Feat of Service: Spell Draft Trial Run

A couple notes before I get into what I'm here to do.  First, there will (eventually) be a Journeyman league wrap-up post.  Second, this will be one of those posts where I assume whoever is reading it knows what I'm talking about.  Normally I try to make posts as accessible as possible, for gamers and people who somehow stumble down this particular alley unaware of what they're getting into, but that's not feasible here.  Finally, chances are good I'll be dropping links into this post later, so if you want more information...check back later?  Apologies in advance if you have to break out your gold miner kit to sift for new things.

Nope, not even close.

My local gaming group, the Nova Nomads, is marching from semi-organized rabble to Legitimate Grouping of Peoples.  Part of the reason for this is to help us do bigger and better things, the first of which is coming up soon and has a suitably imposing name: the First Annual Feat of Service to Benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, Presented by the Nova Nomads.  This is a book release style day of open gaming with wacky achievements for zany tabletop heroics, but with the twist of using a customized caster/lock.  Without going into a ton of detail, which can be found  here (to be updated soon), you pick a faction to play, select a caster/lock (independent of faction, so you can play a Circle warlock in Cryx) from a big list (this time around it's anything found in the free version of War Room), wipe out the spell list, build part of your list, pick a new list of spells via drafting, then finish your list off.  If you're thinking it sounds like a Who's the Boss/Spell Draft mashup then you've got the idea.

Since the fine details are still getting ironed out, we did a trial run last Wednesday.  This is how it went
down, plus my plans and thoughts going in.  I picked Khador as my faction for a couple reasons.  Foremost is my blog's name has Khador in the title, which is extra incentive to support the Motherland.  I feel bad about not playing Khador more, so when the chance arises I try to jump on it.  My Khador is mostly painted, and to a higher standard than my Legion.  One of the common knocks on Khador is they don't have a lot of synergies.  This is considered a Bad Thing, but in this case it's quite helpful.  If all, or most of, my pieces are effective by themselves then they have the potential to be even more effective if I can get the right spells to help them out.

Dat chassis.

Picking a caster "chassis" was the hardest part of the process by far.  My first move was towards a high Focus/Fury stat.  In particular I liked the idea of pVayl because of her Fury 8, ability to make arc nodes (which I covet as a Khador player), existing wintry theme, suite of abilities (see: Dark Sentinel), and broadly useful if unspectacular feat.  I wanted to really dig around for something good and not just settle on my first impulse, so I set pVayl aside and kept moving through the list.  All the possibilities soon became overwhelming even when I limited the list to Focus 7 and 8 casters.  I needed a different approach, which I found, but first some background.

Very nice, very not my work.

A large part of this event is converting a model for your caster.  My first purchase for Warmachine, even before the initial Khador bundle I got from EV, was a MoW Kovnik.  I'd found Battlecollege and done just enough reading to be dangerous to myself.  The idea of MoWs appealed to me, the Kovnik sounded like a neat piece, and my FLGS had one on the shelf.  When I got the Khador seed from EV it included a painted Kovnik.  I wasn't comfortable with pinning metal models at the time, despite years and years in the hobby, so the Kovnik I bought got stuffed away in a box where it sits to this day, waiting for some love.  What better time to love on the poor Kovnik than this event where I can polish it up real nice and use it as something else?

Armed with this new criteria (medium base caster) the list was more manageable.  Many of the options were appealing, especially pGaspy and pThags, but in the end I narrowed the field to two, pGrissel and Bloody Barnabas.  Baranabas drew my eye because of his innate abilities: three initials (with Crit: Consume and Blood Boon no less), Unyielding, Counter-Charge(!), and a lesser version of pKreoss' feat.  My idea for him was pretty simple and probably predictable.  I've always loved Doom Reavers, and Barnabas is a pretty bad man/gator, so the two fit together with ease

As I thought about it more I didn't think Barnabas would offer the sort of support I wanted to really make Khador infantry a nightmare, so I turned to pGrissel who had that support already baked in.  With her Fell Calls she could speed up the slow Demo Corps I wanted to use or let Doom Reavers make an extra attack.  Her feat is a couple other feats put together and looks to be brutal with Khadoran infantry.  Her personal ass-kicking ability isn't as impressive, but her basic defensive stats are respectable and since the idea was to run her as a support caster they're not as important.  Fury 6 is a little underwhelming but not a deal breaker.  I also had a couple ideas for conversion themes (opera/black metal singer) that would work with her abilities and avoid the Blender of Death With Skulls and Spikes and Nastiness that I expect to see lots of.

