep the wagon protected to start the game, especially since you can NEVER bank on first turn.  The looted wagons should help with this.
5) We can bust vehicles like mad.  If they aren't land raiders, we're smashing them in close combat all the time.   Surround them and auto kill the passengers.
6) And finally:  Holy crap are orks fun.

So: 1 week exactly left to paint as I pack them up Thursday night next week before bed!

Also:  Must remember I am also doing Beastmen and to pack them!

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Update! Sort of...

Well, so far I have stuck to my plan... except for yesterday.  Which means I am behind on my second 'grouping', but not far.  I have half of that grouping actually finished, and the remaining models are at least all halfway done, so I'm not too far behind now.  I have already completed today's goal (well mostly...) so I'm hoping to make up the difference of yesterday today, and, with a little luck, get a jump start on tomorrow.

That said, I haven't done ANYTHING on the Ork bases I was going to do, but that's not really a priority task at the moment.  As long as they are finished by the time Wallshammer's league starts in October, I'll be laughing. (that's when I'm going to paint my last 1500 points of Orks... I think.  The way this project is going, I might stick with it instead.)

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 17 AND 18!



How do I keep missing days?!  Anyhow...

Monday 22 August 2011

'Twas a Long and Stormy Night...

The city I live in reminded me exactly where I lived last night by opening up the heavens and pouring it all down on me at once.  This did have the side benefit of cooling down the house though.  That, combined with my general lack of the ability to sleep, means I got A LOT done yesterday!

I'll start off with the simple stuff.  I got the basing started on my 40k Ork army.  This is going to be a long project, but hopefully the results will make it worth it.  I'm trying a new basing style I've never tried before, using a Gale Force 9 basing kit.  It's a very long, process of painting on glue, putting on 'the kit' then painting over top of the stuff I put down once it dries and repeating the process with another part of 'the kit'.  This is messy process, and very slow.  I discovered that the hard way last night, as I tried to put the second layer on before the first had full dried and made this sort of 'slurry' of basing paste.

More after the break:

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 16



Holy crap... I can't believe it's been sixteen days!   Today was definitely a good day.  I was home alone, not working and ready to get stuff done... and boy oh boy did I get stuff done!

Sunday 21 August 2011

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 15

More red.  Yup.  Exciting!  Just got blood red over all the mechrite red and a bit of black wash to fix up some spots on the koptas between reds and metals and reds over reds.

Sounds like nothing, but the red is ending up being a bigger task then the green!

I also played a game... and got promptly smashed by chaos marines at 1500.   I played with what I own: Warboss, unit of nobz in a wagon, unit of burnas in a trukk, 20 boyz in a wagon (both wagons had deffrollas), 2 units of 3 koptas and 30 boyz on foot.  I did it not to go out and beat the piss out of people but rather learn my numbers, learn what my units can do, etc.  As usual, the warboss carried the game for me, pretty much single handed killing a unit of possessed and a unit of berserkers.

I did learn lots of things:

1.  Start your koptas on the field.  The scout move is huge, they ARE toughness 5 and they're basically my only ranged anti tank at the moment.  I kept one unit in reserve and then never came on.
2.  I tend to get distracted by the "fun" of the orks and don't play in the tourney mindset.  I completely forgot he had 2 units of berserkers, ignored a rhino and charged into combat with terminators.  Then got counter charged by berserkers.  Then got wiped out.
3. You don't NEED to leave your vehicles.  I am SO not used to running open topped vehicles.  Need to remember I can stay in while deffrollin', shooting from the back.  They'll blow up the vehicle in THEIR shooting phases so after I get out I can then charge or hide in my turn.
4.  And most important and positive:  even in losing orks are fun as all hells!

Saturday 20 August 2011

I Couldn't Wait!

I'm really excited about my lightbox.  As soon as the wife gets back with the car, I'm heading straight down to Walmart for a tripod and some real lights to make it even better!

But in the meantime, some more shots of my stuff.  Most of this, Wallshammer hasn't even seen before!  I almost didn't post some of these, because the bases aren't finished.  I'm hoping to fix that soon.

