Scarif Beach Party

So I know I said last week that I'd finish the last base of the Ghosties, but I gotta be honest, with some sweet sweet Stormtroopers sitting on my queue tray next to my painting desk, doing them was a bit of a grind. On the plus side, I did make some progress on the last KoW base but I got completely distracted by other things. 

Vader and Krennic have a day at the beach

 The great Sith Lord himself, Darth Vader, is the first member of the Scarif Beach Party. Painting all black models is not something I have a great deal of difficulty with these days so I tore through this model. The top of the chest with the grey stripes frustrated me for a while as I couldn't quite see where the raised bits were but I'm happy with where they came out.

 The only thing I still need to do is a spray varnish followed by a paint on gloss varnish of his eyes as they should be super shiny. I'll probably gloss the sabre too just to give it a shine.

"You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor"

Vader's was the first base I made and I'm really happy with how it came out. A pumice gel beach gets painted first, then the bright blue sea and (hat tip to Pelarel on this one) solid gel gloss sculpted over top. Once that sets dry (about 12 - 16 hours in the hot water cupboard) the white highlights get painted over the tops of the sculpted wave crests. It's quite neat.

My second member of the Scarif Beach Party is Director Orson Krennic. This was my first real use of contrast paint and I am SUPER happy with how it looks. Getting the highlights right was a real challenge but Vallejo Cold White goes really well as it is VERY white. I have left the underside of the cloak unhighlighted and so it may be a touch grey. I can't decide yet.

"Change can be downright awful..."

I like Krennic's pose and the face is so evocative of his walk across the beach at the beginning of Rogue One. This was the second base I did and the water looks a lot choppier than Vader's. I glued Krennic to his base before I finished him off as constant handling was ruining the paint work and getting the back of the water under his cape made me swear a lot. But it works. 

Finally, I did a neat R4 droid. I decided to use the colour palette from a Star Wars: Rebels (I think) episode in which Sabine repaints Chopper to look like a Courier Droid.

"Beep boop"

This was the first real test of contrast paint and it works REALLY well on the flat panels. I am well pleased. He'll get added to one of my Stormtrooper Squads , for the eventual addition of a Scarif coloured AT-ST. Because why would I not? 

So I am a long way behind the rest of the nerds, who have all painted most of their figures so far. I'll catch up eventually, but these bases are a slow process. I am really looking forward to trying to make a complete water base for a speeder bike with all the spray you'd expect to see. That's going to be a real modelling challenge methinks.

Ghosties

I did make a bit of an effort to get this base done. I did. I got all the horsemen to the same stage of the painting process. 

 I'm happier with how they're coming along and happier overall that they'll fit in with the whole army now. I still have a lot of work to do on them but nearly there. One more week...

Next Time

It's a long weekend in NZ next weekend so Pooch, Scotty and I are trying to work in a game of Titanicus and I will be finishing off that base of Hexwraiths. I will. And then I can start on basing the KoW army as well, especially as I've had a bit of a muck around with some solid gel gloss and I think it'll make a really really cool swampy base. I will need some new basing material too, so time for a think about that. 

Mistakes were made...

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Oh so many mistakes. So many. I was planning to blog my game of Adeptus Titanicus with Scotty and Tank yesterday because I got to put my Warlord on the park. And I left my phone at home. So there are no pictures. It's a real shame as it was a great game - Scotty and Tank used their Knights for the first time (they're quite effective) and I got a charge off with the Warlord, promptly forgot to call the target on my charge attacks and so Scotty's Reaver did not get punched into next week. Disappointment.

But I think we've got a good handle on most of the rules now and the knights slotted in nicely. I think I'll try and give mine a run in our next game.

 Some Progress...

 I thought I'd take one of the Hexwraiths through to completion as they're stylistically a bit different from the rest of the Ghosties. I'm mostly pretty happy with how it's come out and it should fit in okay with the rest of the army. I haven't finished this one yet - I still have to highlight the bone, highlight the brown and finish highlighting the little flames. And then do this four more times.

...and more mistakes.

So turns out we're playing Star Wars Legion. Pelarel bought a starter box and then we just all leapt in like loonies.

Blogger Scotty and I have split a couple of starter boxes and we're both doing Scarif themed armies. I'm on the hunt for Shore Troopers and Death Troopers but for the moment, Krennic and some Storm Troopers will be where I start. Oh, and Vader. Because I have one and I can. 