With a chassis selected I proceeded on to making part of my army list.  The event is a 35 pointer but you build your list in two steps, 25 points before the draft and 10 after.  I already had some pieces in mind, and 25 points doesn't go far, so it was pretty easy to come up with this:

Spriggan
Doom Reavers + UA
Max Demo Corps
Widowmakers

Doom Reavers are the ultimate self-contained package.  Widowmakers also do their thing without support.  I wanted some MoWs to screen my caster and echo the Kovnik starting point.  Normally I'd pick Black Ivan for my jack since he's relatively versatile, but character jacks are banned so I went with the Spriggan as the all-rounder.

All this was preparation for Wednesday's spell draft.  The other draftees were Ron (volt_ron), Brendon (Plarzoid), and Chris (no blog, feel shame).  I would be passing my undrafted cards to Brendon, who was running pVlad with Legion, which meant I wanted to consider what I'd be giving him to pick from when making my own selection.  What I was looking for in particular were broad buffs that would work on the Doomies (S&P, Eye of Menoth, Fog of War), a melee-specific buff (Fury, Battle Lust), and a debuff (Parasite, Crippling Grasp).  Jack/battlegroup buffs weren't high on my list because Khador, and caster-only buffs were down on the list since I wanted to do the support thing.  Keeping these parameters in mind, I got my first batch of spells:

There will be a theme...

Abuse
Malice
Parasite
Skyborne
Snipe
Sure Foot
Warpath
Wind Rush

The number of orgasmic sounds I made while looking through the cards was probably a bit high, and in retrospect unwarranted, but it was hard to contain myself when confronted with all these signature spells.  I discounted Abuse, Malice, and Snipe quickly since they didn't do what I wanted.  Wind Rush is a familiar favorite that would boost Grissel's DEF to troublesome levels, and Skyborne would also do that with some different utility.  Sure Foot almost got picked, but I decided the footprint would be too small to be effective for lots of infantry.  In the end it came down to Parasite and War Path.  You're probably thinking Parasite is the obvious choice since I listed it as a primary target, but I went with War Path because I couldn't let Brendon take it while playing pVlad in Legion.  Thus my first choice wasn't even for me but instead against someone else.  The round ended, cards were passed, and my second group was this:

Many choices.

Banishing Ward
Deadeye
Flesh Eater
Ghost Walk
Psychic Vampire
Razor Wind
Ritual Sacrifice

Lots of good stuff to pick from.  I discounted Flesh Eater, Psychic Vampire, and Razor Wind quickly.  Deadeye is super sexy for someone but not for what I wanted to run, and since I had already picked against someone in the first round I wanted to get something I'd use in the second.  Banishing Ward would be nice but limited as the Doomies are already protected from spells.  Ghost Walk would also be nice, especially for the Demo Corps.  In the end I couldn't pass up Ritual Sacrifice.  It would help mitigate Grissel's low(ish) Fury 6 and meh melee stats while also allowing me to (potentially) run multiple jacks or sling any juicy spells I came across.  Round three brought:

HURRRRR, we're gonna go fast and turn left!

Backlash
Energizer
Mobility
Mutagenesis
Obliteration
Tornado

Quality had already started to decline, but at least that made it easier to trim the choices.  Backlash, Obliteration, and Tornado were out quick.  Energizer and Mobility both give some welcome speed buffs, but since I already had Warpath I didn't want to double down on battlegroup spells I was unlikely to get much use out of.  Mobility would have been nice for the Demo Corps, but the DEF boost would be mostly wasted as the bump from 11 to 13 isn't that significant.  It was around here that I lost track of what my concept was (support caster), either willfully because I hadn't seen what I wanted and didn't think I would or unwittingly as I kept drawing stuff that would have been great for Barnabas.  I ended up with Mutagenesis because it's fun and potentially very useful when combined with Ritual Sacrifice to load up on Focus before (hopefully) teleporting in for the kill.  Moving on to round four:

Your draft may vary.

