How did I not title this post when I posted it?

Group shot looks better than the individual for once.

My painting mojo was in full swing this morning, right up until I had to stop.  I'm a painting nomad in that my paints are rarely at home, and when they are it's because I'm in transit to another painting locale.  This is by design and has worked well right up until today.  A new furnace was installed here last week, and today there's a follow-up visit to fix up some of the loose ends.  Someone has to be here to let the guy in, and that someone is me.  This isn't a problem, nor a surprise, but it did cause some unexpected problems today.  As you can see, I got some good progress in on the Doomies.  They'd probably be finished today if I hadn't had to break off early to wait for the furnace guy.  I got the greens and reds done, plus (most of) the bandages on the limbs.  I was having a good old time on the reds when my hurry-home-so-I-can-wait timer went off, so the front rank of the above picture got the TLC highlight treatment, while the back rank got a much quicker pass.  I have a bad feeling that when I get back to the models and compare the two batches there won't be much difference.  The good news hidden in there is that I was reminded that I'm trying to strike a balance between detailed painting and getting things done quickly.  The other silver lining is that, barring a catastrophe, I should have them finished next time I sit down, which is hopefully tomorrow.  If I can manage all that, I might even have them available for Thursday.  I have missed my bloody, crazy Doomie safety blanket these past few weeks.

Is there such a thing as a "quick" post?

The group, it progresses.

Though my previous estimate of completing the Doomies in another two sessions is probably off, I did get in some decent work today.  As you can hopefully tell by looking at them, I got the skin done.  Less noticeable is the leather bits, which also got finished.  To round out the day I did a coat of Red Gore to firm up the red which had gotten rather dark after the wash.  While I have a firm idea of what color is going where, the firmness is most squishy when it comes to the trophy heads.  Like all good maniacs, the Doomies have taken plenty of trophies and display them on their belts, or in your face in the case of the leader.  Pending a good, close examination to see if any are Skorne heads, Ogruns, anything other than human, I'm thinking of doing some sort of wash or unusual (for me) shading on the heads to show that they're not fresh.  Having never done decaying/putrefying skin before, I'm not sure where to start.  My current inclination is a green wash, though purple seems like a good idea too. 

Individual shots show details better.

Because I need another paragraph to put in the second picture, I'll continue.  Tomorrow is D-Day for NGF.  I'll be bringing a box of Devastators and my handy modelling box, which has all my tools and materials for assembling minis, when I pay him a visit tomorrow.  My natural inclination when assembling is to save the one I'm most excited about until the end so I can get all my learning out of the way before I care about a stray cut here or there.  Since I want to set the hook firmly on the first strike with NGF, I'm considering going the opposite route.  As much as I want to give him the full treatment on cleaning, basing, posing, all the modelling goodness, I think the better tactic will be to just have him open the box and see what catches his fancy.  My big bag of marine kits may stay at home to avoid option overload, as staring at 30-40 sprues might be a bit much.  In the meantime I have to actually go get that box of marines.  And go make that money to get marines with.

More boots approach

One of these things is not like the others.

Due to some schedule swaps, I had a larger than usual amount of hobby time available yesterday.  As such I packed up quite the laundry list of potential modelling projects:

• The 2 player box, save the Destroyer chassis which is now Black Ivan
• Old Witch + Scrapjack
• Aiyana & Holt
• eIrusk
• Trollblood starter box

I also had my usual huge stack of books for flipping.  (As a side note, I want an all-inclusive Warmachine app that lets me flip through full entries for all the stuff in the game.  I realize this won't happen because it would invalidate the Forces books, plus all the cards, and basically give someone the whole of the game (minus the rules) in the one place, but isn't that what that program that rhymes with Smarmy Guilder does already?  iBodger is great and all, but sometimes I want to see the exact wording of a feat while on the crapper, in the car, at work, or elsewhere when my books aren't handy:)  While I didn't get as much out of that time as I hoped I would, I did make some progress, as you can see on the left.

Agendaless posting is a danerous thing

Real life Widowmakers.

Negligible hobby activity over the past few days makes me antsy to post for some reason, so here we are.  How about a nice list?

• UPS tells me the Deluge will arrive on Wednesday, which is the same day the two player starter box is set to release.  Said box is part of my order.  Half props to the Warstore for bringing the war to my door the day it's released.  The other half of the props will be issued when the package actually arrives.

Lack of hobbying leads to random posts

Search "things to do that aren't painting" and you get this.

Another odds and ends post as hockey progress has slowed to a crawl.  EV was stuck in schoolworkland on Thursday, which is our kinda usual unofficial gaming day.  I intended to get in some painting during the time I'd normally be slinging dice.  Instead I finished off Oryx and Crake, a book I first encountered on a list of works that influenced 40k.   How a book that's eight years old influenced a game that's better than thirty years old is beyond me.  There are some parallels in genetic manipulation and dehumanizing a population, but overall I don't really see the resemblance.  Great book though.

Between a rock and a hard place. And a chunk of ice.

It begins.

