Last(?) bit before the Nova Open

Shamelessly plundered from the PP forums.

Once again I slacked on going out to Huzzah.  On the one hand it's unfortunate as I haven't been there in a while and won't have a chance to hit Game Parlor on Thursday before heading to the Nova Open, so this was my last chance to test lists pre-con.  On the other hand I assembled the rest of the pieces for those lists today, so it's not like I just sat on the couch eating truffles and watching Oprah.  What did I get built?  Just this:

• Strider UA
• Totem Hunter
• Naga Nightlurker
• Nephilim Bolt Thrower
• Rhyas

Rhyas was more bonus than anything as I wanted to assemble another caster and she looked easier to deal with than eVayl and her huge, floaty cloak.  I may prime this latest batch if the opportunity presents itself tomorrow, but I'm content with my collection as it stands and don't feel compelled to do anything else to get ready for the Open.

Between now and Thursday I'll need to pack a suitcase, which is boring, and also pack the new bag that just showed up today, which is exciting.  I got some purpose made Legion and Khador foam to fit the problem pieces (warnouns and MoW) and am looking forward to splitting my collection later tonight.  The one issue I foresee is gaming accessories: dice, markers, tape measure, that sort of thing.  Perhaps I'll look into a small shaving kit sort of bag to keep all those bits in so I'm not fishing things out of one bag and plopping them in another.  Fortunately there aren't many, if any, models that work for both Khador and Legion so I won't have to worry about which bag a model is in.

This is probably the last post until I get back as I don't have anything exciting to do between now and then, but you never know.  I keep hearing about this Twitter that all the kids are going on about, and it seems the Open is using it to make announcements and the like.  It's possible, though highly unlikely, that I'll be Twittering during the Open.  If that sounds interesting my handle there is demitra_kmnb.  I have no idea how to link it, or where to link it to, or really much of anything about twits in general.  Just in case I've missed the mark, let me stress again that there will likely be nothing happening there.  With that, I'm vacating this particular part of the intertubes.  For now...

Journeyman Painting Log # 26

Head scratching monkey is also confused.

Before getting on with the meat of the post a little diversion.  I took a look at where I get traffic from today and found something quite surprising.  I got a handful of hits from the UK's "#1 Adult Social Network," which in turn looks to have been bounced from what sure looks like a site that streams shaky cam versions of current movie releases.  Pure happenstance, or is my little corner of the internet getting a bit bigger?  If the latter, is this really the sort of traffic I want?

Journeyman Painting Log # 25

Leader lost a hand, as is tradition. 

Quite the round number this series has gotten up to.  Today was more relaxed than yesterday's frenzy, but I still got some good work in.  I finally got started on the Striders, as you can see, and would guesstimate that I'm about halfway through them.  I'm still slacking on building the UA, which is one of four things I absolutely have to construct by the Nova Open, but there's still time to get it done.  Ideally I'd assemble and paint them before the Open, but a look at the 48ish hour forecast shows that the next likely spraying window is midday on Monday.  Priming should be no problem for the stuff that I hope to build by then, but painting and varnishing before I leave for the Open is a longer shot.  The current plan is to finish the Striders Monday morning before my spray window opens, then varnish my recent haul and prime the stuff I hope to build tomorrow.  If everything goes according to plan and if there's another spray window sometime Wednesday then I'll push to get the Strider UA done as well and call it a job well done.  I've already hit my (realistic) goal for the painting portion of the Journeyman league, namely getting a list painted for Hardcore, and will even take a decent run at my unrealistic goal of painting all my Legion stuff.

In non-painting news (!) I realized I've made a mistake over the last few weeks.  Hardcore has been my overwhelming focus for most of August, and July, and I still haven't fully settled on a list.  I have a general idea and a few iterations, but it's looking like an executive decision will trump play testing.  This is not ideal.  Even worse, I've neglected the rest of the events.  Since Hardcore is 50 while the non-"Championship" rounds are 35, this is a double whammy as I've been focused on one level and so haven't gotten a lot of practice at the other.  The lists themselves haven't been much of a problem, aside from a complete lack of recent testing, but a bigger issue has emerged: reinforcements.  At 35 points I'll need 7 points of reinforcements (I think, another bad sign) and I have few viable options for that level.  Striders are 6, but lack the UA.  No beast comes in at 7 points with the exception of a discounted Seraph, which will likely be in my Absylonia list already.  Raptors run 6 for a min unit, which would be ideal, except I don't have Raptors.  The best solution I've come up with thus far is Annyssa and a Totem Hunter, but best is relative here.  I've played Annyssa exactly once, which is one more game than the Totem Hunter has seen.  At least Annyssa is assembled.  On paper I like the pair as they're both fast, Stealthed, and reasonably resilient, but my lack of experience with them is unsettling.  Then again I'll be less familiar than I'd like with most of my lists, so at least they'll have company.

