A New Year

Happy New Year all!

Gosh, it's been a while since I posted on this blog, but I sure as hell haven't been inactive in my gaming duties!

Mordheim settled down in December as we headed towards Christmas, so that gave me more time to do my painting. Also, I've recently been bringing some painting gear around with me to work, and then heading to my local GW in my lunchbreak to get a good hour of painting done. This really helps, because it's a good hour of focused painting. At home, I generally model or paint when I feel like it, but at GW, sitting down at their bench... well... kinda feels silly to go in there and do nothing right?

It's really been good going in there basically ever day. I don't have much to do in my lunch breaks at the moment. Temperature is generally above 30 degree's Celsius. No Go club on at the moment. No gaming either (Mordheim's done, Bloodbowl doesn't start up for a little while). So I go in there, and well... paint. I've gotten a ton done. I pretty much painted both my Duellists and Crossbowmen at Games Workshop, and have been working more on Asarnil and Deathfang lately. My Light Cavalry I basically ripped through one weekend, and yeah, that was my painting for the month. Total of 23 models, 25 if you include the cavalry as 2 each. Not too shabby.






With the New Year, I feel perhaps I should make some form of gaming Resolution on my blog.
So let's see how I go, I suppose I'll list some reasonable, and other's maybe not so reasonable.

For starters, I'd like to cut back on my buying a bit. I'll say the age old Warhammer players resolution, I'd like to paint more models than I buy. This is a hard one to keep! As it takes like a few minutes to buy something, but to paint a single model it takes a lot longer and a lot more work! Especially with Blood Angels coming out around April...

Secondly, I want to get my Dogs of War up to 3000 points, all painted. I actually have a 3000 point tournament in March, but I won't have them all painted by then. I should hopefully have 2000 points painted by then though, and I need 2500 by June. So I think this is reasonable. As long as my order from the UK arrives, I did a joint order with a friend and I think it's gotten more than a little lost (Considering it was oredered in November. Not even ships take that long).

Thirdly, paint up my Shadowforge Elf Bloodbowl team. I want to take my time, and do a good job on them. For once, I want to have a team in the Southern Shrike Bowl painting comp.

Fourthly... well I don't want to just focus on my Dogs of War. I think let's say, I want to at least get 1000 points of Blood Angels done this year. As well as some of my Warmaster I've bought a lot of now, and going back and finishing off some Lizardmen stuff I started.

So overall you can see, paint more! Buy less! Let's see how well I do.

Dogs of War March Forwards

So, November has seen a surge of activity from me for my Dogs of War. Asarnil still continues to sit on the back burner, but I did get my 200 points done for the month, so a good bounce back compared to October.

First up, is the now completely finished Beast Wizard. All that's been added really since last time is the grass on his base. Still, I'm very happy with how he has turned out in the end.



Next up are everyone's lovable Halflings, Lumpin Croop's Fighting Cocks. These guys were both fun and frustrating to paint. Very hard to paint the lower half of the body, since they're so tiny. However, they're great charactful models, so really enjoyed painting them. Not happy with how Lumpin's Shield is though, I think I just rushed it. Really need to go back and revisit it someday, as I had no real direction when painting it.



Lastly is the stuff I've been working on recently. I have also assembled some more Duellists! But they'll show up fairly soon when I paint them. But yeah, working on the Bearmen of Urslo! I already have the Beorg miniature, so it's just a matter of converting up all the Bearmen. I'm trying to keep the appearance of the models in line with the old models when I convert figures, so everyone's gonna have their fur pelt draped on their back. Also sculpting the Bear Standard as well, which has turned out reasonably so far. Anyway, it's fairly easy to do the conversion work on these, and I think they look great so far!



And that's all for now. Got a lot of work ahead of me, I still need to do my 200 points a month and then some to make sure I'm ready for GobboCon in March. But I should pull through! I'm sure as GobboCon approaches it'll kick start me to get Asarnil done (Since he's about 1/4 of the army! So I need him done by then!).

Dogs of War update

So it's been a while since I talked properly about my Dogs of War army. Plans slowly change when you're painting. At the start of the Tale, I decided I'd be painting stuff willy nilly, whatever I felt like. If need be, I could paint lots of Regiments to fulfil the points per month.

Of course, October was a bit of a set back. Asarnil or more appropriately, Deathfang is more effort than expected. Didn't help that I had the Australian Go Nationals, Mordheim terrain building and the Bloodbowl Grand Finals to compete with my weekend free time.

Also, some guys decided to attempt their own 'Tale of' kind've thing at the local game store, with the idea to take the army to tourneys around Australia. Now that changes things, because now I need to make a somewhat proper army.

So now I've got a few goals to head towards.
Goal 1 : Get to 1000 points. Hopefully shouldn't be too hard, especially when Asarnil becomes 'done' (Since he's almost half of that).
Goal 2 : Get to 1750 points by March. There's a local tournament at that points level, would be good to attend it.
Goal 3 : Get to a fully fledged 2500 point army by June. Again, another tournament at that time at 2500 points.
Goal 4 : Just paint up the rest of my stuff, regardless of performance value. A lot of my models I have gotten because it's like "Hey cool, Cursed Company" or "Pikes are what Tilea is all about right?". So you know, I don't want to lose focus after I get my 'competition' army done, but want to go ahead and paint all the rest of my models.

Anyway, here are the latest photo's to do with my army.

Here's my Beast Lore Hireling Wizard. He's an old Amber Wizard model, so I thought a bearskin toting Wizard fits regardless of whether he's Empire or not.


