Errants Are "Done"

Remember this guy?    

A tasty bit of apocrypha tells us that a young Colonel Sanders once dropped a profound couplet on the world at large: know when to hold 'em/know when to fold 'em.  (Suspect pundits, quoting unvalidated sources, attribute this differently.  They're wrong.)

While napping through the Come to Jebus meeting at my local Waffle Barn I made a hard choice: put in some work making them look nice, then declare victory on the Errant front.  I've put plenty of time and effort into them, and I'm telling myself I'll go back and finish them properly later, but if I want to get my army even close to painted for the Journeyman league (and I do) then it's time for some triage.  The time-hemorrhage that is that unit had to stop, so I got my kit out today and made it so.

Turns out that Bush pic is really long, so I need a text buffer to make things look less like a puddle of vomit.  Hopefully this gets the job done.

Screw these guys.  I'm super seriously.

I felt like a heel while doing this since there wasn't a whole lot left to do.  It didn't take too long to get the black down (not highlighting saves a lot of time), which led nicely into finishing the bases.  All that was left after was a bit of silver here and there and then "victory."  To be fair to myself they look fine, especially on the table.

The big win here is that I can now plow ahead into the mountain of other models waiting for love.  Keeping with the triage theme the plan now is to base coat the lot so everything has the (beginnings of the) right color in the right place.  Then I can pull out whatever and finish it properly.  Will I get approximately 20 infantry and 4 jacks done in the next 2.5 weeks?  Doubtful.  Can I get base coats on that same group in that time?  Sure can.

Why stop there though?  Let's shoot for the moon.  I'm gonna base coat and wash those models.

Journeyman Update 2

Looks nice, takes years.  

To borrow a phrase from one of my favorites, we've always been painting Errants.  These little bastards are the gifts that keep on giving...an unending list of things to paint.  After a decent Tuesday of painting I thought I was on the last leg.  The whites and reds were done, leaving only the golds and blacks (and yes, also the inevitable overlooked bits and basing).  I rolled into Thursday feeling good about my chances of finishing the unit in advance of today's Paint the Target due date.  This confidence was misplaced.  Much suffering ensued.

Full disclosure: I was trying something new.  More fuller disclosure: the new thing was a different shade of brown.  I've been using the brown undercoat for bronze/gold approach for a while, but until yesterday the brown has been the VGC equivalent of Snakebite Leather.  This has served me well, but I wondered if a darker (some might say Beastial) brown would look better.  Fast forward some four hours of laying down brown so I could paint over it with bronze (and then highlight...) and something had to give.  I had an emergency backup plan in my pocket in case I ran into this very scenario consisting of one step: abandon the group and finish a single model.  Somehow the bronze and gold went on quicker than the brown, there wasn't much black to do, the base went as bases do, and I was able to get a model close enough to call it finished without any major psychotic episodes.

The bad news, of course, is there are nine more of these guys to do.  Plus the UA.  And a solo.  Ugh.

Journeyman Update 1

They paint soooo sloooooooooooooooooooooow.

The journeyman league started up this week and I'm already behind.  Not in the league standings, where I'm doing well, but on the painting table.  You might recall my grand ambition to have the Errants (perhaps the UA and solo as well) finished before the league began.  That hasn't quite worked out (thanks Olympics!) and now here we are in week two and I've just had my first good, meaty session with them.  Things are going, if slower than hoped for, but I have managed to learn one vital lesson: painting Errants sucks.  All the detail, all the cross-body arms, all the mans, everything is bad bad bad.  Things are surely exaggerated by the relative lateness of the takeoff and that I'm in the part of the process that takes the most time while yielding little visible progress (love basecoats and layering up), but it's still painful.  The good news is that I'm doing my penance now for running the Errant boat, so when my opponent's tears inevitably begin to flow I can say "Hey man, it could be worse.  I had to paint these bastards."  There's only (only!) another two or three layers for the armor, so hopefully things speed up soon, though I know all the gold will be a slog.  My only solace in these troubling times is that each layer I do is one less to do in the future.  The plan now is to finish the Errants this week.

