Forest Goblin Spider Rider progress

Got some work done on Karl's Spider Riders...

...it's a start... 8 more aside from these 2...

Red Racer Update - Axles & Alloys

Managed to put some downtime to work on painting. Got the Red Racer all painted up now, ready for basing...

For comparison's sake, this is the original model which I posted in an earlier blog; you can visit that post to see the steps taken to get to this point.

Hotthammer Game Day

Got to play some Hordes of the Things with our 28mm minis, mostly Warhammer stuff recommissioned into HotT armies ("Hotthammer"), but also some historicals, some plastic Confrontation minis, and some Clan War. I think Mack also had some sort of funky army, composed of something I could not identify from distance (next table over, thats how funky it was); I'll let him comment on it himself. There was a total of 6 of us and everyone got in two games I believe. Ted and Johnnie had to leave but Blake, Grant, Mack and I stuck around long enough to play a a 2v2 match (details and photos below).

The armies I saw used were:

  -Romans (Johnnie)

  -AT43 UNA army (Grant)

  -Undead (Mack)

  -Lion / Clan War army (Ted)

  -Nuln / Empire (Blake)

  -Chaos (Blake)

  -Ostland / Empire (me)

  -Scorpions / Confrontation (me)

I was late to the start but Johnnie was ready to go when I arrived. We played his Romans attacking my Ostlanders, with my troops able to keep the Romans away from the Fortress Tower, protected by a single Ostland knight threatened by 4 elements of Rome's spearmen. Must have been 4 or 5 bounds the Knights fought the Spear, able to take on one column at a time at the edge of the Forest of Shadows, eventually aided by an element of Blade and one of Pistoliers (Riders) to destroy enough Roman elements to win the field. 

Empire troops from Ostland take on invading Romans at the edge of the Forest of Shadows.
Romans (top) are Spear/Blade/Hero/Blade (L to R).
Ostlanders are (4) Spear in front with Swordmasters (Blade) in back.

The valiant Ostland knights (KN) protect the frontier fortress, aided by swordsmen (Blade) in the forest.
Romans are (4) elements of Spear.

Grant and I then squared off, with the victorious Ostlanders taking on his AT43 UNA army in a time-warp matchup. Although the UNA forces lamented their horrible odds costing them the game, the Ostlanders were unable to find much success eventually losing 14-8.

The precarious position of the UNA troops and the Ostlander troops. The Aerial Hero hopped the Empire line and attacked the Spear from the rear, eventually closing in from the front also causing a veritable mess with sliding and conforming. The rulebook was consulted muchly in this game...
UNA Aerial Hero at left (model obscured, smoke plume visible).
Ostland line from top to bottom: (2) Archers (Shooter) / Greatsword General (Blade) / (2) Spear.
UNA from top to bottom: Blade / Paladin / Knight / Blade.

We then played a 2v2 game with Grant and Blake teaming up with the UNA forces allying with a different Empire state from Warhammer, the Nuln army (did UNA get priveleged information from Nuln spies to use against the Ostlanders? hmmmm?). I switched to playing my Scorpion army (Confrontation), and Mack used his Undead (OOP Citadel undead) for this one. Our plan was to use our Magician elements (we each had one) to double up and take out the C-in-C. Though ultimately we did not use the Magicians to do so, the plan worked to perfection as the UNA forces moved headlong towards the middle of our front, while the Nuln forces got bogged down with poor pip rolls early on. 

All told a very fun day, the first time I had an extended game day in probably 2 years. Thanks to all for a good time... Thanks to Blake for setting up the game day, and to my opponents for playing. 

chip

Blake's Chaos army takes on Mack's Undead.
(L to R) Chaos Marauder archers (Shooter) / Conjurer (Magician) / (2) Chaos Warriors (Blade) / Chaos Marauder archers (Shooter).
In the ruins, (3) Undead archers & (1) Undead Duelist stand (Shooters).

Gameday in SA!! Hotthammer Hordes of the Things!!

Woo woo! Blaker has set up a game day in San Antonio for January 9, 2016, at Tabletop Gaming Center starting at 12 noon to 6pm.

Rules: Hordes of the Things (HotT)
Theme: Hotthammer (HotT using Warhammer armies)
Army Size: standard 24AP
Scale: 60mm frontage using 28mm minis
Rules: standard HotT with Sh/Wb revision

Per Blake:
"Come play - we got extra armies - we'll teach! Maybe even play a Big Battle to end the day..."

Hotthammer High Elves take on the Undead.

The Undead Horde.

An Empire Army (from Nordland?)