Here's just an updated photo of my Marksmen in full. Maximillian Damark sighted fully done for first time. I can't remember if I posted the full unit on here, since the previous image was pretty dark and couldn't see much.


And that's all for now. I certainly have more stuff in the works, and hopefully I get some more stuff done soon so I can post about it.

Been even longer

Well... the last time was a mere 9 days, now it's been an entire month.
Been fairly busy with various bits and pieces really, but here's the low down of what's been happening.

Dogs of War - Progressing well enough. Asarnil and his buddy Deathfang are taking a bit longer than I suspected. A lot of work to get a Dragon looking good. However, Asarnil himself is nearly done and is looking ace I think. I may end up throwing a few Duellists in this month so I can spend a bit more time on Deathfang.

Blood Angels - I made a decision. I was spending too much time per Blood Angel to get them done at a decent page. Was that a bad thing? No. I was painting good quality stuff, multiple layers and all that. It just meant, I made the decision to drop them from the Tale of 40k painters. I'll just continue on at my own page.

Mordheim/Posssessed - I can't remember if I mentioned this much, but there's a Mordheim league taking place in the Bloodbowl off-season time. I've chosen Possessed, because I wanted an interesting conversion opportunity. I've been enjoying things so far, I got some magnets for arm swaps and all that. The only slightly frustrating thing is the Chaos Spawn is HUGE, and way too large to be a Possessed. I'm gonna stick with one for now, but at some time later I really have to convert and sculpt my own (Time I don't really have for this season). Also, last Sunday we had our first Mordheim get together to build terrain. Was a good day overall, even if only about 8 people turned up. Gonna have to churn out a few more buildings to get our first table done.

Bloodbowl - Been a while I think. I had my first loss against the top of the table Dark Elves. I drew facing one of the top contender Wood Elf team (a somewhat miraculous 3-3 for the slow moving Khemri). I then beat the 4th placed Chaos team. The Wood Elves failed to win, so got knocked out of the finals. So unfortunately that leaves me in 3rd place (I have the same record and touchdown diff as the 2nd placed team, but he has more touchdowns so I assume that's what counts). This means, I have to fight my way to the finals everyway. Our finals are done the same way AFL does theirs (top teams play each other, the winner has a bye. Bottom teams are strictly elimination all the way through). So it's gonna be tough, got a Chaos team with lots of block and a nasty looking Minotaur to deal with.

Warmaster - I actually picked up an Undead warmaster army in blisters/boxes fairly cheap. So could be that you'll see a warmaster army from me sometime next year or in the free time. Should be a change of pace to paint smaller stuff that I'm not doing to any particular deadline.

Go - Go I haven't talked much about in my blog, but I figure now is a good time to speak up a bit about it. Go is an ancient Asian board game. Go look it up on wikipedia for more information. To be frank, it kicks the crap out of Chess in complexity overall. I'm a decent player I'll say, definately wouldn't rate myself as good, although of course, others below me might. But I like decent, there's plenty of room for improvement left in me, and people (like the Pro's) way above me.
Anyway, recently at the start of October, I attended the Australian Go Nationals. Was a great event. I arrived on the Thursday night, and pretty much just watched a bit of tv and went to bed (Wasn't exactly prepared to be wandering around an unknown city at night right after I arrived). Friday kicked off with a teaching day, where I met some of the people running the event, others as well. Around midday, the professional player An Young Gil arrived, and gave us a lecture on 'Connections on the 2nd line'. Was very informative. He later played a simultaneous game against about 8 people. On the Saturday and Sunday were game days. There were some slight hitches at the start, but once things got going it worked out relatively well.
There were 3 divisions at the Nationals. The first was the Open Division, for people ranked 3dan and above. This is a non-handicapped division, and is played for representative points (A system Australia uses to determine who goes oversea's to represent Australia in some of the international events). The 2nd division was 2dan to 3kyu, this is the division I played in at the 3kyu rank. The final division was the 3rd division, for 4kyu to 15kyu ranked players.
I played 5 games (With 1 bye due to the odd number of people in my division). I managed to win 2 games, and lost 3. All were very good games, the games I lost being very close indeed. While the games I won, had fairly tense fights going on, whoever died would surely resign (And luckily I lived).
At the end of the day, everyone who attended got a japanese style fan. A bit dodgy in quality (or I don't know how to close fans properly. Kept on tangling itself up) but still a nice touch to award all who attended. I got mine signed by An Young Gil.
Overall, had an enjoyable time in Melbourne. Kind've nice to see a bit more of it, as every time I've been there has been for work and just driving off to wherever we've had a meeting.

Hmm... I think that's all that's happened really. It has been a long month.

Been a Little While

So yeah, been a little while since I've posted. I've been pretty busy with lots of stuff to be honest.

For starters, I didn't quite get my guys done completely for the Tale of Fantasy Painters. Maximilian Damark I didn't finish, because I wanted to give him a bit more attention. That also meant I didn't put grass on any of the Marksmen bases (Want to do them all at once). The good thing is though, once I have them done, I'll have 280 points of Dogs of War painted. I'm going to be working on Asarnil this month. I ordered some bits (yet to arrive) to also make him on foot, just in case Deathfang gets shot out from underneath him. That does however mean I have to basically do all my green stuff work on Asarnil himself again. Deathfang still needs work, really need to get him done so I can figure out what I want the base to look like.

For my Marines, failed. It's painful, but I really need to get on with them. Considering I jokered the first month, not only do I have to paint the original 5, but need to paint the rest of the squad as well. Maybe I'm in a bit over my head, as I think with my Blood Angels I've really stepped up the quality of my work as well.