I'll start with my Orc Shaman:


More after the break:

And you Thought I'd Never Build It!

BOOSH!  We have light box!

And you know what the sad thing is: It was way easier to make than I thought it'd be.  I'm a little sad now that I didn't make one earlier.  Though not that sad, because as I discovered, my minis in the light box expose all their flaws... *sigh*

Anyways, let me present to you my first minis recorded via light box methodology.  These are all the D&D minis I've worked on for the last several months (almost a year now!) for the campaign I'm running.  I'll thorw a little blurb at the bottom of each one to give you some background.

This is my most recently finished mini, for one of my players who's regular character accidentally ran head first into the elemental chaos and was incinerated.  He has just added a Goliath Runepriest to the game, and this is the mini he chose to use.

More after the break:

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 14

So... red is on!  I put down the first red coat on all the models, a mechrite red.  Pretty simple!  Hell, I bet Green Feevah and his amputated finger got more done then I did.   Still visually it's a pretty big step even if it was fairly simple.

Tonight I am gonna put them on the table and play some more.  Gotta assemble the deffrolla and the kombi scorcha and banna nobz still as well.

I Got Stuff Done!

Here's my big update:

My Secret Project is coming along VERY slowly.  Not very happy about that.

My 'One Thing a Week' challenge for this week is complete: My Druid Stoneward and Woldstalkers unit.



More after the break:

Friday 19 August 2011

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 13 The Eyes Have It!


This will be a short one.  Eyes painted red.  Teeth and claws painted a suitably dirty bleached bone.  BLAM

As for the next step:  armor!  Armor plates, shoulderpads, bitz and bobz on koptas, plates on weapons.  What color?  What?  The picture above didn't give it away.  Why... red of course!  I got the first coat of mechrite red on the 5 built nobz I have currently and on 2 koptas.  I think the blood red I want to use will place well over this.

Because red ones go faster!

Thursday 18 August 2011

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 12 Skintastic!

SKIN IS DONE!  OMGOMGOMGOMG!

So here is what I got done today.  Skin!  It was a hgue part of the army, really glad it's out of the way.  Radioactive orks FTW!   Really "simple" recipe: goblin green, wash thraka green, highlight goblin green, highlight scorpion green, highlight 1/2 scorpion 1/2 sunburst yellow.

Once I got that done I did the eyes on the nob and a layer of bleached bone on their teeth and on the deffkoptas.

Also?  Played a practice game today, our lists vs a very tailored Black Templar and Chaos Marine list.  How tailored?  2 Vindicators, gig unit of combat termies in a hurricane bolter land raider, chosen outflanking with 5 flamers, defiler, buncha meltas.  We still did really well.  Blew up a vindicator turn one, stunned the other.  My Nobz decimated the termies.  My warboss then went on a rampage after they died to tons of fire, killing all the chosen, the defiler and mopped up plague marines.   He is just so awesome.

Deff-rolla'd the land raider and the other vindicator to smithereens as well.

Go team Orks!  We're looking at getting another practice game in next week as well.  Might even have a majority of the army painted!

GO TEAM!

If I Didn't Have Bad Luck...

So there I am, working diligently to get caught up to ol' Wallshammer, when once again tragedy strikes.  Only this time, I gashed my finger removing some flashing off a metal model.  Any ways, no big deal, it's not like I'm going to need stitches or anything, but it was on my painting hand, and now I'm painting at about 1/3rd of my already slow speed.

Yeah yeah yeah, first world problem and all that.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

More random, Not-so-daily Postings

So I haven't posted in 2 days... bad blogger!

But I have gotten quite a lot done.  HOWEVER, I'm keeping my latest project a secret from Walls. So I can't tell you much.  But I can tell you most of the base colors are laid down on about half the models, and the other half are sitting in the drink (Simple Green, gotta love it)

I can also tell you that I've been doing an insane amount of work on my D&D minis for my Sunday game.  It's mostly the characters of the game, and few alternates that the group has asked me to paint.  They, as of this writing, are almost all finished, and just needing basing.