Arcane Shield
Boundless Charge
Fail Safe
Stoneskin
Snipe

More easy choices.  Snipe was from the same mold as Deadeye, though it could have been dirty fun with Widowmakers.  Fail Safe didn't appeal because it's just for jacks.  Stoneskin was potentially neat but speed debuffs that you apply to your own troops are always a bitter pill.  Boundless Charge is nice, but I get enough of it when I play Khadoran casters.  Arcane Shield was the clear winner for me as I could put it on a jack, the Demo Corps, or my caster and get good use out of it.

Round five we got back our initial group of cards, albeit picked over.  Abuse and Malice were still there, along with Sure Foot and Skyborne.  I took Skyborne because I wanted it the first time around.
Round six brought Razor Wind, Flesh Eater, and Banishing Ward.  I didn't want the first two when I saw them earlier, so Banishing Ward it was.  Round seven was Backlash and Tornado, of which I took Backlash.  Round eight I got Stoneskin.  My final list, of which I would get to pick Focus/Fury-1 (which is five for the math challenged) was:

Arcane Shield *

I don't know either.  Needed filler.

Backlash
Banishing Ward
Mutagenesis *
Ritual Sacrifice *
Skyborne *
Stoneskin
Warpath *

The ones I picked have the asterisks.  I ended up with none of what I wanted going in (broad buff, melee buff, debuff), which was partially my own doing.  Intentionally or not, I ended up with a list that would have suited Barnabas pretty well.  The clear winners for me are Ritual Sacrifice and Arcane Shield.  I could take a cheap unit like Mechanics or WGI strictly for bodies to sacrifice.  Arcane Shield is a great buff that would work well on anything except maybe the Widowmakers.  Skyborne gives some extra DEF even if I never use the MAT boost or Flying.  Warpath could be useful at times, as could Mutagenesis.

Things didn't turn out like I hoped they would, so I haven't fleshed out the list yet.  One path I wanted to pursue before doing the draft was double Doomies, which is as viable now as it was then.  To that I could add some Greylords or min WGI, but I don't know that I like double Doomies as much as I thought I might.  I'd also look at WGI as an offensive unit, which means Joe, and Mechanics for sacrificing.  Or I could add a Kodiak and Mechanics to make better use of Warpath.  There's also the option of redrafting, either this coming Wednesday when the general draft happens or the morning of the event, June 7th at Huzzah Hobbies.

Soon?

Looking back on the process now it's tempting to scrap Grissel and go with Barnabas instead.  Hoping for Eye of Menoth or S&P is a bad plan as I'd have to get them in the first round to come away with one.  I haven't dug deep into the list of available spells to see how likely getting a melee buff is, but I'm guessing it's not much better than S&P, though the chances of having it passed along to you are much higher.  It seems like there are a lot of things that would benefit a super solo caster, either as caster-only buffs or things that work well for anyone.  I'm trying to avoid over-"correcting" (unlike some hockey teams I could name following the 2010 playoffs...) based on what I got in this draft, so I'm skeptical of my own line of reasoning here.  That said, Barnabas has a lot going for him and would require less sculpting than trying to put a tuxedo around a MoW like I'd want to do for an opera singer. Counter-Charge on a warcaster seems like a thing that would be fun.  I could also take another, closer look at the small based casters, though that would mean far more work to figure out bits for a model.  I have until this Wednesday at the very least to decide.

Regardless of the outcome the draft was a good time.  Holding so many possibilities in your hand is dizzying, and trying to balance taking things for yourself against denying things to your future opponents makes for some tough choices.  I don't do a whole lot of conversion, especially in metal and outside of GW games, so that aspect of the event will be something different and a good chance to learn some new modelling techniques.  Best of all is the opportunity to support a good cause by gaming, which is a win for everyone involved.