Kroq-Gar I couldn't finish either. I wanted too, but just didn't have time and decided not to rush it. It's unfortunate, but that's just the way things go. I would rather accept not getting it done on time, rather than rush it and not get it looking as good as I want.

Khemri team haven't been looked at since Shrikebowl. With no tournies in the near future, they'll probably be put on the backburner until I get some more free time. It's sad though, because they probably need the least amount of work to be complete.

I got Space Hulk last weekend as well. It looks brilliant. Unfortunately I cut my finger pretty bad trying to get Lorenzo off the sprue (not bone deep, but still deep). That kind've killed the rest of the weekend for modelling. I've managed to get in one game though against my brother. We played Suicide Mission. I won both times (as marines and then stealers), but I also had a somewhat better idea of what was going on, and had some fairly decent dice rolls and command points when I needed them. Due to lack of time, unfortunately I'm not gonna be painting these guys anytime soon. Terminators might get some attention while doing my Blood Angels though.

Tto make matters worse. In addition to having to split my time between Dogs of War, Blood Angels and Champions Online, the Mordheim buzz has been going around. It's due to start after the Bloodbowl season is over, which means I've started (just last night though) making a warband. Gonna roll with the Possessed, and convert up the entire lot. Should be a lot of fun!

Tale of X Painters Update

So, here's my second update this Sunday afternoon.

As mentioned previously, things have got a bit haphazard with the Champions Online beta coming out. This last week of August is extremely busy, with lots of stuff needing to be done by the end of the week.

First I've got Southern Shrikebowl on this weekend. That means I need my Khemri team I'm taking in an acceptable state, as I really wanted to get them done for Eucbowl but didn't want to rush them. I won't rush them this time either, but I'd like to at least have the basic colours and wash done on all models.

I've got to get my Paymaster done for the Dogs of War Online Golden Pike 2 competition. He's also for the Tale of Fantasy painters. He is no problem, in fact as I type, he's almost complete! Just feathers and boots to finish!

I have to finish Kroq-Gar for the Pyramid Vault competition. This is the real tough one, as I don't have much motivation to paint him because he requires a lot of attention. I really need to do it though (Since I'm the one who's been promoting this one as such a good idea and all! It would be fairly bad if I myself didn't manage to enter).

And then of course, the 2 Tales on top of that. The Marksmen of Miragliano are within working distance of the goal. It's realy just some boots, hands and crossbows remaining. They're just taking a back seat for now, as I'll easily be able to do them I can just do them a day or two into August.

The Marines however... I really hope to get them done is all I'll say. I put a lot of effort into the one I'll be showing a little further into this post. The red has about 5 layers, while the blacks are about 3. That's a lot of work, but I think it's very worthwhile! We'll see how things go, I should be able to focus a lot better after this week is over.

And here are the pictures.

First up, you can see my Paymaster is almost complete! At the time of taking, the hands, feathers, staff and boots are unfinished. Since then the hands and the staff are done, and the boots are being worked on. Not sure what to do about the feathers yet, I'd like them to stand out so he stands out more.

Here you can see my first Blood Angel I've painted in a long time. He's not complete obviously! The Bolter needs to be painted as the firstmost priority. Then I still need to do the Blood Angels emblem and company symbol. There's also the backpack. Still he looks quite nice, and I'm pleased with how he has turned out.

In other news, a few things arrived last week, as well as a few more things to come. My package arrived from America, containing a fair few things for me! First and possibly most importantly, the Cursed Company! I managed to snag 6 blisters + the Command for a fairly reasonable price! Very awesome, as apparently they go for zonks on ebay. I also have ideas on how to increase the size of the regiment using plastic figures.

Also included, were 4 blisters of Bugmans Rangers + the Command Blister. I have a Bugman figure as well, so these will be some mercenary Dwarves in my army! They'll be a smallish sized unit of Dwarves with Great Weapons, should be cool.

I also purchased a random pile, that had a painted Borgio the Besieger model without horse in it. That was pretty much the only reason I got this bunch (There are a few other cool models in it as well though). He'll need to be stripped, but I'm glad I managed to get my hands on him.

In addition there were some random bits and pieces. I snagged an old metal Amber Wizard to use as a Beasts Wizard, an Imperial Noble who looks dashing and cool. The Ice Queen model I've been after and got that, not necessarily for my Dogs of War though.

I got a handfull of Long Drong Slayer Pirates as well in another purchase, 6 of them in total. My brother has 9 of his that he may give to me, or I may get some in an auction off ebay (But not fussed either way).

Still to come, I've got 2 boxes of Leopolds Leopard Company for the cost of 1! Very nice. 3 of them won't be useable, but I can live with having to purchase a blister down the track.

I also bits ordered some more stuff. Got a variety of High Elf bits, so I can in turn make an Asarnil on foot if he ever gets Deathfang shot out from under neath him. I like to have unmounted versions of guys that can have their mounts killed, just in case!

Phew, that's a long post. But that's it for now, more news from me as I get things done!

Post-Weekend Update

So, here I am, Monday at 3pm. Bored at work, so what better to do than make a blog post.
Unfortunately for the Marksmen, the mind got a little side-tracked over the weekend. That's not to say, I didn't make progress on them. I did make progress, I just didn't finish them off. I think they're about 2/3rds of the way done. I've got the legs, shoes, and then crossbow to do on them. But hey, falling behind schedule was the reason why I gave myself a week spare. I hope to finish them off tonight for reasons mentioned later.