And I'm slowly plugging away at my Woldstalkers unit, which at the moment is about half done.  They have a lot more work to go, but I wanted to get a big burst done on my 'special project' so I've back-burnered them for the next few days.  I have until Saturday night, I'm sure I'll have them done by then.

And last but not least, my Gyrocopter.  I've always really loved that model, and it is sort of the centrepiece of my Dwarf army (other than my Warmachines, which I may or may not have posted here before).  Sadly, I didn't get any work done on it tonight, as I was grinding out base colors on the secret project of doom, but I'm hoping to get back to it in a day or two.

Oh, and no progress on my light box yet, but I've been paining like crazy to try to get a head start on my new project.  I only have half a month, you know.  Oh, and I'm still stuck with my camera phone which takes horrible close-up shots.  I'm at the point now where I'd rather not photograph anything than use the crappy no focus of my phone.  Don't get me wrong, great phone, great camera, just not for this.

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 11 THE ORKENING!



Alright, serious progress!  Sure, it's taking up every single moment of my waking life, but it's progress.

Before I talk about what I've painted, here's what I watched or listened to while painting.

Finished the newest Garagehammer Podcast.  Everyone who likes fantasy should listen to this.
Watched the first four episodes of the new Thundercats cartoon.  It's a megaton heavy on the messages and moral stories, but pretty cool nonetheless.  I doubt they made it for 35 year olds afterall.
Watched the first two episodes of the new Alphas show.  Pretty cool thus far.  Nothing earth shaking, but enjoyable.
And, of course, wasted a bunch of time on youtube.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 10


So... apparently I forgot to post yesterday.  Well in that case, you get two posts from myself today, regaling all with the story of my WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Monday 15 August 2011

My daily progress reports Aren't so Daily...

After the great paint disaster, I've been finding it difficult to get right back into the action.  Mostly I've been puttering for the last few days.

I did manage to finish my Pureblood Warpwolf for the Privateer Press 'One Thing a Week' challenge, I did some work on my Dwarf Gyrocopter, and started on this week's challenge of my Woldstalker unit.

Also, I'm having some camera issues, so I'm actually going to try to build that light box this week.

Honest, I swear...

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 9

You know, I thought this was going to be a repeat of yesterday, but I apparently was wrong.  What did I do today?  Arduous tasks I tells ya!  I started on all the straps, belts, etc.  I did the first coat, a scorched brown, on all of them.  It's seriously the longest step thus far as it's more precision work.  I also started the second step: a bestial brown highlight.  While I've been doing that I've been adding extra washes to dirty up the dakkas and choppas a bit.  I am pretty sure I can be done all of this tomorrow night.  Tuesday I would like to start putting the green on.

That is all for now!  Ciao!  Err... I mean... WAAAAAAAGH!

Saturday 13 August 2011

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 8


Sorry folks, no real updates today!  I am off to see a My Darkest Days concert after work with some friends.  I did move my now dry orks (after the wash) back into position for the next step: straps and belts!

Hopefully tomorrow can be a better post.  Might even do my Part 2 to follow up Green Feevahs earlier post about how not to be a total powergamey douche.

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 7

MOAR WORK DONE!

One week in already?!  Wow.


Friday 12 August 2011

Day 5: Tragedy Strikes!

So I spent most of yesterday working on my Lion Chariot, and have it pretty much finished except for the banner which I'm free-handing.

I didn't feel much like free handing tonight, so I figured I'd get a good jump start on my Silver Helms.  And I got quite a lot of work done... until disaster struck.

I had an open paint pot... on a raised ledge... the phone rang... I'm sure you can fill in the blanks.

So my progress has been set back quite a bit.  I'll keep plugging on though.  But after that I needed to take a break and went and painted most of my Warpwolf for the Privateer Press 'One Thing a Week' challenge.

What a great way to end a crappy day...

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 6


WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

So, we keep on keeping on!  Still a bit ticked I was actually told, in person, there was no way I could finish.  Alas... I got a lot done tonight.

Thursday 11 August 2011

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 5


So I now have even MORE motivation.  Apparently no one thinks I can get this done.  Yeah, its probably insane I even decided to do this, let alone start it, but still.  Really?  You're going to outright tell me, to my face, I won't get done.