Disclaimer: we are not this attractive.

Speaking for the group, we encourage everyone that can come to come.  There is a substantial time investment in getting a converted model together, so don't be fooled by the event still being over a month away.  I've scattered links to the event pages on the Nomads site, but I'll do so again here to keep them all together (caster rules, spell draft rules).  Please note that at the time of posting these are still in minor flux and likely to change, mostly in style and presentation but there could be minor tweaks in more substantial areas.  If you and/or your group are interested but think this isn't for you let me assure you that it is for you (and everyone).  You can bug me about details (I think I have contact info somewhere around here), or do the same to any of the people I've linked to, or on the Nomads site.

Mostly Empire, But I Still Play Warmahordes

Done.  For now.  

After a long(ish) break I got back to painting today.  More Empire, but some new models at least.  Before getting to the new, let's cover the old.  The horses got their finishing touches today, not that it really shows.  I did a search for horse hooves, which turned up no porn or other questionable material for a change, and found that they're black.  Unfortunately the hair is also black, so the hooves and forelocks blend into each other.  When it's time for the inevitable post-basing touch ups I'll see what I can do about the hooves, but ultimately they're so small I may just let it slide.  In the meantime I'll check out some examples for around the internets and see how others handle it.  In other horse news I went ahead with highlighting the barding, which produced no visible results as anticipated.  If anyone can pick out which one is the one with the highlights I'll go back and do the others, but since I know which one it is and can't tell any difference I don't think I'll be doing any more pointless silver highlights.

Journeyman Painting Log 14

I painted Sorscha, so it only seems fair to do Beast 09 too.  

Another day, another finished model.  Today we have Beast 09, a model that rivals Gorman for having the best reputation that I get the least work out of.  I can see where some of the hype comes from since Beast's imprint will let you absolutely murder any living model, Reach is a rare treat for Khador jacks, and Thresher isn't bad either (especially with Reach).  Free runs are nice, as is Hyper Aggressive, but when you strip out the neat shiny bits Beast is just a Juggernaut that costs an extra 4 points.  That's a bit simplistic but still true.  As for the actual model, I assembled it in this static and boring pose for ease of use.  There's nothing worse than having to accommodate multiple models that hang over their bases, as many PP models do, so I had Beast 09 pull his arms in tight to make room for victims.  I went with the studio scheme (more or less) since Beast 09 is a character jack with a reason for being white, and this way no one will mistake it for a regular Juggernaut.  As usual I spotted a missed spot while putting the picture together (knee rings), but considering I started and finished the whole thing today I'm happy with the results.  Not my best work, but not embarrassing either.  I'm targeting the Spriggan as a "take your time and do it right" piece, though I'm still not sure what I'll do with the shield.

Speaking of the Spriggan, I took advantage of a break in the recent humidity to spray a bunch of stuff.  The Spriggan and IFP got primed, the latter taking quite a while and almost a full can of paint as I gave each one the royal treatment (holding the model and rotating it to get all the nooks instead of lining them all up on a box top).  I also varnished the Drakhun, Yuri, and the Mechanics so they'll be ready to go for Wednesday.  Hopefully I can varnish Beast 09 in time for gaming as well.  I think I can crank out another finished model and field it, but I doubt I'll have time for more.  The cross hairs are on eEryiss for this as she's got a decent start, is only one model, and would be nice to get back into the fold.

Journeyman Painting Log 13

These slackers can finally get to work.  

Hot on the heels of yesterday's painting triumph comes an even bigger victory today.  Both the Mechanics and the Drakhun were already under way when I sat down to paint today, but the whole point of laying a foundation for future success is reaping that reward when the time comes.  The Mechanics were close to finished yesterday, so it didn't take much pushing to get them done.  This unit is particularly satisfying since they've only been a full unit for about a week.  When I got them way back when I only got four bases in the blister, so whenever I ran the full unit I would use some of my extra Sorschas as stand-ins because I never got around to digging out my extra bases.  When I pulled all the unpainted stuff out of my bag last week I rode that wave of good feelings straight to my modelling bag and got the other two based and ready to go.  Now the whole unit is together, painted, and with any luck will be varnished in time to make it to the table for the Journeyman league.