So how did I get distracted? Well, for starters I painted up one of my Bloodbowl models I've had sitting around for a couple of months now. This is a fabulous Bloodweiser babe called Lucy. She was sold with an esky and alternative hand/eski contents to Australians earlier this year, and will be heading to Impact Miniatures stores soon. She can be made up as a Bloodweiser Babe (selling beer) or as a bribe counter (With loot sack, and gold contents for the Eski/Chest). I made this one up as standard, as I wasn't sure about cutting into her arm for this model. I've got a 2nd one sitting around as well which will be turned into bribe counters. I'll be sure to get images of her posted sometime soon, as I think she turned out looking very nice.

I also spent a fair amount of time working on Asarnil. I spent some time chopping the rocks and stuff off of the Dragons legs. Going to have to do a little reposition and fixing to get them looking nice. For Asarnil himself, I sculpted a shoulderpad for his right arm. I think that turned out alright, it's not as nifty as what his shoulderpad actuallyl ooks like, but it had to fit with the torso. All in all, I think Asarnil is actually nearly ready now. I have to decide whether I want to do any more on him.

Next, I put some effort into my Khemri team. I fully painted up one of my Mummies from base coat to pretty much done. I say pretty much, because he's not quite done... but in a ready state for playing. I also got another Blitz-Ra to the same level. That leaves me with a Thro-Ra and 3 Mummies to have done in a little under 2 weeks (A long with Kroq-Gar, the Paymaster and the Marksmen).

The last thing I did a bit of work on was my Paymaster. I was looking through the Marco Columbo White Dwarf and saw they did his coat in a nifty way. Basically they used red gore, and added white to it. It turns out pink as you highlight upwards, but after, they gave it a red ink wash to turn it into a nice red. I tried to do the same on my Paymaster, and felt that it turned out decently.

So yeah, while I may not have got my Marksmen finished as scheduled, I'm still pretty much on track for most things. Kroq-Gar I'm just not very motivated to paint, because my colour scheme for lizards works... but to get it to better quality takes a lot of work. Just really need to sit down and put some effort into him though, because I'm running the competition at the Pyramid Vault, it'd be poor if I didn't at least man up and get in my own entry.

Lastly, to make a busy month even busier. Champions Online beta starts tomorrow (Well, it starts on US Monday, which pretty much means Tuesday to me). It looks fairly cool. I haven't played any of the previous super-hero MMO's (They were at a time, when I didn't really have money to afford such things) so it should be an interesting experience. Just gonna be tough to choose what kind of super-powers I want! A lot of them sound very cool. Usually in MMO's I like to be a hybrid fighter/support/healer type class. I love Shamans and Paladins in Warcraft for instance (Not necessarily related just to WoW, but like Warcraft 3 as well). So hopefully the game does not punish those that like to hybrid. We shall see, more comments on that at a later point.

Pre-Weekend Update : Dogs of War

So here's the 2nd part of the update. As mentioned in my post yesterday, I was messing around with making some Duellists. I'm not completely happy with them, as the Pistolier pistols are quite large. Not exactly your dueling pistol size. So I think I won't use them as holstered pistols anymore.


Also, here is a bit more on Asarnil. This is the Dragonheart Amulet. I tried sculpting a star, but it didn't work out so well. Then I saw in the official model, really it's a gem surrounded bu lots of little points, so I had a go at using Plasticard to do it. I don't mind how it turned out, I think it'll look decent when it's finally painted but we'll have to wait and see.
As for this months painting. I lagged a bit this week, but not too much. The goal is still to get the Marksmen except Maxamillian done by the end of this weekend. A lot of the base colours are done on them, so it should be doable.

Braindead Moments

No, I'm not talking about Zombies. Well... maybe just a bit. Just had a really stupid moment quite honestly. There I was going through some bits I got recently, and was wondering how many crossbows I had from my Militia sprues to use with some of the new Empire Archers bits I got (Some bodies and heads). So I sift through them, only to find out I'm left with about 6. I think that's alright, but get sidetracked to start making my Duellists.
Well, what happened was I managed to place 3 sprues under some plasticard. So after I finished with the 3 I was doing, I went searching for more legs. Found the torso sprues, but where were the leg sprues! Surely I couldn't have used them up previously, I have 12 torso's left!
So I went through every single box of Warhammer stuff I have, trying to find these legs! It just didn't make sense! Just about to give up, I move the plasticard by accident, and lo and behold, 3 sprues with legs on them!
Doh! What a waste of time!

Slight Update

So as mentioned in the previous post, I had almost finished the 5 Marksmen I was working on. In the time between that post and this, I have finished those off so I took a picture of them. So now that 6 of them are done, I'm almost 50% of the way through this month (6 out of the 13 models planned). I've really enjoyed painting them so far. Eventhough they're all pretty much in 1 or 2 poses, each one is unique in appearance. I think my favourite so far is the one with the bandage across his forehead. He's got this nice bird tied to his back, and painting the bandage was a treat.

Also I took pictures of my Kroq-Gar conversion before I start painting him. This is pretty much the first time I've shown him. I have wanted to show him before, but there honestly hasn't been much to show. The last time I took pictures, it was just the upper body attached to the legs, which isn't exactly impressive (Chop them in half, glue, fill in gaps). So here he is now. I wanted to do more with the spear arm, but I just couldn't get it to sit right. With time running out, I had to go with a somewhat boring pose.

Dogs of War update

So it's the weekend, which means I've been busy painting and modelling. The Marksmen are going well and are on schedule! This is excellent news, as it'd suck to out of sync with my plan so early. Basically I've only got the Crossbows, and then little bits and bobs in the sacks that some of them carry to paint (Which is going to be the most trouble, figuring out what stuff is suppoed to be in there). I've also started painting up my Paymaster, his golden armour is finished and I'm moving onto other parts of the body. My intention is for him to have brighter colours than the rest of the army (Which will be more natural earthy colours like my Marksmen) so he stands out more.