Journeyman Painting Log # 24

You can never have enough Shredders. 

Today was my most productive day of painting probably ever, but certainly since I made my triumphant return to wargaming.  While finishing the Angelius yesterday I got a start on a trio of Shredders.  That's really a bit generous since my "start" consisted of a single layer of my flesh base, which was already present on the models when I got them from EV.  My plan for today was to finish off the Shredders and get a similar start on the remaining Swordsmen, though I hoped to proceed further with the Swordsmen than the Shredders.  I was confident that I'd finish off the Shredders since they're so small and relatively simple sculpts, but the Swordsmen were less certain.

Journeyman Painting Log # 23

Engage place to put picture mode.

Actual post to follow.

Update: Painting has outstripped blogging.  Bad news is that this is now an actual post.  Good news is that there'll be another up soon(ish).

Journeyman Painting Log # 22

Spell or sword?  Why not both? 

Finished up the Blackfrost Shard yesterday.  Turns out they had as little left to do as I thought.  The most annoying part was the scabbards, which I had neglected during prior session and thus needed to be worked up from scratch.  Of course "annoying" is relative here as the scabbards only needed 4-5 layers, mostly with colors that I was working with anyway.  This is all a roundabout way of saying the BFS finished up both easy and quick.  This is a boon at any time, but especially with the Nova Open getting closer by the hour.

Journeyman Painting Log # 21

Nearing the finish line. 

This is an odd post to write.  The pictures are from yesterday and I'm writing just before I sit down to paint today so the content won't be current (for me) for too long.  Your experience will be unaffected though.  The Blackfrost Shard nears completion, which is good since I still have plenty to paint for the Nova Open and not much time left to get it done.  I finished off the skin and creamy bits, plus sort of finished the orange bits.  All that remains now is detail: hair, rivets, glowing runes, leaves, scabbards, little metal bits, anything else I find.  Really not much...

Tournament Mode: Soft to the Core

A different kind of softcore. 

This will be lackluster when compared with my other tournament recaps.  Hardcore timing does not encourage in-game photography.

Yesterday there was a Softcore event at my FLGS.  Perhaps you've seen murmurings about it on this very blog?  There was a good turn out, 14 in all I think, with a decent spread of factions.  There was uncertainty as to the turn out, in terms of both numbers and geography.  There was only one non-regular contender. of whom I'll speak in a bit, with the rest being part of the cast you'd likely see on any given Thursday at Game Parlor.  While I always like playing against different people, in a way it was nice to face familiar opponents as it removed one variable from the equation while testing a new(ish) list and format.  The previous post is about the list I ran and my rationale behind it, so if you've stumbled across this post and want some context just hop back one.  This post will wait until you get back, it's patient.

'Twas the Night Before Softcore

Not quite 100%. 

Before I start, an unrelated bit of head-scratching.  If you dare, turn off safe search on Google.  Search for "hardcore" images, then repeat for "softcore."  You might be surprised by which search turns up more porn.

Further note before beginning: I try to keep the jargon to a minimum and explain things so that just about anyone, provided a modicum of wargaming knowledge, can figure out what I'm babbling on about.  This time, not so much.  This is as much an exercise for me as it is a post for you, so if you don't know much about Legion, Hardcore, or Warmahordes you'll either want to pick a different post (there are many to choose from, all high quality) or bring yourself up to speed.  Battle College is a handy resource that should do the trick.

Journeyman Painting Log # 20

The best I can say is she's finished. 

Depression and elation in today's post.  I will begin, as you might expect, with the bad.  But first, the good part of the bad: Annyssa is finished.  What's the bad?  Look at the picture and you'll find out.  I was really looking forward to painting this model, which may well be the first cavalry model I've ever taken to completion, but as I progressed through it I became more disgruntled with each brush stroke.  Nothing quite turned out like I wanted it to, with (perhaps) the small exception of the hooves.  The face in particular caused much grief as it went from bad to worse before finally settling on a pretty good impression of Aughra from the Dark Crystal.  I'm no psychic so I can't know what the sculptor was shooting for, but I feel confident saying that they probably drew inspiration from a different source.  To close this paragraph in the only way possible I present an apology to whoever sculpted this model: I'm deeply sorry for what I've done to your work which deserved better, despite the ginormous gap between Annyssa's butt and the saddle.  I'll let the game developers take credit for the game entity having no melee weapon when the model has a big sword strapped across her back.