Journeyman Painting Log 12

Who loves pelts and handing out Treewalker?  Yuri does.  

After a reasonable break from painting I dove back in today.  The result was a finished Yuri and a (now max) unit of Mechanics approaching completion.  Yuri got bumped to the top of the queue because I figured he would be quick and easy to paint, which he was thanks to all the leather and furs.  I took some time with the fur cloak to add some different shading to the different pelts and still got him finished quickly.  I'll be glad to get him back on the table as well since for this final week of the Journeyman league we're stepping up to 75 pointers.  I've never played a game over 50, so it'll be interesting to have all that extra elbow room.  While I like the full Manhunter suite (Yuri and a pair of Manhunters), 7 points for three models is often too steep a price to pay.  With an extra 25 points to fill I'll have less reservations about shelling out for the fur crew.  Yuri is potent enough on his own, but he really earns his points when he has a posse to run with.  Treewalker lets me use some of my Legion tricks with Khador, and running a mini "unit" means I can put a credible threat on a flank instead of a lone Manhunter looking to tie up an arc node or draw attention away from my main force.  Maybe Yuri will even manage to survive a game for once.

Construction Ahead

Welcome to Khador.  Have a lance and shield.  

The painting mojo didn't make an appearance today.  Taking its place was the elusive building mojo.  This is a rare beast, so I like to lasso it whenever it appears and ride it for all its worth.  Today it was worth a Spriggan and, at long last, the completion of the Iron Fangs.  I've gone on about IFP previously, and Black Dragons in particular, but I'll take a bit of space here to dig into the Spriggan a bit.  Much as many proud sons and daughters of the Motherland might wish otherwise, Khador is primarily a single jack faction.  There's no real jack support beyond the Koldun Lord, which is dubious "support" when compared with the options available to the other factions, and the majority of casters don't do anything past handing out Focus (which they'd rather keep) and maybe Boundless Charge.  Khadoran jacks aren't really compelling on their own, especially when compared to Khadoran infantry and the support available for the footmans.  You're more or less locked into taking a jack (if only to use the bonus points), so it makes sense to make your one jack a good choice.  The Spriggan is that good choice.  It's the only non-character jack with Reach (not counting Conquest, which is a fine choice as the lone jack but not yet available to me), has Bulldoze, is ARM 21 (via a shield, so it could go down to 19), has Powerful Charge, sports a pair of grenade launchers, and can fire off a flare to counter Stealth.  At 10 points it's the most expensive non-character jack in the faction, and on the expensive end for non-character warnouns in Warmahordes overall, but it's has so many tools that you can get value out of it on every turn (outside the running turn) and in all situations.  Last night I encountered Satyxis Raiders with Occultation, which is a real pain to deal with.  I ended up sending Sorscha way too far forward to get in range to (try to) Freezing Grip them, which led to a messy death for her.  If I had a Spriggan I could have fired off a flare to reveal a Raider so I could have targeted them from a more reasonable range.  Plus it looks awesome and has two big open spaces (forehead and shield) that are just begging for a nice 5th Border Legion icon and something else.  There are already a ton of Khadoran anvils on the model and I don't want to double up on 5th Border Legion so I'll have to consider what to do with all that prime real estate.

Something Other Than Finished Painting

Everything in my bag that isn't painted.  

Still about painting, just not finished minis.  After the informal listing of unpainted minis in my last post I decided to dig out the models and get a look at them as a group.  The results were better than expected and pictured to the left.  It's worth noting that this is only what was in my bag (except the mortar) so it doesn't include what was on the painting table at the time (eEryiss, Beast 09, eButcher) nor does it include the stuff that isn't completely built yet (the other two mechanics, IFP, all the horsemans, Spriggan, Conquest).  Despite those caveats, I'm basically down to three units (Great Bears, Mechanics, Mortar [which still needs the telescope]), three large bases (Drago, Drakhun, Beast 09), two medium bases (dismounted Drakhun, eButch), and two small bases (Yuri, eEryiss).  This is not much to finish and while it's not reasonable to think I can get them all done (and played) before the Journeyman league ends next Sunday (maybe Saturday) it's more reasonable to think that I could get all that painted by the end of the year.