The major focus for todays update though, is the Dragonlord himself, Asarnil! I've been slugging away at my conversion ever since I got the High Elf Dragon Lord boxed set. Mainly it has been work on Deathfang. I wanted to achieve a look that was pretty much exactly like the artwork.

Unfortunately reposing the body didn't work out that well. I think it would probably be easier to scratch build the body if I re-attempt something like this in future. The armour plates I think are probably the main culprit, but just putting in a lot of bends means you have to smooth out a lot of stuff. Still, I've given up on that idea but still converting some things to be more similar to the artwork and to keep it more distinct than a regular High Elf Dragonlord.

As you can see, I've modified Deathfang's head a bit. Asarnil doesn't use reigns in the artwork (Well, none of the old dragons had reigns, but my excuse is Asarnil's just that good!). The High Elf dragon only has room for either the big horns or the wavy ear things, so I placed the wavey things below the horns and I think it turned out well. There are no horns on either head as well, so I took the time to add a few horns.

Above is Asarnil's Shield, finally finished. I've been working on this just before I started working on Deathfang. I think it turned out well in the end, and should hopefully look a treat when it's fully painted up. Asarnil's Shield was definately one thing I wanted to do, as it would immediately distinguish him from the vanilla Lord.

Just yesterday I started working on Asarnil himself as Deathfang I'm done with for now. Deathfang will get more work once I figure out how I want to base him (At the moment, I am thinking flying rather than launching off a rock to be more unique). Here you can see that I have modified his greaves to be more Dragonlike. His shoulderpad for the lance arm will get a similar treatment once I am done with making the Dragonheart amulet. The head will stay the regular Dragonlord head, as I didn't want to ruin that (And to be fair, it looks more impressive than the Artwork one).

I think I have two major hurdle's remaining for Asarnil now. One is the seat. I think I will keep the Dragonlord seat, but chop off the top and sculpt a Dragon-type thing to gup there. That's going to be a challenge sculpting a Dragonhead that small. The other hurdle will be the basing, at the moment I'm thinking of having two brass rods stick up from the base and drill into Deathfang. He'll just sit on the rods, similar to how pinning works without the glue. That way he can be removed for transport. I guess I've now thought of a 3rd hurdle (Although I've already known about this) and that is his wings. They make a long model, also wide. Gonna have to think about them as I'd prefer for them to removable as well.

In other news. My conversion of Kroq-Gar on foot is finally finished. Good timing as well, as it gives me 3 weeks to paint him and the Paymaster (Paymaster for Golden Pike 2, Kroq-Gar for Golden Old One). I've also started my Blood Angels for the Tale of 40k Painters. I don't think I've talked much about that, so I'll leave that too when I actually have a post dedicated to them. Unfortunately my poor Khemri team seems to have been forgotten. I really need to paint them as well! As after failing to get them done for Eucbowl, the new target is Southern Shrike Bowl (29-30th of August). It's a very very busy month...

The Long March Begins

So last week I started my Dogs of War army as I said in the last post. Since then I've managed to clean up all my Marksmen figures, based and undercoated them as well as my Paymaster and Captain. So all in all, this month is off to a good start!
Last weekend I took the time to paint up one of the Marksmen. I specifically chose this one as he has the poncho type thing on him, and I really like painting stuff like that and capes. Devlan mud has got an extensive work out when I've been painting these models. Anyway, really liking how this guy turned out!

As it stands, I'm in the process of painting up the next 5. I'm basically hoping to have pretty much everything done by the 24th. Basically my schedule looks like finishing these 5 guys during this weekend and getting a start on the rest of the Marksmen the following week. The week after that I'll put some quality time into my Paymaster, Captain and Maximillian Damark. That's the plan anyway!

I've also been assembling my Asarnil. Some slight modifications to the Dragon and making a shield for him more in line with the artwork. I wanted to make larger modifications to the Dragon to make it look more like the artwork in posture, but wimped out a bit. Considering how many parts the neck would need to be chopped into, it'd probably be simpler just scratch-building a new neck. Overall though, I'm really impressed with the Dragon kit. It's simply a lot bigger than I originally thought. Can't wait in the long run to get my hands on a Giant kit and see how much of a monster he turns out to be.

Dogs of War Arrive

So yesterday when I got home, had a big package sitting on my chair in my room. Yup, I knew exactly what that meant.
The Dogs of War had arrived. So far I had just been messing with left over Empire stuff or bits and bobs of models I had bought every now and then. But now, I have bolstered my forces with some new pieces.
Within the package held my Marksmen of Miragliano, Lumpin Croops Fighting Cocks (I do have 10 Haflings, but they didn't come with the command :( - Guess that means regular Haflings are go for them), Malakai Makaisson's Goblin Hewer, Box of Dwarf Warriors, High Elf Dragon box and then a few Blood Angels characters (Mephiston, Corbulo and Tycho).

So with those added to my Dogs of War forces, here is the current intention on what I intend to make.

Characters
Paymaster of course. I also have plans for a mounted Paymaster.
Mercenary Captain on Foot (Whether or not I actually use him is a different story).
Hireling Wizard Lord (I have the Mordheim Elf Mage. I also intend to do a conversion at some time to make a mounted model).
Hireling Wizards (Have a few Reaper models to use).
Asarnil the Dragon Lord (Obviously due to the box).
Malakai Makaisson

Core
Marksmen of Miragliano
Volands Venators
Duelists x? (At least 2, but we'll see how it goes).
Light Cavalry (I have a box of Pistoliers left over from my Empire project which stalled).
Heavy Cavalry (Don't know if I'll do these, but I have the models to make them).