On the gaming front the picture is much rosier.  Thanks to a case of mistaken identity and some poor dice I went 3-0 in the first week.  The list worked more or less as expected, and I even managed my first scenario win in forever.  I ran Reckoner/Vanquisher last week and now I'm not sure about making the move to double Reckoner.  The 4" of auto-fire is real nice, even if it is shorter ranged on a slower chassis.  I might press my luck this week and stick with the list as is.

Journeyman Photo Hoster

Really just need a place to put a picture, but we'll do a tiny post at the same time.  The Journeyman league starts in a week, which means it's past time to get everything put together.  I'm close with just the Errant UA, Repenter, and Wracks left to assemble.  I've even got a start on the Wracks.  There's also a second Reckoner, but that can and probably will wait until the rest is together.  The Errants are about to hit the painting table, a bit behind schedule but still on pace.  Still waiting and hoping for spraying weather.

Finished Models, New Adventures

Behold my mighty works and despair!  

The first two members of the newly formed Northern Crusade are finished.  At least I think they're mostly finished.  I'm in the midst of a fierce internal debate over whether to add some static grass to the bases.  The grey cobblestones are the victory I hoped they would be, and the bases are pleasing overall, but I think a little something extra (like static grass) would really kick them over the line I was shooting for.  Are they worth the extra steps, and vast amount of drying time, for the results?  I'm not convinced just yet, but they do look nice.  Granted they're going quicker as I do more and get to know the process better, but it's still a couple extra hurdles to getting models assembled, let alone painted.  I'm already invested for this army, and they'll be a nice touch for character/showcase models, but I don't know that I'll want to do another whole army this way.

Painting With Actual Colors

The end of session one.  

With a couple painting deadlines just over the horizon, and with my the plague that knocked me on my ass for a week or so finally (hopefully) behind me, it's time to get the painting machine going.  This process has been underway for a couple days, so there will be more pictures than usual.  I'm sure you'll find a way to push through.

I've talked a couple times about how I want to push my limits a bit with this new project.  Some chances have already fallen short, notably jack construction, while others have yet to be given the chance to be pushed aside.  Of particular note for this post is painting approach.  I'm trying out a few things: following a studio scheme (more or less), painting with a reference, and trying out the PP style of shading and highlighting.  Basics remain unchanged, so my first session was still blocking in colors and applying a wash (even if the wash didn't go down until session two).

More Prime Puns

Old shot, now they're primed.  

Now I'm going meta with titles.  Look upon my works and despair.

That whole tournament thing I was going on about?  Didn't happen for me.  Illness stepped in and said "No, you will not be playing games this weekend."  Fortunately I was still able to make good use of my time by assembling a unit of Errants and a Vigilant.  The Vigiliant went together quick and easy.  The Errants, not so much.  Each model was at least 8 pieces, not counting the base, which takes some time even in plastic.  The metal models must have been a nightmare, one I'll get a taste of when I do the UA and solo.  Now I have a reasonable collection assembled and the biggest remaining hurdles from my initial batch are the TFG and Cinerators.  Everything else is single models or small groups.  Granted some of those are Wracks, which look frustrating, and most are metal, but it's easier to get an Errant solo and UA together than those plus the unit.

All this force congealing is coming at a good time, more or less as planned, because there's now a lot of Journeyman chatter going on the local email group.  The plan all along has been to gather Menites, assemble and prime them, then initiate a painting orgy when the league starts.  While I'm on the hook to paint a couple before the league starts (thanks in large part to local Ron's attempt to reboot Paint the Target) I'll still be in a good place.

Stumbling Out Of the Gate

Who leaves a triangle out where someone can trip on it?  

