Playing the Game...

I've been attending the locals Vets nights the past few weeks to soak in hobby mojo and get some painting done.

These are all old pictures - haven't taken new ones yet

Cal - the manager - talked me into a game this past Tuesday playinng Fanatsy as part of the Tamurkhan campaign he is kicking off.

I haven't played Fantasy since 8th came out, and haven't thrown the dice in anger more generally in more than a year.

I skimmed the new book, and looked over my Warriors and Army Book and settled on a basic 1,500 points that I could field out of my painted minis - being a mix of Marked Khorne and Nurgle Warrior units, Trolls, a Giant, some Doggies and Marauders.  

On games night I actually ended up swapping two units painted up in Khorne colours for blank primered models to sub as more Nurgle - this way I had a homogenised single god army.

Not the army used - but close enough - pretend those Khorne guys are actually just undercoated and you're nearly there

Cal didnt have an army ready so busted out the stores Demons, writing up a list from what was painted - some Demonnettes, Bloddletters, Flamers, Seekers, Juggers and a lord and mage.

He then subbed out for Josh, one of the lads that was lurking, while Cal took on mentoring and refereeing duties - me basically being a noob, and Josh not having played Demons before, but having a good grasp of core rules and basics for the army.

The game was a blast, even though I lost.  Poor setup on my behalf (scared of terrain - and rightly so - a poisoned wood did for my Sorceror and accompanying unit), some horrible dice throws (its always the dice's fault - never mine), and Cal's poor tutoring (again - never my fault, no) got the better of me. 

I had forgotten the joy of actually playing with my toys, and was ashamed I had to literally blow the dust off my boys before the game.

This one spent the game wandering up a flank and having people weave around him - not points well spent

I'm thinking of sticking around for some more campaign games, and progressing my Hero from foot, to Demonic Mount and then Manticore (will need to treat myself to one towards the end of the campaign).  Even if I don't formally take part in the campaign, I can sub in for bye games, and friendly pick ups.  

Although the Vets night crowd has changed markedly over the last year and a half that I have been semi absent, the underlying core seems to be made up of likeminded, easy going types.

Really enjoyed the night, looking forward to going back for more, and stoked to be playing again.

Cheers all,

Pom

Slow move into March...

I've had a slow couple of weeks hobby wise, but with a couple of burst of action to try to get minis finished for different events.

First, was Marshall Helbrecht.  He turned out alright, but I was rushed for time so didn't get a chance to get anything onto his cloak, or the free hand cross on his chest.  And his sword is pretty plain, so will be getting a looking once I get him back from the shop and onto the paint table.

Helbrecht for the Adelaide stores Golden Sternguard comp.  Apologies for the picture quality - taken on Budds iPhone and stolen from Facebook

He placed second in the single mini category of the City stores Golden Sternguard competition, beat out by a Blood Angel Captain painted to a high standard.  Talking to the manager, Budd, he advised that it was close between us, but the free hand on the Blood Angel won it - fair call in my opinion as it was a lovely mini.

Tal's winning entry - beautiful mini - the picture doesn't do the layering justice

The second mini I was frantically working on was Queen Khalida.  This mini was a real love hate.  I loved it up until the half way mark, and then the cloak knackered me.

My Khalida for the Marion stores Paint Club.  Another iPhone photo - this time Andys.   The lighting is adding highlights to the cloak that aren't really there.

Whatever skills I have with the paint brush I lost at that point and it became an exercise in throwing paint at something and moving it with a brush.  Talking it over with the guys from the paint club, we all had similar experiences with the cloak, which for me, put me off my mojo when it came to the staff, and odds and sods.  So this mini stands as a lesson to me on planning, taking my time and taking breaks - not trying to push through it to get something done.  Like Helbrecht, I might revisit her at some point and see what improvements can be made.

The groups efforts - good job all round.

Next months paint club model is this.

March 2012 Paint Club model - Steel Legion Sergeant - not all that in my mind.