I've got some fun plans for beach bases with water (Blogger Pel has given me some great advice on how to do this) and I am going to give GWs contrast paint a go for doing the Storm Trooper armour and Director Krennic's white uniform. Seems like a great opportunity to give it a go. 

Next Time

The finished Nighthaunt army in all it's glory. I should have started the basing process as well as I'll be doing lots of experiments with gloss gel medium and it's uses in making water. I *might* paint Darth Vader as I'm good at painting black! 
 

Stompy and ghosty!

More God Engines 

Bloggers Pooch, Scotty and I got together and played a game of Adeptus Titanicus. Pooch dug up a narrative scenario in which Scotty and I would join our Traitor Legions and refight the Legio Mortis landing on Beta Garmon. This was an asymmetric scenario in which the Warp Runners (Pooch's actual Legio) bunkered up, let the Legio Mortis land and then tried to destroy them on the landing grounds. 

Sadly the light wasn't great for photos and most of them didn't quite have enough light to look good. But a couple came out!  Check out Scotty's new Damnicium titan scheme - his bone panels are amazing. He's got plans to do more work from here, but he's starting in an awesome place!

The attacker's left flank

The Warp Runner's defence

Scotty and I bought two 1000 point maniples, mine a Legio Vulpa Jannissary with 3 Reavers and Scotty's a Legio Damnicium Ferrox maniple with a Reaver and 3 Warhounds. We took on Pooch's 1500 point Mandatum maniple with a Warlord and 3 Warhounds, with an attached Reaver.

This was a game of swingy dice - Pooch should have dropped one of my Reavers in turn one with the combined fire of his Warlord and Reaver and somehow he did not. Scotty and I spent two turns trying to bring the Warlord down and failed. Mercifully Pooch singularly failed to make a single successful repair roll or command check for the Warlord and eventually one of Scotty's Warhounds hit him in the back with a Plasma Blastgun.

 I had a perfect shot at a charge on Pooch's Reaver, failed the command check, and engaged it anyway. That Reaver then called a shot on my chainfist and promptly shot it off, detonating it. It's followup fire basically blew a hole straight through the centre of the attacking titan! I managed one very very powerful headbutt before a Warhound blew out my reactor. I did get revenge putting a Reaver powerfist right through a Warhound though! 

In the end, it was 50VPs to 30 for the attackers as we finished with a Warhound and two Reavers in the Warp Runner's deployment zone. Pooch accounted for two Reavers and two Warhounds. It was a great  game and was a really nice 2 v 1 scenario. Pooch's bonus shield generator caused us no end of headaches and our orbital lances did at least manage to account for an unshielded Warhound. It was nice to have all the rules right and now the only thing we need to do is add some Knights to our games!

Painting progress 

Keeping on with my plans from last week, I am moving towards finishing up the Ghosties. The second base of the Dreadscythe Harridans is done: 

More chanting the anthem of the Phantoms!

I think I've also worked out how I want to base them. It's mostly going to be pumice gel with puddles of dank water - essentially, given all the bits of cemetery coming out of the ground, I'm thinking about a graveyard reclaimed by some kind of swamp. Having it be reasonably dark will help make the paleness of the ghosties stand out. I'll need to do a couple of test bases first but that'll be a fun little way to finish the project. 

 Next Time

We'll be playing some more Titanicus at the club I think so I'll put together a bit more of a report and a bit more of a coherent review of the game once I've had another game with all the rules right! I've started on the last base of ghosties too and have got most of the base coats down.  

Pooch's plan for 2021....

So, last year was... well, successful on the "me achieving goals" front, but less successful on the whole "everything going on in the world" front....

The first one I can deal with for 2021, the second? Well that's going to take the whole world doing what it needs to, that's not just on me!

Unlike the last two years, I am going for less goals, but keeping the focus in on getting things achieved that I have (in the past) otherwise failed to achieve. With that in mind then, my goals for 2021 are:

1. Finish a table of terrain

I have no less than.... four tables (I think) of terrain bought, currently unassembled, started or nearing completion. I want to increase the terrain that I have available, to the point where I am not entirely reliant on others for the games I want to play. Added bonus is helping me to have better facilities to have games at my place!

2. Play a game a month

This was the goal that I swapped away from last year. I would still like to get into the habit of playing more games, and setting myself the goal of actually doing it might help. Should we get put into lockdown again it might struggle, but... i'm choosing to be optimistic on that!