After my (minor) Herculean effort to get models together and primed I got to put them on the table last night.  My opponent was Justin, a buddy of EV's who is fairly new to our local Warmahordes group and the game in general.  Normally I'd pull out Zerkova or Rhyas for a relative newcomer, but having brought just the one list I didn't have any options.  When models started coming out this lack of diversity bit me square on the ass.  As you may have gathered from previous posts I was playing pKreoss.  Across the table was his natural predator: Ravyn with MHSF.  There wasn't a whole lot to do, and in retrospect I'm not sure I had any play other than running off into a corner and praying, but at least it was over quick.

As the night was wrapping up I heard that the Game Vault tournament I've been getting ready for was full, which was unfortunate as I hadn't claimed a spot since I wanted to make sure I had enough Menoth together to make a 35 point list.  There may also have been a bit of procrastination involved.  Regardless of who made what mistakes based on which shortcomings, I figured it wasn't meant to be.  Then I got a highlighted email today pointing out that someone had already signed me up, so the trip is back on.  I'm a little concerned about running into poor match-ups while bringing just one list, but this trip will be more about getting some reps in with a new faction and seeing if Game Vault has some of the bits I'm still looking for on the shelf.  Of course there's also a little place called Sonic, but that's a bonus.

Ready For Prime Time

The fruits of my labors.  

The title of this post is a little misleading, which I'll cover in a minute, but it was too good to not use.  With the "polar vortex" poised to freeze all of reality solid sometime today (Monday) I took a look at forecasts for today while watching the foosball yesterday to see if I'd be able to squeeze in some priming before the 9th circle of hell (which your classical education taught you was frozen) descends upon us all.  Turned out there was a window this afternoon, so last night I got to work building a Reckoner and pinning two heavies to bases, the final items on my pre-priming list.  As the picture above shows the work went well, and now I have a fully assembled and primed 35 point pKreoss army ready for a test run on Wednesday before their maiden competitive voyage this weekend.

Crusade Gains Ground

From last night.  Not exactly frightful, but nice anyway.  

Amidst a flurry of snow there's also been a flurry of hobby progress.  I got a bit handsy with the bases last night and gave them a good ballasting ahead of schedule, which paved the way to get the Zealots assembled today.  I stuck with the smaller pinning option, piano wire, and things went much easier.  I learned some good lessons while doing the unit, to the point that I'm a little concerned about the first couple.  Not that I expect them to come flying off their bases, but they're not as solid as the later ones.  High on the fumes of victory, I plunged ahead by greenstuffing three large bases and (finally, years later) putting together a Vanquisher (full glue, I skipped the magnets this time).  I'll ballast the bases either later tonight or sometime over the weekend.  Pinning the Vanquisher should be far easier than the Zealots because plastic/resin is a thing that's great.

The Crusade Takes Shape

Still working on that whole "regular update" thing.  The silver lining is that when I get around to posting I have a decent bit of progress to report.  I've made a reasonable dent in the pile, as you can see on the right, and there's even a bit more unshown progress in the form of a cleaned, ready for bases unit of Zealots.  The bases for the Zealots are in progress with the largest hurdle (greenstuff) done and curing at this moment.  I'll do ballast tomorrow and hopefully get the models on the (dry and finished) bases over the weekend.
Turning to the completed construction, the jack support is ready to go with the Choir and a pair of Vassals waiting for primer.  The Choir was more of a pain than anticipated.  The tabs and robes were all one big piece, so clipping and filing took a while.  Pinning was a pain as well, but for the Vassals I tried swapping my standard paper clips for the (relatively) new piano wire with pleasant results.  The drilling went much faster, with less worries about potentially drilling through a leg or ankle.  I didn't try bending the piano wire and greenstuffing it to the base like I do with the paper clips.  We'll see if this causes problems down the road, but the Vassals felt plenty secure even without dry glue.  As a bonus I did a bit of greenstuff on Kreoss' base to blend him in with the rest.

The First Step

Now in a darker grey.  