Not really sure what to do with it.  I don't necessarily like the mini - I think there are far better sculpts in the Guard range, both prior to and post this mini.  The pose doesn't do anything for me, and its quite a flat model, not a lot going on with it and the jacket etc is pretty flat with minimal folds - I'm not sure I'm much good at painting flat spaces.

I'm thinking of darker tones for this - greys and browns, but will wait and see what I am thinking once I am actually holding the mini, and have thought on it some more - I know the skull mask will be done in bone colours, but that's it at the moment.

And that's what Ive been up to for the past few weeks.  Between these two and work/real life distractions, I haven't done much else hobby wise, although I did get Dan Abnetts Know No Fear in the mail last night - finished it in the wee hours of this morning - it was a killer read, mush better than some of the latest entries in the series.  This series (the Horus Heresy) is real hit and miss in my opinion, defined by a few key books with lots of fillers in between (which is good and bad - anything which expands the universe is good; but some of it is pretty bad  - this is probably going to be one of those key books - will take another read to really cement that I think.

As always, happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom

February Progress...

A quick post today while I wait for some washes to dry on the Marshall Helbrecht I am working on for the City Stores Golden Sternguard competition.  Apologies for the crap picture quality - they are brought to you courtesy of my Samsung Galaxy - my much maligned camera is now working, but my batteries are dead, so I made do with the tools I had to hand.

I've been plugging away at the Orks I had on my desk for the last week or so, but painting time has been limited due to work (thought I was about to be made redundant at one point but its all good now for the immediate future) and other grown up pursuits.  

Just detail work now and finishing the bases

My younger brothers daughter is getting to the age where she can come over for sleep overs at her cool uncles house (aka me).  Add to that my missus' and mine own attempt to generate our own little Pom, and the missus decided the time was right to get a baby room ready.  This last week has seen me learn some new handyman skills including demolition, plastering and painting.  The room is nearly done but it means my hobby time has been restricted.

I also picked up my Queen Khalida in store order from Marion store the other night and have prepped and based her ready for a lick of paint as soon as Helbrecht is done.  I'm going to stay true to the 'Eavy Metal version, but try for some black veins on her exposed cheeks to represent the Asp poison she has running through her veins.  Expect WIP's next week maybe - Lots to fit into February and its all going by so quickly.

Finally, my eBay spree has continued in a somewhat ad hoc stuttering fashion.  After picking up a copy of the Emperors Will the other month, re-reading the Eisenhorn/Ravenor series' and looking at some other goings on across the blogverse, I decided to have a crack at building a Necromunda gang built around an Inquisitor and his disparate warband.  

What this basically allowed me to do was pick through the whole Necromunda collection, as well as the broader Citadel range for cool minis that grabbed me.  So for the past three weeks or so I have been slowly picking up odd miniatures to form this warband.  Probably never going to be played, but its still something cool to work on on the side.

All sorts of goodies here including  FW Solomon Lok, Kitbashed Cadians/Catachans, Brin Milo of Gaunts fame, Fingers from the Last Chances, and of course some awesome Necromunda sculpts

I went looking for bases to place them on, figuring I wanted something to represent the Hive they would be fighting through rather than my usual sand bases.  I settled on a couple of ranges from Mister Justin's Secret Weapon Miniatures (SWM).

I've used SWM a couple of years back when they first started with their straight edge sets.  I am much happier now they have gone to the bevelled edges.  Normally I would get my bases from Jeff at Dragon Forge, but I already had his Tech Deck bases, and have a quirk about having the same pose/bases in small groups like this.  SWM had three complimentary (in my mind at lest) ranges which I picked up a set of in 25mm size - Steel Plating, Flight Deck and Iron Deck.

The package turned up on Thursday and I promptly started slapping minis to bases.  Looking forward to working on these guys around my other projects.

And that's that.  Next post will either be Orks finished, or Helbrecht.

As always, happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom

Edited 20120213 - New Picture

 

Updated Pic - Whats on my desk tonight