Journeyman Painting Log 11

My MoW unit collection is now complete.  

My most recent painting success, the Demo Corps, were a rude awakening.  Speedy success with solos/pairs gave me a false sense of security.  After a marathon session today to finish the Demo Corps my illusions have been shattered.  I had expected to get this unit done quickly since they're mostly green armor, but I was unwilling to skip large amounts of detail this time around and my lap times suffered as a result.  To be fair this was a medium based unit, as opposed to a handful of small base solos, and I did the vast majority of the work in a single day.  Cranking out this many large(ish) models in that time frame is still a fine result, and the Demo Corps look better than the Eliminators.  I wanted to do a blend/glow thing on the ice mauls but had run out of steam well before I got to them so they just got the electric blue treatment for now.  Resizing this pic also showed me that I forgot the rivets on the gloves.  I took three shots of the group, which is the standard approach, but none of them showed the face inside the leader's helmet.  I kinda like the headless horseman vibe in the picture though.

Journeyman Painting Log 10

The first redhead I've painted in too long.  

Normally I'd have some sort of "I'm surprised at how much I painted today" thing to kick this post off, but considering how fast I've been cranking the models out it's not a surprise anymore.  Quality is definitely slipping, as I'll cover when relevant below, but it's hard to argue with the pace.  The Eliminators are a fine case study of how my painting is going now.  My big problem with the pair is in the scheme, and the torso in particular.  There's too much green together, though to be fair there are leather belts that don't show up well in the picture.  Black or grey pants, like on the Assassins, would have broken up the green expanse.  The good news here is that the plan has always been to add another unit or two, up to whatever the FA is, so I'll have different schemes already in mind when I finally pull the trigger.

Journeyman Painting Log 9

Taste my green ice cream!  

Four whole days since the last painting update?  Looks like I'm slacking off.  Today I finished up Zerkova and eVlad.  One is a terror on the tabletop and the other has the face of a horse.  I'll leave it up to you to decide which is which.  Looking at the picture on the left as I'm writing, there's little I like about the Zerkova model.  The pose is confused with the running and the ice cream, the sword is too thin (and therefore bends easily), the running-induced crouch plus all the swirling cloaks means much of the body is obscured.  Maybe it was the particular cast I got, but the detail seemed shallower than usual.  Then there's the face, which we won't mention again.  In retrospect I should have made the trim on the cloak a little darker, like the other Greylords, so it doesn't blend in as much.  She's also a bit googly-eyed, though that does seem appropriate when considered with all the context.

Journeyman Painting Log 7

Two shot magic sniper is tasty.  

More quick work at the painting table today.  Employing the new double wash approach from last time I knocked out Kell Bailoch and Harlan Versh today.  Both feature the same sort of gigantic coat that Reinholdt wears (Kell is little more than the coat). so I made good time with minimal exertion while still painting to a reasonable standard.  Kell's sculpt gets knocked for being tiny like the Black 13th, but I haven't heard any complaints about how ugly it is.  90% of the model is coat and the face is disappointing.  I didn't want to do the coat in 5th Border Legion green since he's a mercenary so I did the pants in green instead.  Hindsight tells me I should have done the hat in green because it will thrust itself forward, unlike the pants which hide in the all-consuming coat.  The stock of the gun would be better with some wood grain too, but I'm happy with the result overall.

Journeyman Painting Log 6

An unpainted Reinholdt circa December 2011.

