More progress means less modesty

Return of the group shot.

First a little bit of blog business.  June has seen the highest traffic by far, and I can put that down to one thing: blogrolls.  From the Warp provided a noticeable bump when they came on line about a month ago, and BoLS bumped it up even further.  When I get off my duff about the Internation House of Paincakes, whose tongue-in-cheek 500 word essay has held me up for more than a month now, I imagine I'll see another bump.  Clawing my way to the top of the heap isn't something I'm interested in, but I spend enough time on this blog that I want people to reap the "rewards" of my labor.  If you're in a similar boat then hitch yourself to these fine trailers.  You won't be disappointed.

Where did my highlights go?

In painting news, more progress has occurred.  I got the rest of the armor done yesterday and basecoated the helmets.  Today I finished the helmets and started blocking in the black and metal areas.  I took a pass, for now at least, on highlighting the armor, but I did do highlights on the helmets.  These pictures show why I'm hesitant to do the armor: I am inevitably too subtle in my highlighting, so much so that it doesn't really show up.  Since this is a known issue I should be able to correct it, yet history shows otherwise.  I can always add a sharper highlight if I want.  With any luck I'll get the rest of the black done tonight and perhaps either the greens or bones.  The chest eagles are going to be a pain to do with the bolters in the way, but there's not much I can do about it now.  Short of ripping the arms off of course, but that's not going to happen.  This batch has certainly gone quicker than the previous assault squad, thanks to the lack of detail on the armor.  While I haven't painted any detail yet, not having to paint around it or figure out how to shade a gem socket has made things simpler.  With any luck I'll be on pace to get these marines done this week, though with most of my prime painting time behind me it's not looking as good as I would like.

Modest progress is still progress

This is a really bad photo.

While I didn't get a whole lot done yesterday, I did get something done, and we all know that something > nothing.  Devlan Mud washed across the batch in a deluge of shading goodness.  When it had dried I got started on the final coat of Blood Red.  I only managed to get two done before painting time was over, but I hope to get the others done tonight.  Doing the armor takes a while, but when it's done most of the mini is painted.  My current method of a coat of Blood Red over the primer, then a wash, then another coat of Blood Red is time consuming, even if I am happy with the results.  For the next batch I think I'll try a solid coat of Blood Red before the wash, instead of leaving the primer exposed in cracks and crevices.  I'm not sure that leaving the primer showing does much considering the wash that follows, and if I can do a more thorough first coat it should save a lot of time.  We'll see what it looks like at some point.  If I can get the armor done on the rest of the batch tonight then I'd just (just...) have details left, which will hopefully be doable on Thursday, so with any luck I'll hit my goal of finishing something this week.

The Underwhelming Moment No One Has Been Waiting For

Spectacular, eh?

Considering how long I've had this picture without posting it, let's get right to it.  On the left is the current state of the BA Devastators, batch one, after a first pass of Blood Red.  Not a whole lot of sexy here. but it's a start.  I'd love to say that I've been hip-deep in hobby progress while my computer, now reborn betterfasterstronger, but then I'd be stretching the truth.  I got some minor things done, like finishing Flight of the Eisenstein and receiving the Trollblood package from PP (which shall receive a fuller post in the near future), but the majority of this past week was filled with researching computer parts.  This next week has a bit more promise though, so hopefully I get some stuff done.  What kind of stuff you wonder?  This afternoon I wondered along a similar path, and what I came up with looks a lot like this:

We are experiencing technical difficulties

All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead.

My computer is somewhere between ill and terminal, so posting will be a bit of an issue.  You'll just have to patiently wait for a painting update, disappointing as it is, until I get things back up and functional.  With the prospect of a significant outlay of funds looming, hobby expenditures have been put on hold.  On the plus side, my Trollblood package is supposed to be here tomorrow (though a check of the shipping tracker tells me it might be waiting for me right now) so I'll have something new to work on.  On the minus, time working on models is time not getting my computer fixed.  The arrival is also too early if I want to do something like get nice bases for the new army (perhaps the Broken Wasteland set from Dragon Forge), though I could always let the models sit for a minute while the bases came.  Of course the aforementioned computer issues put a stop to contemplating scenic bases real quick.

