Closing in on the finish line

Dark pictures aside, they're pretty close.

For once my painting plans went as intended.  I had a pretty good afternoon at the table and finished the day where I wanted to: (hopefully) a single session away from finishing the Winter Guard.  I got the metals done, washed the flesh, and put in work on the browns and black.  I'm on the fence about the browns.  They look good enough to leave alone, but as always there's room for improvement.  I started by giving all the brown areas a Devlan Mud wash, then went in with Snakebite Leather on the leather areas.  Wood and leather are distinct now, which was my intention, but the wood areas are just base coated with a wash, though I'd like to add some graining.  The leather looks better, but could still use a highlight or perhaps another wash.  Then there are the interminable buttons and clasps on the bandoliers that want some attention, to say nothing of buckles.  Since this is a unit that's as much about boots on the ground as it is about quality of troops, I'm trying to not get hung up on shading and highlighting each beard hair in the name of getting the squad done.

Winter Guard Marches On

iPhone photography, still a learning process.

Resumed my painting today and made some good progress.  I did the reds, though not quite in the way I intended, and also got a base of flesh and browns down.  I started by putting a later of Red Gore on the reds, then washed them with Devlan Mud.  When I started I had planned on going back with the Red Gore, then highlight with Blood Red and Fiery Orange.  I wanted a red that was a little different than the Blood Angels, a bit darker.  Instead I did the red exactly like I have in the past, with Blood Red and then a red/orange highlight.  If you guessed the result was a highlight that was far too subtle for its own good, you get a cookie.  Since I wanted the armor to be red and not orange, I didn't want to do the straight orange highlight.  Considering my brighter than intended base red, I didn't have a lot of room to work with.  My mind boggles that the color I have the most experience with stills evades my efforts to highlight it properly.

Pulling Back the Curtain

One of my many Demitras.

A little deviation to start, but this will come back around.  I just finished reading A Song for Arbonne today, a bittersweet experience as it was one of the few remaining books by Guy Gavriel Kay that I haven't read, but by finishing it that number was further reduced to a mere pair of books yet to be consumed.  The book is, in part, about a paladin-esque character and his quest in pursuit of paladin-esque ideals.  I have a white hat complex the size of a small moon, so I tend towards the righteous warrior type.  My main character in WoW, also the first one I rolled, is a paladin.  What's more, she's a tanking paladin, a role that I could go on and on about, but that's not for this forum.  I loved Exalted in large part because it almost demanded (but stopped well short) that you play a character that has been touched by a higher being and invested with a portion of the power of said being.  Granted you could accept or decline that particular fate, but it made playing the righteous warrior much easier, and more spectacular, than something like D&D ever did.  What I'm circling around here is that I love that archetype of the sword and shield warrior with a sense of purpose beyond "kill them and take their stuff," entertaining as that purpose can be.  With my own zeal thus aroused, I went off looking for a suitable model that I might lavish paint upon at some point.

Painting progress?

First iPhone pictures could be better.

In a fit of inspiration today I put some paint on some models.  Because switching projects halfway is the best method to finish anything, I got started on some Winter Guard Infantry.  I'm doing a 5th Border Legion scheme which means lots of drab green.  I wanted to take a different approach with this group, making the highlights sharper.  My own complaining has gotten to me, so instead of doing another set of subtle highlights that disappear into the model I'm going with a bright, bright approach.  I started with a Vallejo Model Color paint, Russian uniform green or somesuch.  With this new approach in mind, I then used another Model Color, Camo Green I believe, and painted in some shading.  I like the idea of painting in shading instead of layering up from the darkest color as it's quicker, but the results leave something to be desired.  Practice will certainly help, and I'm aiming for a tabletop standard in an attempt to get them finished so I'll accept them as a learning project.  A Sepia wash was next, then another layer of the Russian green.  Then the Game Color came out, Bonewhite (bleached bone), about 50/50 with the green for a first highlight.  The final highlight was another 50/50 mix of more Bonewhite into the existing green.

New caster throwdown: pButcher vs eSkarre

Took some searching, but this will work.

The arms race hit its logical conclusion today as two new challengers entered the field of battle.  I got to experience eSkarre's Great Rack for the first time.  Now I get to experience the struggle to refrain from filling this battle report with bad jokes.  I'm going with this relatively tame picture and stopping there.  The Motherland sent pButcher to meet the undead menace.  I tried working out a couple Strakhov lists, but I kept reaching for pieces I don't have (I'm looking at you, Great Bears and Reach jacks.)  There was plenty of learning going on in this game as I got used to a new, if straight-forward, caster while EV did the same and also fielded a unit that was new to me at least, and I think to EV as well considering that we both were checking the cards and occasionally scratching our heads.  Despite these uncertainties we had another good game, if a little more lopsided than the last one, but I should really let the report speak for itself.  We went with a little less terrain this time.  I won the roll to go first and deferred, a little trick I had forgotten about but was reminded of over at the PP forums.  I'm using iBodger's email function for the lists this time, so the format is a bit different than what I usually do by hand, but this way is much easier and still plenty readable.

Update? Who does that?

L-O-L-A Lola, Lolololo Lola.

I'm shamed by how long it's been since the last post.  I'd love to offer something of substance by way of apology, but that'll just have to wait until next time.  In the here and now I have some very modest hobby progress, plus something I've been meaning to do for a while and have just now finished.  Spurred on by EV's recent escalation of the Warmachine arms race I put together a man who needs no introduction, pictured right.  I had cleaned the model a while back, but I guess the arm assembly kept me from assembling it at the same time.  Everything went together nice and easy thanks mostly to the greenstuff + super glue combo.  How I was engaged in the hobby for better than a decade and never found out that the two play so well together is beyond me.  Regardless of our time apart, we're together now, and that's what counts.  (Unrelated: I spent a couple minutes working up a Warmachine-centric version of the Kink's classic "Lola," only to realize that the tiny caption space under the picture wouldn't contain all that awesome.  Instead you get a much smaller, rather less awesome version.  Blame Blogger and how their photo captioning works.)

pVlad vs pStryker, or how I learned to start worrying and hate Earthquake

The earth shook today in part because of the titanic clash between classic rivals Khador and Cygnar today, but the party most to blame for the vibrations was one Commander Coleman Stryker.  EV talks about Styker in the fervent tones of the convert, so when he wrote about never fielding pStryker earlier I was surprised.  After all, I have played a game with pStryker, even if it was an introductory demo-style game.  I expected pStryker to be an offensive caster like eStryker, but I found out he has a more defensive setup.   And Earthquake.  I found out everything about Earthquake...

Good news, bad news

Good news first: I've joined the 21st century and am posting from my new iPhone. The tiny keyboard is a bit of a pain, but it's nice to have the capability. The bad news is that between the phone and the newly constructed computer I've spent an awful lot of money lately. This is a sort of blessing in disguise though as I can put the hard clamps on hobby purchases until I make some good progress. A pair of lists, first projects that are on hold while my wallet recovers.

Blood Angels expansions
Ork expansions
Pretty much any additions to any GW armies
New systems, not that any were on the horizon

And a much shorter list of things that might still get funding:

Wrath
New Khador bits, especially Harkevich, Black Ivan, and Torch
Trollbloods, once I get the starter box finished

While the lists split neatly between GW and PP, this is a coincidence. I will admit to a recent resurgence of PP interest though. EV and I will be throwing down tomorrow so we'll see what that does in terms of interest. I've already made a half dozen lists with iBodger so the ideas are flowing, though I think I'll be returning to a previous theme. No links or pics this time as posting from the phone is already tedious.