I'll get to the actual painting in a minute.  Quite a while ago I upped the storage for my little blog here, shelling out actual money for your virtual entertainment.  I've always thought that if I dug into the Picasa album that serves as the image host for Blogger and cleared out all the pics I uploaded but decided against, multiple copies when the upload went wonky (which happens far too often), and resized all the old pictures I could probably fit everything in the standard amount of storage.  Just now I've been digging around in that Picasa album looking for pictures of my recently painted models.  I don't think I'll be clearing the underbrush any time soon.  The amount of pictures up there is staggering.  Considering how many are for battle reports, and therefore are identical except for small details, the huge amount of work I was expecting looks like it'll be less the size of the moon and more the size of the universe.  None of this matters to you the reader, but sometimes it's nice to see behind the curtain.  On with the show.

Journeyman Painting Log 5

Ready to stab some folks in the face.

The final leg took longer than expected, as usual, but the Kayazy are now finished.  Once I abandoned the idea of having them simultaneously stand out from and conform with the rest of the army things progressed at a pleasing rate.  There were a couple painting sessions between now and the last update, but somehow they didn't seem significant enough to warrant a post or didn't fit in with an existing post (read: battle report).  It's appropriate for assassins that they should be slinking along in the shadows, their progress unnoticed, then spring forth prepared to do violence.

Journeyman 2013 Battle Report: Terror!

Different terror, but worth your time.

Painting for this year's Journeyman league has been underway for about a month now, but this week dice joined brushes and the battles began.  Since I'm still easing back into Khador, and Warmahordes in general, so the Journeyman league is a good opportunity to paint some of the many stragglers and get back in the Khadoran groove.  At the FLGS Thursday night (Warmahordes night) I heard the call for a Journeyman game, and with the need for practice in the back of my mind I snapped up the gauntlet.  Scant moments later I realized what I had gotten myself into, namely a game with Chris (pg_verlos) and his notoriously hot dice.  It would really be more accurate to say he has a notoriously hot dice rolling hand as his powers function regardless of what dice he's using.  When you add in that he's a very good player you know that you're facing a tough fight when you see him across the table.

Journeyman Painting Log...4?

Hammered by the ugly stick.  

Let's just call this #4 since there have been a couple updates and no numbers.  I put in a bit of work on the Kayazy yesterday and got the flesh done.  Having spent even more time with the models now I stand by my "not as bad as their reputation" assessment from last time, with one notable exception on the left.  I have three of this pose which is unfortunate as it's by far the worst of the bunch.  The face looks like it started off decent only to have the mold warp a couple times before casting my particular batch of minis.  It's a lot like this picture of Eddie Izzard, minus the beard.  The gaping mouth, the strong but dislocated jaw, the sneer or impending sneeze, it really is an uncanny likeness.  I also picked a direction on the pants: grey with black boots.  This is a cop out as it just mimics the studio scheme and doesn't really stand out from the rest of the army or convey the whole flashy gangster thing, but it does stick to my established palette.  More importantly it takes out the barrier to progress I had put up.  While grey pants may not be the best option as a color they are the best option in that I can stop thinking about which color to pick and get on with the painting.  I had wanted to get some more painting in today before heading to Hockey in July, but the Warmachine Tactics Kickstarter took longer to go live than I'd hoped.  Once it was up there was far more content than I expected though, so I guess it all evens out.  Between the little ginger Swan and Darth Warcaster it's getting harder and harder to say no to Cygnar...

ETL Done, Journeyman Begun

All done.  Except for static grass, varnish, squad markings...

After a bit of a forced painting march my ETL vow is complete.  I stalled out for a while in the second half, but I rallied with a month and change to go which is a much better showing than I had for the LPC.  My finish wasn't especially strong on this squad.  I missed models multiple times while going along the assembly line, though I did mostly go back to finish the models off, and the overall quality of the squad isn't quite as high as the Dark Vengeance squad, but it's still fine quality and well above a tabletop standard (as defined by my Legion on the high end and my Axis on the very low borderline).  I'd like to put in a second vow but will wait and see how far beat down I am by the Journeyman painting grind before committing.