Special
Dwarves
Ogres of some sort (Might convert man-eaters, might not).
Lumpin Croops Fighting Cocks
Halflings

Rare
Mercenary Cannon
Hafling Hotpot
Asarnil the Dragonlord
Malakai Makaisson's Goblin Hewer

So at this stage, that's all I have the models for. Once I get through my first 2000 or so points, I'll be thinking about what other Regiments of Renown and mercenary units to add to them. The Regiments punch holes in my wallet unfortunately, so I had to make a few decisions on the one's I wanted up front.
So with August right around the corner, and Eucbowl behind me (Although, still need to finish up those Khemri) I've started work on getting my Dogs of War ready. Last night I started cleaning and assembling the Marksmen of Miragliano, which will probably be my first unit to be completed (Volands Venators have been pushed back so I have some time to sculpt the head for Voland and decide what to do with the shields).

This Weeks Update : A Voland Venator

This week has been fairly busy really. I've got to get my Khemri team all painted for Eucbowl as mentioned previously. I'm not doing too bad I feel, but the simple part is over, the difficult part to come. I'll comment more on that in the Khemri post

For this post, it's all about the Dogs of War. Since last time, I've finished my Captain with Pike. I've also sculpted a little key onto my Paymaster. But more importantly, my order from Games Workshop (small order for bits) has come in. I bought 3 packets of the Empire Shields, not realising you get 8 shields per packet! I thought there was only 4, so figured I'd get 3 packets to round it out to 12 (5 Venators, 5 Heavy Cav, 2 for mounted guys). Now I've got a whopping 24 shields! But what can you do

For the shield, I have tried sculpting something similar to the artwork in the old 5th edition Dogs of War book using one of the shield icongraphy provided. Not sure if I like it or not yet, I think I'll paint it up before making my decision. At the very least, I want a fancier looking shield for Voland himself. Whether this means the regular Venators get just V's, and I have a 2nd shot at the shield or not remains to be seen.

Also, here is a good look at my first Venator. I've decked him out a little bit. He's got a bandage around one leg to show how the Venator's always get into unruly undisciplined fights. He's also bringing along some alcohol, the Venators are always getting drunk and such.

And that's it for the Dogs of War update. The plan is to get a whole unit of Venators assembled before August so I can paint them up for my first 200 points of the Tale of Fantasy Painters. I'll also be painting my Paymaster next month so I can enter him in the Golden Pike 2 painting contest at Dogs of War Online.

Poor Poor Wallet

So, in preparation for the Tale of Fantasy Painters at Warseer(And somewhat, Tale of 40k Painters as well) I have made purchases for my armies.
For the Dogs of War, I have purchased
Marksmen of Miragliano
Lumpin Croops Fighting Cocks
Malakai Makaisson's Goblin Hewer
High Elf on Dragon
Empire Shield Sprue's
Dwarf Warriors
With those being bought, I should have enough to get my army up to 2000 points (Even if it does run over in the characters department). Still, just took a huge chunk out of my order in total cost me about $450AUD! Ouch! I didn't even get Rugluds Armoured Orcs to go with the blisters I have for them. They'll have to wait until I get all of this done, as I don't really intend to use them even if they are pretty funny.

Also, since I signed up Blood Angels for Tale of 40k Painters, I got some Blood Angels characters. Never really got them the first time around with Blood Angels, so got pretty much the lot. Mephiston, Corbulo and Tycho. I've got Dante sitting in a box at home, and decided to skip on Lemartes. I also purchased some Eagle Warrior shoulderpads to convert for my Veterans (Something similar to Tycho's shoulderpad) as well as a blister of 2 Assault Cannons. I have a plastic predator tank at home, and I just can't see why the Baal Predator costs like $25AUD more. This generally wouldn't save me much (only like $10) but since I already have the plastic predator, ends up saving me a whole lot.

But yeah, wallet just took a bullet. Gotta restrain my purchases now that I've got what I need pretty much. No more splurging...

In modelling land. Not much progress since last time as I was at a LAN last weekend. I've fallen behind schedule on my Khemri bloodbowl team now, as I didn't get to undercoat them before I left. I have assembled one of my Venators though, I think he looks pretty good. Probably going to work on them after finishing the Khemri so I can get them done and out of the way (As after that, it's pretty much just Asarnil and the Dwarves that require any meaningful assembly).

Couple of things

So been doing a couple of things since the weekend. In a sudden bout of inspiration, I decided to start working on my Paymaster. I originally got this model as I thought it might make a good one. Then decided against it, to use him as originally intended as a Cannon crew member. Originally I wanted his hand to be facing 180 degree's upwards, and he'd kind've be non-chalantly jingling gold in his hand. I had a 2nd thought about this, and didn't think it worked with him looking out in the other direction. So then I decided to have him holding a cane, which I think works for him. The cane for now is just blutacked in so people can see what it looks like, but he is basically finished. I'm going to greenstuff in a ring or two on his fingers, and then do something more with the cane, but he's pretty much done! Was a very easy conversion in the end, and I think he looks the part.
One other thing I decided to take pictures is something that has been sitting around for awhile. I'm making an Ogre for the South Australian Legacy Bloodbowl Team. Basically it's a team South Aussies are building and painting to raffle off I believe. Anyway, he usually sits on my desk and every now and then I decide to do a bit more on him. He's almost completely assembled now, basically a matter of glueing the arms on and then painting him.

That's pretty much all for now. In some sense, it's been a bit slow as I didn't feel like doing much last night. But hey, I got the Paymaster pretty much done, so that definately counts for something.