The pile of boxes lost a member a few days ago when a Redeemer took form.  Building a whole mini without a base was as odd as expected and pinning the model to the base caused some collateral damage (the gun popped off), but aside from seeming to take longer the process went off without a hitch.  The weather broke after everything was glued together and dry, a clear sign that I'm on the right path, so I even got to prime the little bugger.  It's incredibly top heavy even discarding the Vlad-esque shoulders, so I have a few concerns about the load-bearing chicken legs, but it's a finished model which is what counts at this point.  I've been planning to do TFG or Errants next, but now I'm thinking about doing the Choir.  They're single part sculpts for the most part, will feature in every list I'm likely to field, there's only six of them, and it'd scratch one of the metal units off the list.  We'll see how it turns out.

In keeping with tradition, I added another model as soon as I finished the Redeemer.  In my defense I didn't exactly go and get it for myself.  We had a white elephant/yankee swap/whatever holiday free play event on Wednesday, so I had to walk away with something.  I've never done one of these events before, but my initial impression was a good one.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and the amount of Menoth in the swap was nice as I had plenty of options but also a bit daunting as I'm now wary of faction overload.  I finished towards the sharp end, which meant I could almost take my pick of the litter.  There was a Devout floating around that tempted me greatly, but ultimately I went with a Vigilant because it's plastic.  I brought a Nephilim Soldier (it seemed prudent to bring something I'd like), so I think I made out fine.

Now With Title!

My latest endeavor.  

Fun fact: this is version three of this post.  The previous two were lost while trying to get the phone and tablet, and multiple apps on both, to play nice.  The future, it is not yet here.  This third iteration brought to you the old fashioned way, with a keyboard and mouse.  I had missed natural, effortless typing.  But I digress...

My lack of hobby progress over the past month or two has been unsettling.  Things are fine on the gaming side, but modelling and painting has slowed as much as possible without hitting a full stop.  The only sensible thing to do in this sort of situation is to add more models to the queue, which is exactly what I did thanks to Black Friday sales.  It took a while, but I finally pulled the trigger on Menoth.  I settled on a list of (what I consider) core choices, ran it past my locals, and finally gave Spikey Bits a shot.  Now I have many more mans waiting (and waiting) for some TLC.

Nova Open Recap: Hardcore

Where I spent my long, long, loooooooong weekend. 

Starting at the beginning of the Open may not be the best idea as my recollection gets hazier the further back I go, but I am no more capable of reporting outside chronological order than I am setting up non-symmetrical terrain.  We all have crosses to bear in life.

To really start at the beginning, I arrived Thursday night.  There weren't any events scheduled and Iron Arena wasn't running yet, so it was pretty quiet.  There were a pair of games running when I poked my head in for the first time.  After taking a lap of the 40k hall and future vendor area I returned to the Warmahordes room and got in a friendly with James, who I hear is a PG in training over at Huzzah. A very relaxed start to the chaos that would follow.

Summer Battle Tour Continues

Just look for the great big hammer. 

Thanks to a scheduling snafu that moved my family's Father's Day dinner to the week after Father's Day, I had the chance to travel to Games and Stuff for a 50 pointer.  GNS is the last of the stores in my extended gaming area to get crossed off my list and it made quite an impression.  It's a two story affair with the shop on the bottom and a big gaming room on top.  They posted a pic of the action this past weekend that showcases this humble author while also showing off the room, which is second only to Game Vault in terms of sheer playing space.  This upstairs space is apparently undergoing renovation but was still the nicest play space I've frequented so far.  I didn't have a lot of time to browse on the way out, so I concentrated my attention on the Warmahordes section and Legion stuff in particular.  They may not have had one of everything in the line on the wall, but it was close enough for me, and it looked like every other faction was represented just as well.  My only real complaint about the store is that it's quite a drive, but that's a small issue.  If you're in the area stop by and check it out.  Enough of the plugs, on with the show.