Journeyman Painting Log # 19

Got some bolts that need throwing?  Call this guy. 

Today I turned away from the scattershot, "economical" approach I employed during my last painting session and went back to what's been working for me lately: finishing off one project without worrying about others.  You can see the results to the right, but if your image loader is broken or you're otherwise unable to see the pretty picture I can instead tell you that it's a Nephilim Bolt Thrower.  While I had no problem applying my scheme to the model, the results were (as usual) a bit surprising.  Looking through the PP gallery, the Nephilim as a whole lack the extensive armored plates that feature on the other beasts.  Considering this it isn't so surprising that the Bolt Thrower came out as white/blue as it did.  The armor covers up some plates on the head which would stick a little more orange/brown in the scheme.  Variety is a theme I keep coming back to and this is no exception.  Armor on beasts is a strictly Nephilim thing that helps set them apart from the spawned-from-blood beasts that I've painted up to now.  I'm taken by a desire to photograph everything I've painted so far together as a group to see, and show, how they all look standing next to each other, but that will have to wait until closer to the end of the Journeyman league.

In other news I (mostly) finished putting together the second set of Ravagore bits.  All the pieces are together, they have magnets, they just need a bit of putty around the elbows to smooth the transition between pieces.  Hopefully I do that puttying tonight while also addressing the exposed wire on the second Angelius, which would allow me to prime them when I seal the Bolt Thrower, which would leave me with a large pile of stuff that's ready to paint.  I'm finally getting into new stuff now, models I've never put on the table before, which will be a nice change from just painting stuff I've been playing with but haven't finished yet.  A lot of the new stuff is very shooty and, with any luck, will work so well that it shakes up my list building process which has settled into some well-worn grooves, if not yet ruts, of late.

Journeyman Painting Log # 18

Still dark despite my best efforts. 

After a longer than anticipated delay I returned to the painting table today.  The current crop of victims has been on the sidebar for a while but hadn't suffered from my attention until now.  My initial plan was to focus on the Blackfrost Shard and apply any paint left in the well on the other models.  While assembling them, I decided to make the BFS a little more colorful than the rest of the army.  This was spurred on in part by the vast swathes of multilayered cloth requiring some sort of color variety to keep them separate visually, but also because they're a character unit and merit a little extra kick.  The plan is as follows: cream cloaks with orange trim, purple interior clothes with possible orange trim, the rest of the model as usual.  Of particular note here is the catastrophe in the center.  I dropped the leader while painting which busted his hand off.  This unfortunate occurrence had extra punch as I was thinking this morning about all the glue + greenstuff I'd used on the latest batch of assemblies, how poorly that worked out with pIrusk (who lost his glue+gs-attached sword hand while coming out of the bag one day), and how bad I felt about not pinning said latest batch in my zeal to get them assembled.  I hoped it wouldn't bite me in the ass, but it did all the same, and now the leader's hand is just jammed in the bluetac while the rest of him gets painted.  I think I'll finish the body, varnish it up, reattach the hand (this time via pinning), paint the hand, then varnish again add snow and all that jazz.

Journeyman Painting Log # 17

Coming to single wound infantry in your backfield soon. 

Today, and this past weekend, were nice and productive.  First, I finished off the lingering Deathstalker.  While you can't tell so much from the picture, the model ended up a bit darker (or at least browner) than anticipated.  This isn't a bad thing as Striders are all stealthy, ambush-through-the-woods types, so being covered in dark leather makes plenty of sense.  It's a bit outside my scheme, but when I get to the Striders that won't be as much of an issue. 

Speaking of Striders, there's a segue to the rest of my productivity.  I have begun, and in some cases finished, assembling the following:

• Annyssa Ryvaal
• The Blackfrost Shard
• Striders
• Succubus
• Swamp Gobbers
• Nephilim Bolt Thrower
• Angelius

Some of these items have appeared previously.  In particular the Striders still need arms, while the Succubus needs...love? work? a miracle?  Hopefully the model grows on me, but I have my doubts.  It looks to be super smexy on the table though, so I'll power through the model itself.  Maybe a paper bag?  In the meantime I'll be hoping for a break in the humidity so I can seal the Deathstalker and prime the swathe of new stuff on deck.  As for painting, maybe some Shredders?