Progress with pictures

Yeah, so I went ahead and took some photo's tonight. No natural light, so you'll have to live with the dastardly light of my room. Still, the pictures aren't so bad, some did turn out a bit blurry/grainy though. Anyway, here they are.

First up is my Mercenary Captain now with a cape and some plate greaves. You can only really see the greaves on one leg in this image, but the cape you can make out in full! I'm really enthusiastic about how the cape is turning out. I went ahead and layed down some metal paperclip parts to act as a guide for the greenstuff for the cape, and it worked wonders. Made creating the cape so much easier.


Next up are the new and improved members of my Bloodbowl team. I've got 3 more skeletons to show, as well as a brand new Thro-Ra. The Mummies are there to show how I converted their arms. I've still gotta work on my fine detail (The arm bands on the Mummies and the hand on the Thro-Ra aren't exactly great) but I feel like I'm making good progress.

So my Khemri team is pretty much done at the moment as far as assembly goes. That's a full 13 models assembled. I don't know if I am going to take a 2nd Thro-Ra to Eucbowl though. Don't even know if I can get another one done and paint everything befor then, but we'll see. Basically after the next Thro-Ra, I have a few more plans.

2 more Skeletons to fully flesh out the team to full 16 players. 1 is going to be a journeyman. The other is going to be a kicker who is either kicking his head, or the journeyman's head (no wonder he's a loner and can't use re-rolls if he aint got his head!).

As far as star players go, I also have some ideas. I'm definately converting Humerus Carpal, one of the new star players from LRB 6. I think I may convert Hack En Slash and Sinnedbad as well. I have ordered a Setekh miniature, so he's covered. Ithaca Benoin is a pansy elf! So not sure if I'll end up doing him. Ramtut I think I may leave alone, as I really like the figure for him and will just hope Games Workshop find it in them to re-release his model (As well as Zara the Slayer).

That's pretty much it after that. Might do some coaching staff. I've got the drummer from my Tomb Guard command as a cheerleader. I'll probably have already moved onto another team than do the extra miniatures, but we'll see what happens.

As for the Grey Knights. I didn't take photo's of that unfortunately. I think I'll take one once he's complete. If I'm happy with how it turns out, may end up doing a tutorial on how I made him.

Progress

So, unfortunately no pictures. I did a fair amount of work over the week end on various projects. But didn't want to move them around too much, as most of the time greenstuff was setting so I wouldn't want to ruin my work with fingerprints (or more fingerprints... dunno how careful I've really been).

First off, I achieved pretty much what I wanted too over the weekend for my Khemri team. At the moment, everything apart from the Thro-Ra's are fully assembled, all green stuff work complete. I've got 1 Thro-Ra almost done as well, just a little bit more work and he'll be fully aseembeld as well (Basically I have to glue him together, and greenstuff any parts that don't look right due to positioning of limbs). So basically painting time for the team, and I'm on progress to get them done before Eucbowl.

Dogs of War hit a slightly slow point. I did lots of work on my Dogs of War! Just only on one figure. So my assembled range isn't expanding at all. This could be a problem, as I want to paint my Dogs of War for this years "Tale of Fantasy Painters" run on the Warseer forums. Last year, I didn't complete my Empire and I think part of the reason is once I got through the simple stuff (little to no conversion work) I was having to convert and paint at the same time, which just didn't sit well. Luckily I do intend to include a few Regiments of Renown in my army which bump up the costs of even rank and file models.
Anyway, basically on the weekend I did more work on my Mercenary Captain. I personally feel that he doesn't look special enough when you looked at him. Even with a cape I was a little doubtful, still, I have progressed on. Basically I put some plate greaves on him, which helped a bit. But what really helped, was the cape. I'm still working on it, but just having something that looks like a cape behind him really adds to the model I feel. It's exciting to see how the model looks, and I really want to post images of him (But restrained myself as I didn't want to ruin the greenstuff work). I will try and get a picture of him up sometime during the week.

Lastly, something I've wanted to try for a while. I like the fluff and look of Grey Knight Space Marines. Always thought they looked cool. Same for Sisters of Battle really, but that's another story. However, they're expensive. Damn expensive. So I've always wanted to try converting them from plastic space marines. However, regular Marines don't have the arms for it (Holding bolter arms aren't exactly dynamic and would require a lot of work). Enter bits services, I bought a whole lot of assault marine arms (And various other space marine things) cause I was thinking about rebooting my Blood Angels. But at the same time, Assault Marine arms are perfect conversion points as well for Grey Knights.
A while back I tried to make a Grey Knight Terminator from an Assault on Black Reach Terminator. It turned out alright, I don't think the arms are dynamic enough though for Grey Knights. One thing that was difficult to get right though, was the shoulderpad since it has that medieval kind've looking shoulderpads (With the raised section on the pad nearest to the body). I got an interesting idea on how to do that simply and figured I'd give it a shot.

Personally I think it's turning out well so far. It's a bit messy in places, as I'm doing it as a prototype but I think it's coming along really well. The legs are done, the chest is nearly done (gotta finish the Book and sword symbol). Left shoulderpad, same deal with the symbol. Right shoulderpad I haven't started on yet. Force weapon and the Storm Bolter arm I've bother started but have to finish. Then finally, gotta add purity seals to the extreme of course.
It won't have all the cool inscriptions and stuff on the armour, but I think it will still look pretty nice and won't cost me a fortune if I decide to do this on a full scale army kind've effort.

During the week...

So, during the week I've been a busy bee. I've been working on a few things at once, as you can only do so much green stuffing before you start ruining other parts that need to dry. So I've been doing various bits and pieces for both my Khemri Bloodbowl team and my Dogs of War.