The virtues of taking one to the face

"Learning opportunity" 

There has been a troubling trend around here lately: I've been winning too much.  Sounds like a good problem to have, no?  The downside of this trend is overconfidence.  I've been settling in, getting comfortable in my game, feeling a little invulnerable at times.  This is obviously a Bad Thing, and it's been even worse because I've been aware of it but powerless to do anything about it.  Fortunately for me I got the worst beating I've had in a long time on Thursday. How can this possibly be a good thing?  No one likes losing, much less being tabled, but I'm a firm advocate of learning by taking shots to the face.  No lesson is remembered as well as the one that stings for days afterwards, and despite what I've been thinking lately I still have plenty to learn about Warmahordes. 

This "Week" in the Gnarls League, Part 5

Not this Death Race (thank Jebus).

As entertaining as the Gnarls league was, by the end of last week I was feeling a little crisp around the edges after all that gaming.  What better way to cap that off than with a tournament?  The format was simple: 25 points, single list, all rounds use the Overrun scenario.  Apparently this is a "Death Race" format.  Looking back on the tournament, the name is fitting.  With 27 minute death clocks (54 minutes total for the game at most) and a scenario that forces you to the center, things got hot and heavy with a quickness.  It was an entertaining setup.

Coming up with a 25 point list was more challenging than I expected.  After getting used to playing at 50 points, cutting my list in half required some tough compromises.  While I could manage to run a tier list at 25 points the resulting list (Typhon, Seraph, 3 Shredders, 2 Shepherds, 2 Forsaken) was too heavy on support pieces (which I count the Shredders as) and too light on heavy hitters.  (I think of Typhon as heavy support instead of a heavy hitter, so the list is all support and no hammer.)  My second try was a little better (2 Carnis, 3 Shredders, 2 Forsaken), but there were two big problems: first I had one Carnivean too many, second I had no Seraph (and therefore no Slipstream).  Slipstream is too versatile to leave behind, so I went back to the drawing board.  Leaving behind the tier list I've come to love so much, my third attempt was much better: 2 Scytheans, a Seraph, a Shredder, and a Forsaken.  With both Slipstream and Tenacity I felt better about this list, but finally decided to trade in the Shredder to upgrade a Scythean to a Carnivean.  My final list was thus:

This Week in the Gnarls League, Part 2

Against Jason.

Week two of the Gnarls league wraps up today, but for me it finished yesterday with my third game.  Let's start at the beginning.  The first game was Thursday against Jason, a regular Menoth player who I had not yet faced off against.  I ran a newish Absylonia list with Typhon, a Carnivean, a Seraph, four Shredders, and a pair of both Shepherds and Forsaken.  Jason used Amon with a horde of light jacks, 8 in all, with a pair of min choirs and some wracks.  The scenario was Hold the Line, one that I enjoy for its straight-forwardness.  As usual when facing a new caster/army, I read the cards and took note of abilities, then promptly forgot or underestimated them.  Synergy caught me with my pants not down, but off and in another room.  I lost Typhon and the Carni, both undamaged, on the same turn and that was about it.  I almost shot down Amon with the Seraph, then couldn't quite manage to get Aby in charge range of him.  This game was a fairly ugly case of learning by taking it in the face for me, but that knowledge would come in handy in the next game.

This Week in the Gnarls League, Part 1

Not these Gnarls.

The Gnarls League started this week and despite some scheduling difficulties (read: hockey on Thursday night) I managed to get my three games in for the week.  These seasonal leagues have intrigued me since I first heard about them.  The idea that some models are taken out and replaced with variations on them is a novel one.  This year's leagues take the novelty a step further by allying two factions (Legion pairs up with Mercs for the Gnarls)  and allowing them to field each others' seasonal model.  The Merc's model (grape shot cannon) doesn't do much for me, and a lot of the pairings are odd, but it's a good way to add in some variety without actually adding new pieces to the game which astute readers will remember is a plus for me.  Looks like I've finally encased my first picture in text, so on to the mini battle reports.

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.