WRONG!!!

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Progress! The Curse is Broken!

So I managed to get most of the blues laid down on the Swordmasters.  I should have the rest done by the end of the night.

Quick pic:


I'll post more tomorrow as I get more done.

Holy Crap! I Got Something Done!

This is also a quick post to say I finished the metals on 17 Swordmasters tonight.

Pretty simple really, Boltgun Metal base, P3 Armor Wash, Heavy Boltgun Drybrush, light Mithril Silver drybrush.  It's not my most inspired scheme, but that's what I started with when I started my Elves, so I'm sticking to it.

I'm hoping to spray prime my last 3 swordmasters tomorrow, get their metals caught up and then do a base of Regal Blue on all the blue cloth tomorrow.


Oh, and no photos because my phone died.  Something is wrong with both mine and my wife's phone, the batteries are draining super fast.  I blame Steve Jobs.

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 4

Well... sorta got stuff done.

This is a short one, but hey, that's ok.

I am doing a specific, easy way to do dirty, rusty metals and a slight variation on what Green Feevah! does.

Scorched Brown --> drybrush Boltgun --> Drybrush Mithril --> Wash with Sepia

So, I got the browns done on all the metals on stuff built!  40 Boyz, 4 nobz, 6 koptas.

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Ep-Orc FAIL

So here I am, on Day 4 of the great WAAAAAAGH-off, and I am failing miserably.  I have three problems:

1. I'm in a lot of pain.  That's pretty straight forward.  I can't get comfortable, and I can't paint for long periods of time.  It's killing my progress.

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 3


Well, unfortunately, sorta, not as much completed as the first couple days.  But, let me tell you what I DID do this fine day.


Sunday 7 August 2011

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 2



More done today!

Here's what I got done!

40 orks and 4 nobz in total cleaned: scraped mould lines, flashing and sprue bitz and bored out gun barrels.
6 koptas cleaned and such as well.

More after the break!

Saturday 6 August 2011

The Orc-tastic Orcpocalypse! 1200 points of Orcs also in one month.

Clearly I'm insane.  Thankfully I'm not alone.  So my day one ended up being cleaning off mould lines on 25 Orcs and starting on the metals.

This is a work in progress shot.  I'm hoping to get more done by the end of the night.  Also ,you might notice some color already on the models, but this is from a decade ago (wow... it's really been that long...) and every square inch of the model is being repainted.

Ork-astrating Ork-ageddon 1250pts in a month: Day 1

The Great Ork Buildaton begins!  Day 1 is here!  We will both try and post what we did each day for our respective greenskin forces o'doom.   Today was the day I actually decided to do this.  Spoke to some local gamers with stuff for sale.  Went to the store....



WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH~!



Oh dear god, what have I gotten myself into...


Yes folk(s), I may have done the stupidest thing I've ever done in my history of hobbying.  A set up to epic failure, divorce, lack of friends and destruction of my monthly income.

Friday 5 August 2011

Playing a 'Competitive' Army Non-Competitively Part One - Feevah's Opinion

***PLEASE NOTE: Yet another of my 'lost' articles'***

Part Two will be Walls hammer's opinion.  But this is something we've been been talking about for a while now, so we're going to lay down what we've been talking about.

First off, let me clarify what this about: We've been talking mostly in the context of 40k, but this can be applied equally to Fantasy or Warmachine/Hordes.  Or any other game for that matter.  But for the sake of clarity, I'll be sticking mostly to the 40k examples Wallshammer and I have previously discussed.


Thursday 4 August 2011

Warmacheen!

***PLEASE NOTE: This article was supposed to be published days ago, but the internet ate my homework.  I just recovered it, and some other posts I was going to make now.  I'll be releasing those over the coming days. ***

Well I still haven't gotten my light box assembled.  It's been side-tracked by my new gaming table (which is coming along nicely).  But I do have some more older pictures I can post.  This time it's Warmachine.