Quick post here, for reasons that will soon manifest.  First the hobby side.  You've no doubt already noticed the dynamic duo to the left.  I've been meaning to get to painting for a week or so.  Today I finally decided to stop meaning and get to doing, so I roughed in the colors on Harkevich and Strakhov.  As usual I'm not entirely sold on the scheme, and also as usual I'll probably run with it anyway.  Somehow I had to push to get going on Harkevich, but Strakhov promises to be smoother sailing.  This is the rock.

On the gaming side, though not the kind you're thinking of, I had a novel experience today.  NGF called me up to ask if I'd gotten Space Marine yet so we could try and arrange some play time as he'd just picked a copy up himself.  While I knew that the game released sometime soon, I didn't know it was today, hence the novel experience of being informed of a gaming development by the so-called Non-Gaming Friend.  I all but had to hang up on him to get to work on time when he called again to pick my brain about 40k fluff.  The long, slow con may finally be bearing fruit.  Now I'm hurrying to do this post so I can get to chainswording people in the face.  This is the hard place.

Unrelated to gaming, I've been reading Dan Simmons' The Terror over the past week or so.  It's really good, so good that it's been the main impediment to painting.  I still have about 25% to go, but if the rest holds up to the standard set thus far, and I have no reason to think that it won't, The Terror may give perennial favorite Guy Gavreil Kay's Under Heaven a run for Best Book I've Read This Year.  Considering how highly I regard Kay as an author this is quite a feat.  This is the chunk of ice.

There's my dilemma, three things I want to do at once.  For now it's off to the grimdark future where there's war, war, and more war.  Tomorrow though, who knows?

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.

What can you do with an hour? Or a Dethcopta?

Adjusting is the name of the game.

Had another game of Warhammer Quest on Tuesday.  This time our party was successful in spite of losing the Barbarian in the second room.  Quest remains a brutal game, but perhaps not unworkable.  Throughout the game I was considering house rules on the number of extra events via power dice.  Limiting it to one at a time was my first thought, but on reflection I think that might be a bit much.  Two at a time is intriguing as it allows for problems to compound on each other, potentially 3 events at a time if you get two extra events while dealing with the standard room event, while not overwhelming the party with 4+ events in a row.  I've had some horrific power rolls in these latest games, so 4+ is neither impossible nor terribly rare.  Since more events take longer to do, which leads to more power rolls and more potential extra events, once the ball starts rolling it soon becomes unwieldy.  Next time around I may start tweaking and seeing how it works.  NGF also asked a question that had me stumped.  We did the good gamer thing for dinner: ordered pizza.  Said pizza arrived when we still had (potentially) 5 rooms to go, so we hurried along to the finish to avoid mixing pizza and cardboard tiles/cards.  NGF remarked on the length of the game, around 2.5 hours including dicking around time.  This is pretty standard for gaming and I told him as much, and in return he asked if there was anything that took around an hour.  This is where I'm stumped.  I have a few ideas, mostly combat patrol/40k in 40 minutes and battlebox Warmahordes.  Neither of those options represents the parent game well, though battlebox games aren't far off, so I'd like to find something that's a better fit.  I want something that is based around minis, something that requires collecting and painting which will eliminate most boardgames.  I'd also like something that doesn't take a full-sized (6x4) table to play and something that requires little to no terrain.  Not too much to ask for, right?

In other news I saw a post about lots of orks on 3++ this morning, one that reminded me of another post I had seen on fester 40k a while ago.  I have 6 Dethcoptas, mostly in pieces, none of which is a lock to ever see the table.  At the same time I have a single rocket buggy, and a trak at that, which is featured in every ork list I've written.  Since these examples look so nice, and I have a surplus of coptas with a deficit of buggies, I'm thinking I'll convert up at least 3 of the coptas into buggies.  I would change them all over if the base Dethcopta model wasn't so nice, plus there's always the chance that FAQs and new editions will make the coptas more attractive than buggies.  I have 3 buggies already, two wheeled shootas and one trakked rokkit, so I may do two conversions with trakks and one with wheels to make two coherent squadrons.  Of course if I did all of the coptas I have I'd be maxed out on rokkit buggies, which would be nice.  Plus I can always get more copta models via AoBR, Ebay, or something similar.  They should be pretty cheap.  I also think I'm gonna take a pass on converting the AoBR boys.  They should only be about half of the Slugga boys and they aren't all the same model, just similar poses, so hopefully they blend in well enough and everything looks nice.

Back to the...past

Remember this one?

No painting to speak of since the last time.  Instead I got in a bit of gaming.  I have a non-gaming friend who causes me to be locked in an eternal debate: whether or not to try and bring him into the hobby.  The benefits are obvious, while the drawbacks are less so, but in the end I decided to give it another shot over the weekend.  To that end, I pulled out an old gem: Warhammer Quest.  I've tried a toned-down version of Uncharted Seas with this guy before, who I'll go ahead and acronymize as NGF, with a modicum of success at the time, but no real retention afterwards.  I thought Warhammer Quest might work a little better as it's a familiar game type, being Diablo the board game in effect, plus the various little gribblies that need paint would be an easy introduction to painting should things get that far.