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.

Insert Knight Pun Here

Nearly there.  

My slowly growing Empire army is now on the cusp of having two units ready for action, the cannon from a while back and now a modest group of knights.  Both still require some final gluing and varnish, but all the painting is done.  The drive to look back at my work to find problems is irresistible, so it's no surprise that even as I was putting the finishing touches on I was regretting decisions I had made.  I tried to stick to the studio Reiksguard scheme, which meant red and/or white feathers.  I blocked these in with little forethought, and as things turned out every helm with a ribbon had a red feather on top of said ribbon, which meant those ribbons had to be white.  Since there's a ribbon on the banner pole, the banner had to be red.   In vacuum this wouldn't be a problem, but when the color of the lances (red) are factored in then you can see the issue.  A red banner precludes a red banner pole (it ended up black), which is a very small inconsistency that is unlikely to ever be noticed, but it'll rub a me for as long as I field the model.  There's also more red than white in the unit, but that will be addressed when the ranks swell.  Those small grumbles aside, I'm pleased with how the unit turned out.  Despite doing horse and rider armor in different ways, the results match up just fine.  I tried out using a wash to do some black lining between the helmet plumes with good results.  The champion's face came out particularly well, and the unit didn't spend an excessive amount of (work) time on the table despite being ~2.5 times larger than a standard halberdier.

Now I have a final hurdle to clear, and it's one I have no experience with.  The picture in this post makes the unit look basically finished, but it's still a collection of mounts, riders, and shields (where appropriate).  It's been so long since I've painted something before it was fully assembled that I might as well be doing it for the first time.  Ideally I'd like to put a coat of varnish on the riders and shields before assembling the whole model and applying the rest if the varnish.  I don't have a good idea for how to let the pieces dry without sticking it whatever they dry on and potentially leaving paint behind when I peel them off that surface.  I'll probably end up assembling the models before varnishing as it's the easiest way.  I'm also considering magnetizing horse and rider for potentially easier transport.  That may not be an issue though, and I'd very much like to have a unit well and truly finished.