In news from a happier time, I got the Trollblood book and read it over the weekend.  Plenty of nifty stuff in there that I'm sure I'll get into later, but in short I like the fluff and the crunchy bits are intriguing as well.  It seems like Trollbloods can crank melee stats through the roof compared to Khador, but perhaps that's more of a Hordes vs. Warmachine thing.  Speaking of the boys in red, over at Lost Hemisphere they have this picture from Lock & Load that looks suspiciously like plastic Bombardiers.  While it is compelling evidence of the existence of both plastic Men-O-War in general, and Bombardiers in particular, I remain skeptical until I have them in hand.  I've also been poking around the PP Khador forums a bit and have seen lots of interesting news coming out of Wrath, though I'll have to wait to find out myself as the FLGS found their distributor on backorder before the thing even came out.  Considering the amount of time I'll likely be investing in getting my computer back up and working again, a little delay might be a good thing.

New 2 player Warmachine starter box

Look at that!

First off, this is not the promised hobby progress post.  I have actually made hobby progress since the last post, but that will be chronicled in the next post.  This post is about the new Warmachine starter box.  This little guy jumped out at me when I hit the PP site just now and I think it's notable for a few reasons, which I will bullet point.

• It's a Warmachine starter box, which "CONTAINS EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A TWO-PLAYER GAME" (blame PP for the caps).  This is a departure from the a la carte approach they've been taking for years.
• The two factions are Khador and Cygnar.  No wait, Protectorate and Cygnar.  What?  Khador and Protectorate?  Really?  While my grasp on Warmachine fluff is not like iron, I'm fairly sure everyone hates the swans.  Especially Khador and Protectorate, who seem to only passionately dislike each other.  The chart from the PP Insider a few days back supports me here.  What gives with the match up?
• $100 for a starter box?  That price point is familiar.  Looks like PP is pressing their PR advantage in the wake of the annual GW price hikes.  There was also something about screwing Oceania, but PP hasn't taken a direct shot there that I know of.  Yet.
• This is a really good deal, even by starter box standards.  Rule book, two battleboxes, gaming paraphenalia, all for $100.  What the models look like remains to be seen, but I'm willing to bet they're the same plastic battlebox models on shelves now.
• You get some infantry too.  Cinerators for Protectorate and...what?  Plastic Men-O-War?  Is it April already?  Surely this is some sort of cruel joke.
• Why is there no internet coverage of this at the usual places?

Obviously the real news here is plastic Men-O-War.  I love the idea of the MoW, but I hate the idea of assembling them enough to not have a unit.  If there are indeed plastic MoW, then surely there will also be Bombardiers.  Can the end of the world be far behind?

What happened this weekend

Google's version of "But I did watch some movies."  I approve.

This is going to be a shocker: I didn't make any hobby progress this weekend.  In my defense I was still embroiled in making a house over.  It's hard to hold a brush while you're also carrying a couch.  While I didn't get any actual hobbying done, I watched a few movies that have some relevance to the interest of gamers.  Thus I offer to you, the reading public, these few movie reviews instead of anything with minis or paints or dice.  Next time, for really reals, some pictures of miniatures I have built and/or painted, along with words about said miniatures.  Or at least some army lists.  For now I don my reviewer hat and give you the inside skinny on some movies that may peak your interest.  I'll see what I can do in the way of fancy formatting to obscure spoilers for those inclined to remain untainted.

Not that kind of progress

One of the few non-PP Trollblood pics.

Irony struck in the DMV the past few days.  I got lots of painting done, probably as much as I have in my entire time hobbying.  Unfortunately that painting was with a roller as I helped a friend paint a room.  So still no hobby progress, even though painting happened.  In slightly happier news, I put in the Trollblood order just now.  I'm thinking about hitting the FLGS before work today and picking up the Trollblood book to have something to read while I wait for the box.  I've been eying the Trollbloods for quite a while, more or less since I picked up Warmachine in the first place.  The beasts are what does it for me, at least some of them.  I'm not such a fan of the elemental trolls, but the "regular" troll beasts are very nice.  The Bouncer and the Mauler are at the top of the list, along with the Earthborn.  Of course I plan to take my time and paint these big beasties up nice before expanding any, so there's plenty of time to examine books and whatnot.  First and foremost will be picking a color scheme.  Green and blue would be my first choices, but green is a bit traditional and the studio scheme is blue.  Yellow is a possibility, but I don't know that I want to paint that much yellow.  At this stage the tartans aren't that intimidating, though I'm sure that will change as I get into them.  Learning Hordes should be interesting as I know the basic idea of the rules, but Fury is a lot different than Focus and it'll be good to know in what ways they differ.  One day actual hobby progress will occur, and on that day I'll have a camera handy.  Perhaps that day will be next time...