Painting Delay Over

After far too long of a delay I got back to painting today.  Some good progress on the Dark Angels, but not quite at the finish line.  The reds are finished, while the bone/white/flesh bits and rocks on bases need a final highlight (and wash where appropriate). Silvers need finishing off and non-silvers have yet to begin.  Leathers are also starting from scratch, and then there's whatever details have slipped through the cracks.  Despite a relatively long list of things to do the squad is almost finished and should be off my painting list after the next painting session, which will be this weekend.  My ETL vow will be finished with the squad, which will free me up to dive into Journeyman painting.  Or to tack on another vow that I may already have (almost) ready to go.  Or both if I'm feeling particularly saucy.

Kayazy.  And Gormann.  And brush cleaner.  And Legion bits.

Speaking of the Journeyman league, games start on Monday with a Highlander tournament next Saturday.  With the IFP still waiting for a second strip and reassembly I'll be starting with the Kayazy Assassins.  The models aren't anything special but they've been primed for far too long. Plus I'll have to paint them if I want to use them in Journeyman games (which I do).  Conquest is still the big item on the list but considering that I haven't done anything past washing the pieces it's going to take a special effort.  I say this with the Journeyman league not yet officially begun, staring down six weeks and change of time to get it assembled, painted, and on the table, but I'm being realistic about my chances.  I've never assembled anything like a colossal before and want to do it right.  These two factors combined mean an extended construction period to come.  Painting the monster will be no small task once I've built it.  All of this will have to slot in between frantically painting other things (like full units of infantry), not to mention life in general.  Is this a workable task?  Absolutely.  Is it an automatic success?  Not at all.  I've had a lot of fun with Conquest while proxying it a couple months ago and it's a large factor in my return to the Motherland for the Journeyman this year so there's plenty of drive to get it done, but nearly a year of inertia takes some pushing to overcome.

So Soon? More Painting

The big hammer makes pics awkward.

Break out the rose-tinted glasses for a minute.  Remember those halcyon days gone by (Friday) when I waxed lyrical about finishing one project (ETL) before starting another one (Journeyman)?  Those were good days.  Or day.  Ah, memories.

I was full to the brim with good intentions today.  Bolter casings and purity seals, that was the plan.  Of course when I sat down to get started things didn't work out that way.  I blame the weather mostly.  It was raining this morning so I figured the Nats' game this afternoon would at least be delayed, but when I sat down to paint the rain had stopped and the sun was playing peek-a-boo with some clouds.  I didn't want to get halfway through the squad and then stop for baseball, so instead I grabbed (yet another) Sorscha and figured I'd lay down some base coats.  One thing led to another and I almost finished my first Khadoran Ice Princess.  With the big red cloak I had to tweak the usual 5th Border Legion scheme which would usually call for red on the boot armor, loin cloth, bracers, and maybe some other bits as well.  There's already a ton of red though, so I scaled it back a bit.  Another half hour or so would have seen her finished, but alas dinner was bearing down on me like a large thing that moves fast so Sorscha will just have to wait.  Since Sorscha, albeit a different one, was the first Warmachine model I (started) painting when I got into the game a couple years ago I think she'll be fine with waiting another day or two to finally have a completed version.

Back To Painting

One step, but one very large step.

The gap between today and my last painting session is shameful, so we won't dwell on it.  Today I tackled the big hurdle in the second half of my (first) ETL vow: first armor highlights.  This is the single biggest area of controlled painting for the so-called Greenwing Dark Angels.  Base coating (as an aside, I need to either find a standard or invent one for base coat [basecoat] as I want to make it one word but grammar checkers complain when I do) is quick and easy since I don't have to be neat with it.  Since I switched to shading by targeted wash I don't have to re-establish the base coat anymore which was previously the biggest hurdle.  The second armor highlights are tiny edge highlights.  All other colors cover much less area and thus don't take as long.

First of the First

One squad down, many more to go.

More painting action today, this time with a happy ending.  I'm calling the first Dark Vengeance squad done in spite of the myriad teeny details that scream to me for satisfaction.  The most valuable painting lesson I've learned over the last year or two is that eventually you have to put down the brush whether you're 100% satisfied or not.  (Whatever lesson applies to sticking by your resolution to not start a post by running down your own work is still one that I'm trying to learn apparently.)