First up is my Khemri. I have been working on both my Mummies, and building up a few regular Skeletons. The mummies I have been making replacement arms, and you can see one here.
That one is currently attached now. I've done the arm band, and the wrappings around the hand. So now I've got to finish the wrappings on the rest of the arm. The other mummy is in a similar state, just a tad progress wise behind (Started him later). I've done the arm band for the other mummy, but need to do the wrappings on the fist before attaching the arm and finishing off the wrapping.
Skeletons are a bit different, as I need to build up seperate parts. Generally I do the ruined cloth as one stage, a belt to hold it up as another, and then finally a big round belt buckle to display the skeletons number. The upper torso is generally easy, as I just make a scarab shoulderpad on one arm once the arms have been glued on.

Next are my Dogs of War. The first thing I have to show, are pictures of my Mercenary Captain that I've been spieling on about. He doesn't look like much more than a foot soldier here, but his pike has a different style pike head (I'll take a picture of it later) and he'll have the mandatory cloak of course when it comes down to it. I think I may end up giving him boots as well to make him more impressive, but I'll decide on that after I make a cloak. Of course, I do love the look I've given him. I think he looks pretty cool chugging down that alcohol.

Next is a little piece I've been working on. The Voland Venator miniatures cost an absurd $95AUD for 5. That is utter baloney for what I assume is part plastic, part metal miniatures (I'd be surprised if the horses were metal). Considering the Venators look almost the same as Empire Knights, just with different helmets. So I took the suggestion of M4C from http://www.dogsofwaronline.com and started chopping up and greenstuffing the Knights Panther helmets.
I think they look alright, especially when I paid probably $30AUD for my Empire Knights I'm using for the Venators. Quite a price different to $95AUD ;). I'm gonna try custom sculpting Volands head. I've done a few scratch sculpts before, a Witch Hunter or two. Not saying I'm brilliant, but gonna give it my best shot! If it coms down to it, there's a moustachio comb-over State troop head which could probably pass off for Voland if it comes down to it.

Finally I've got a more up to date picture of my cannon now. The chasis has been extended, and gaps have been filled, etc. I think I'm almost at the point where I can glue the end on (I don't think I'm gonna extend the Chasis anymore). Just gotta finish off the barrel now, then aside it goes until I start painting my Dogs of War.

The big thing I need to do I think on my Dogs of War though, is come up with a game plan. What do I want to include? Make 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 point armies building upon each other. At the moment, I've been making what I have. But at some point or another, I'm gonna have to actually decide what I want to fill my rare and special slots up with. What about my core, heroes, etc. I have a few wizard models, so I'm set in that department. But since I have a cannon now, leaves rares open for Asarnil, Giant, another Cannon or a Hotpot. It's a hard decision, as I would like to make both Asarnil and a Giant (Well, 2) but to keep focused and getting a useable army, rather than mix-match of unuseable stuff I need to pick one and stick with it.

Tough decision, eventually of course I want 2 Giants because I want to convert them into the Giants of Albion (Already have the Hengis model) which would be awesome, and of course, can use them as regular Dogs of War Giants as well.

So yeah, decisions to make. But for now, Volands Venators, my Captain and of course, the Khemri team that needs to be done should see me through a bit.

Current Projects 3

So my latest project, and most important one at the moment is my Khemri Bloodbowl team. I've decided to run Khemri at both Eucbowl (Probably the largest Australian Bloodbowl tournament, although there are a few other contenders) in July, as well as the latest season of the CCKUP (an Adelaide Bloodbowl league) which coincdentally, also starts in July.
So basically, I need to get these guys done to a playing state. I was busy previously putting together some Lizardmen models for the Warhammer Fantasy tournament I went to in June, but now my main priority is getting my dead ready for some Bloodbowling.

So my original thoughts are, I was going to convert all the Skeleton types from the Tomb Kings Skeleton box. I managed to get some cheap bits for Charioteers as well, which were going to be my Blitz-Ra's. But I kind've copped out, since the Tomb Guard command models are nice enough. So the charioteer's will be turned into Thro-Ra's instead. The Mummies are a mix of Reaper models and the Warhammer Fantasy models. The Reaper models were simple weapon snips. Unforunately the Fantasy models are a bit more difficult as one arm has a shield attached, and for the other the great weapon was too intertwined with the arm to be useable.

Mummies. Reaper models on the sides, Fantasy models in the centre.
Blitz-Ra's. I actually had the standard bearer's arm snap when I was cutting the standard pole away, so had to pin it back in which was tough.

Regular Skeletons. I like the one in the middle. Looks like a little insane undead egyptian.

I actually just spent last weekend doing a lot of work for once. Usually I do little dribs and drabs, and then get a lot of work done in one shot, so just must've been one of those times. I managed to cut away the sword from the Mummy, and have begun work on the green stuffing of new arms for the Mummies. I also started on 3 more regular Skeletons. That should give me almost enough Skeletons in total, so will leave me with just Thro-Ra's to get done.

Slugged along a bit more with my Dogs of War as well. Filled in the gaps on my cannon. so that should almost be ready for everything to be glued together now. I continued work on my Captain on foot, who uses the Pike of Remas in addition to another item that is part of the Dogs of War Army project at http://www.dogsofwaronline.com. I'll try and get some pictures of him up soon. The last part was working on some of the Knight helmets from the Empire Knights box. Trying to get them too look more like the Voland Venator helmets (I mean, why pay $95AUD for 5 when I can get 8 Empire Knights for $50AUD which look almost the same?).