Bushido Terrain - Progress

After dry brushing and allowing the bronze to dry, I used the Nihilakh Oxide and a detail brush to flow the paint into the crevices of the sculpture. I started around the face and neck, then moved outwards, letting the paint flow into the crevices. I mostly used it straight from the container, but did water it down here and there. I also wiped the paint off in some of the raised areas, whenever I felt it needed it. You can paint it over the entire model, essentially glazing it with the paint, but I still wanted some shining bronze showing through so I carefully applied it only to the recesses. Not sure if I will go back and dry brush some bronze on the areas where the Nihilakh Oxide obscures some of the raised area yet or not... I am probably overthinking it. LMK what you think:

The statue after dry brushing with Citadel's Nihilakh Oxide painted into the crevices.

The Nihilakh Oxide creates a pleasing and very believable patina or verdigris. 

For the stone statues I do next, I suspect they will not need any sort of base to finish off the statue and could sit on the battle board directly. However, this bronze statue really needed something to sit on. I purchased a couple of wooden plaques/bases to paint in a stone finish. I gave it a light sanding to begin with, then etched some freehand lines into the wood to simulate cut stone, using a ballpoint pen to do so, followed by another light sanding. The stones are not exactly even and some are even cracked where I corrected some errors, but it looks good all the same. To this, I will add some loose gravel and some small pieces of flock and lichen to tie the two pieces together (right now it looks like its just sitting there... which it is – but could look better). 

The bronze statue on the wooden base. Here you can see the etched lines of the stone work,
created with a ball point pen.

Thanksgiving Break 2015

A few days off for Thanksgiving allowed for some hobby time.

I managed to get some primer on a commission I am working on – a unit of 10 Goblin Spider Riders, ready to put paint to them.

Ten primed Goblin Spider Riders for a commission.

In an effort to (finally) finish my Han Chinese DBA army, I put some time in on the three bases of Spearmen, replacing the "spaghetti" lead spears with brass wire ones that I shaped using the wife's jewelry anvil.

Telephone-pole-thick, spaghetti-flimsy original lead spears.

Spear removed.

Two units of the Spear with brass wire replacement weapons. Nice and sturdy.

Bushido Terrain

I also started work on a Bushido terrain piece, testing out a new method, a GW ink called Nihilakh Oxide, to simulate bronze oxidation – a patina or veridigris – on a bronze statue. So far, its working out nice on my test piece. The steps I take to the finished piece are detailed below.

I searched eBay for some appropriate Bushido type statuary, searching for both Japanese and Chinese dragons, and happened to come across this neat little set of six in a red resin finish. They looked nice on their own but I intended to repaint them both as bronze statuary using the GW ink, and some stone statuary (think "Great Stone Dragon" from Mulan!). But to actually own the set became an ordeal...

Six red resin dragons in their flimsy, vacu-formed packaging.

I won the auction and only paid less than $12 including shipping. However, the crappy plastic vacu-formed holder and flimsy cardboard box was placed in a bubble-pack envelope and mailed. Needless to say, the package arrived and all but one piece had been broken.

All but one dragon busted and broken!

Heads and Tails!

Not an issue for what I was gonna use them for, the repair would be covered up by my repaint, but I felt the shoddy packaging deserved a discount so I contacted the seller about it. She gave me a full refund so ended up getting them at no charge! Woot! Next I repaired the pieces with super glue and left off the fiddly little bits, accepting that these stones dragons could have been chipped and broken in a war torn Bushido setting.

Fixed.

Fixed, but showing small broken scales for "Mushu" effect.

For my test piece of the bronze finish, I chose the sculpt that had a duplicate in the set (just in case I "messed it up"), and primed it black. It's a neat little turtle dragon with a little turtle on its back.

The duplicate piece primed black with automobile primer.

Next, came a dry brush with a bronze craft paint to pick out all the details. The color I used was DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Rich Espresso Craft Paint.

Dry brushed.

I'll post more details later...

Epic Lootz

(orig. draft 2/15; updated 11/15)

Haven't posted here in a while (and haven't finished up any on my cars) but got enthused to post after uncovering a little treasure trove from the past. Was organizing the mess I have out in the garage and came across a bag of goodies - my collection of painted GW Epic Imperial Guard and Space Marines!!

I never played Epic all that much but I did collect my fair share (typical) and managed to paint the following Imperial troops, calling them at one time the Ganymedians, for some tournament or campaign that never took off. Probably use these for Future War Commander... in the future. Click the little photos to bring up a bigger photo.

Epic Imperial Guard

The Ganymedian Defense Force

Ganymede Command Squad with Rhino Transport

The Ever-Vigilant Commissar Squad with Rhino

Imperial Robots, Jump Troops, Bikes and Walkers 

Rough Riders and Rapier Multi-Lasers

Imperial Ganymede Defense Forces
Blue Squad and Green Squad

----------------

Scarlet Delta Epic Space Marines

These Space Marines were based on my small force of painted 28mm Space Marines, called Scarlet Delta. Their motto was "Sangre, Muerte, Valor"... Still have the 28s put away somewhere. In their absence, please enjoy their 6mm representatives below.

Scarlet Delta Commander and Terminator Squad

Scarlet Delta Tactical Squad

Scarlet Delta Squad