Warmachine is huge in my area right now.  Bigger than 40k and Fantasy combined.  The funny thing is, I've been painting and collecting Warmachine quite some time now, and have yet to play it anywhere other than mine or Wallshammer's houses.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't love the game itself, I do.  I really fond of the idea of set units, and smaller one at that.  I how the models are already WYSIWYG, no bits scavenging, no proxying, and certainly no using poorly-thought-out item upgrades and equipment that are a 'must-have'... at least until the next book comes along and that configuration is now the worst way to field them just so you have to buy more.  I love the tight rule-set where not a single unit in the game is absolutely worthless.  Of course there are some winners and losers on the power scale, but short of playing chess that's going to happen.

I feel the game is more tactical in the sense that you can't build an army that has won the game before the game has started, which I have to often be the case in 40k and Fantasy.  Don't take this as me slagging on those games, I still play them both and enjoy them, but I've never liked the aspect of army building being half of the game.  I also don't like how as a codex gets older, it become 'clear' that there is only one way to play that army.  That of course is a direct result of codex creep.  Privateer Press largely solved that problem by publishing all their rules at the same time, and publicly play-testing those rules beforehand (something I've said Games Workshop should have started doing YEARS ago).

Anyhow, you didn't come here to read me droning on endlessly about the difference between 40k and Warmachine.  You came here for pictures, and so you shall have them... after the break.  MWA HA HA HA!!

Just kidding, there's a sample above, the rest after the break:

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Speaking of the One Thing a Week Challenge

Here's a quick post with the pictures of everything I have done for the One Thing A Week Painting Challenge, both the original thread on the Privateer Press forums, and on Wallshammer's local forums (I'm not a local as I live 1200 km from the club).

The contest has been great for keeping me painting.  Now if only I could up the quality of my photographs.



More after the break:

Our "One Thing a Week" Challenge. The fun... and the pitfalls.



BLATANTLY stolen from the Privateer Press forums, myself and Green Feevah! have been participating in a "local" One Thing a Week Challenge with some local gamers on their local forum.

Motivation = painted minis!

Tuesday 2 August 2011

A Little Something Off My Chest...

***PLEASE NOTE:  This was another article 'Lost in the Warp' that I just recovered***

Not that I want to get off on a rant here, but I have issues with Games Workshop.  I'm sure most of you reading this know exactly what I'm talking about.  If you don't, here's the recap:  In recent months Games Workshop have put into place several policies which I feel are counter-productive to the hobby, and more or less a slap in the face to their loyal customers.  They have been routinely rising prices, with little-to-no justification, they've put a media blackout in effect to control how information about their product is released (namely, only by them), White Dwarf subscribers now get their magazine 10 days after it hits the stores (and they even had the gall to tell their subscribers that they get the 'opportunity' to come to a Games Workshop store to 'preview' the magazine), the switch from white metal to 'Finecast' (a cheaper material offering a lower quality product... at a higher price!), trade embargoes all over the place (EU can't ship outside EU, America can't ship to Canada... NO ONE can ship to Australia), and disallowing independent retailers any 'sneak peeks' unless they purchase a special sneak peek box 'which they will not divulge the contents of until you open it up).  All of this adds up to some serious bad karma within the gaming community.

(Totally off-topic, but I'm going to throw in some pictures of my old Tyranids, just for fun.  More after the break):

Monday 1 August 2011

Pimping the Community!

Some local gamers in Lethbridge are rocking a giant old Apocalypse game.  Yes, there are unpainted models.  But what really caught me was the narrative described in the photo album.  Just tremendous stuff!  No competition, no worrying about what you're rolling.  Just throwing models on the table and making a good story out of it.  Hobby at all costs in all it's glory!

APOCALYPSE! <-- Click the link!

ARGH! Stoopid interets!

Well I DID have a long, elegant essay on Games Workshop's recent business practices and what they could do to fix the rift they've caused between them and their customers, but my browser crashed and I lost it all...

So now all you get is pictures of my cats:


Beastmen! Tournaments! Hooooooo!



Ah, the tournament scene.  You come here expecting all hobby and right off the bat, here I am talking about the game.

Sorry.