BA hybrid list

Nothing on the painting front for the past few days and little in the way of gaming in general.  I made a hybrid BA list tonight that I can build out of models I have, a new feature in this sort of list.

125 - Librarian w/ JP
  90 - Sanguinary Priest w/ JP & PW
245 - Assault Squad w/ 2 PGs, PF
245 - Assault Squad w/ 2 PGs, PF
260 - Assault Squad w/ 2 PGs, PF, Rhino
260 - Assault Squad w/ 2 PGs, PF, Rhino
  50 - Attack Bike w/ MM
160 - Baal w/ HBs, EA
150 - Predator w/ LC sponsons, EA
145 - Vindicator w/ Siege Shield
1750

The army is two parts, the jumpers and the mech.  The attack bike could split off to join either group, though I'd lean towards the jumpers.  The mech would roll around and shoot with the Rhino squads potentially objective holders.  The jumpers would be combat squadded for maximum shooting with the Librarian in a PG squad and the SP in a PF squad.  I've toyed around with mech lists before but lack all the parts to put on the table, so trying them out is problematic.  I've been wanting to use the Baal and Vindicator for a while.  I'd also like to work in some Death Company.  I could trade one Rhino squad and the attack bike for a Rhino full of DC with 4 PWs, but no chaplain.  I could also trade out the Librarian for a chaplain, but then I lose the Shield on the jumpers, not to mention Blood Lance.  The DC would be a mighty hammer though, which the list lacks otherwise.  Odd that I'd make a list while painting a unit (Devs) and not have that unit in the list, but here it is.  Next time painting progress.  Hopefully.†

Late Is Better Than Never

Ready to hand out +1 BS.

Having sorted my computer and priming situation I have time for the post I would have done earlier.  First up are the pics from yesterday.  On left is the new Devastator sergeant.  I did some minor reposing on the arms so that they don't jumble into each other.  Now that I've primed the batch I notice the mold line still on the auspex.  I knew it was there during the build and did the best I could on it, but I see now that I missed a whole bunch.  In my defense the whole perimeter of the auspex is fine detail, so going to town on the mold line would take most of that detail with it.  I'll see what I can do about it when the primer is dry, but I may well just call it a design feature.  I hope the basing will turn out better on this group.  I put far less water in the glue mix than I usually do.  It seemed pretty solid yesterday, but I still got some ballast coming off on my fingers when I took the minis off the priming stick and set them down to dry.  I gave a couple models another layer of glue on top of the rocks and ballast.  The ballast didn't shift around as usual, but I noticed it had still moved when priming.  Two layers of glue and a layer of primer should be enough to hold the basing material in place, but I've thought the same about a single layer of glue with primer before and been proven wrong.  If the double glue works out then that'll be my new approach, though I'll need to add a step where I patch the holes that appear.  Anything that keeps that ballast on the base better.

New Addition

The Bell of Lost Souls feed is online, so howdy to folks stopping in via that entrance.  I got the camera to download last night after learning another way in which Macs and PCs work differently.  Normally I'd have pictures here, but this is just a hello/testing post for the BoLS connection.  A fuller hobby progress post will hit the air waves (webs?) a bit later, but first I need to find a new priming stick as I managed to lose the original, plus another trip to the local computer store.  The video cards I had earmarked weren't in stock, so I have to do a bit more digging to find a plan B.  I wanted to get a little something posted though, and this is the result.

You'll Have to Use Your Imagination

I never watched Spongebob, but Google says this is 'imagination.'

I'm switching gears in an attempt to get the hobby motor going again by fixing some of the more glaring points of my Blood Angels army.  Two of the missile launcher Devastators are Dark Angels green, something I've been meaning to rectify for a while now.  While pulling them out of my case I also grabbed a handful of other Devastators to work on.  The GW red primer that I used on my older crop of BAs is much redder than the Duplicolor I used on the recent assault squad, so I want to reprime the batch before starting.  I doubt it would be a big difference between the two, but since I need to base the lot as well I decided to get two birds at once.  A new Devastators sergeant has appeared as well, a kitbash from the DC and Command Squad boxes with a prominent auspex.  I've been using a helmetless marine as the sergeant, but I don't really like the bare-headed marines.  I'm letting the glue dry for a bit because I didn't realize I hadn't drilled out the bolter until I had already glued the mini together.  I took some pictures of the new model plus the difference between the two primers, but the different cord I'm using to download the pictures doesn't want to play and I don't have an alternate handy, so you'll have to imagine what they look like.  I'll put them in the next post.