3. Finish a 1,500 point 40k army

I love making new armies. So, I'm going to make one! My plan is to do a slow grow of an army, adding something each month and having a narrative campaign days staged throughout the year to help me focus in on actually building a list, not just an odd collection of things. 

4. Finish armies that I have part started

Oh there are so many of these. Much like the terrain, some are close to finished, others are further away. All need work, and all need to have more effort put into them. I've got armies like Kings of War, Team Yankee and Flames of War are all sitting there, needing just that last push to get them finished up and delivered. 

5. Buy, build and play a new game

Don't know what this one will be. McZ talked about Warmachine. Pelarel has talked about Star Wars Legion. Tank has talked about Kings of War Armada. I have been tempted by Victory at Sea (because ships!). Or it could be any number of other things that I haven't even thought about yet.....

So there you have it, five goals, but with the potential to achieve these goals more than one time in a year, meaning there are plenty of opportunities for me to succeed! 

Let's see how I get on....

The eyes of the Imperium are watching.....

Pooch

End of the Christmas break workbench

 So it's the last day my Christmas break before I go back to work and I'm spending it not relaxing like I should be but working outside filling nail holes. But there's always time for a little bit of hobbying.

 Star Wars?

Our next RPG for our group is going to be Star Wars: Edge of Empire and, like our last playthrough, I'm going to be running a Trandoshan because who doesn't want to play a 7-foot tall bipedal lizard with claws?

 

 not-Bossk. In fact, Rokrassk. 

I used the Bossk model from Star Wars: Legion because it was a good chance to try out a model from the range and, honestly, it's a great looking figure. He had to have the same yellow and white flight suit as Bossk but after the excellent episode(s?) of Clone Wars on Disney+ all about Transdoshan hunters, I decided to do him in a different colour that would contrast a lot more with the flight suit, so blue!

Star Wars: Legion hasn't (amazingly) triggered our group to go all nerd on it but I really enjoyed painting up not-Bossk and wouldn't be averse to doing some other Legion models. They're beautifully detailed and very evocative of the on-screen versions.  

 

MOAR Ghosties

So the third to last base is done and the second to last base is well underway. The third to last base is this one:

We chant the anthem of the Phantoms

These Dreadscythe Harridans are such cool models. They're creepy AF and stunningly dynamic. They were a real challenge to fit onto a 125mm wide base, that's for sure. I've got a couple spare that didn't make the cut in the end so they'll get painted and based up for use in Frostgrave. These ones will be Phantoms in my Kings of War Nightstalkers army.

The second to last base is this one:

WIP Dreadscythe Harridans

It's a fairly similar to the first one but the Harridan box is quite nice in that in the 10 models, there are only 2 pairs that are identical and the other three can be made up in two variants, which is nice. I have no idea how anyone would use these on round bases. They'd be a nightmare and they'd probably just blow over in a breeze.

Next Time

I think I'm aiming to finish the painting for the Ghosties. The second base of Harridans won't take too long, then it's just the Hexwraith Cavalry to go.I haven't worked out a basing scheme for them yet but I have lots of ideas so I'll probably do up a couple of test bases and see what I like before embarking on basing the whole army!

First Regimental of 2021

 Retrospecting

 So I went back to my planning post of 2020 to see what I was supposed to do this year and how well I managed that. I realised I pretty much abandoned thinking about that by about February so a quick goal review: 

1. Add one thing per month to one of my 40K forces. Without going back and looking in too much detail, I think I managed this. I have 9 40K models unpainted that I haven't bought for a specific 2021 project. Glad to have got the Grey Knights and the Armigers done.
   
2. Run a campaign of something for the lads at the club. Yeah, nah. COVID-19 pretty much tanked that one so calling this one a wash. I did run Curse of Strahd for my DnD group from late 2019 through to about August and it was a lot of fun. We're going to play some Edge of Empire next and the team will be bringing back their characters again this year sometime as they have found themselves ejected from Ravenloft and dumped in the snowy north of Faerun for Storm Kings Thunder.
   
3. Complete my FoW Australians. Nope. Absolute fail here. Still not done. I can see the four small bases and 2 Sentinels still in the same corner of my painting desk they've been in since....oh dearie me.....July? Still. It'll get done this year.
   
4. Do some cunning thinking about 653 SPzJgr. I did a lot of thinking about this and have acquired all the parts to make it work effectively as a Grenadier company. It's not great, but I reckon it's got legs. I saw on Breakthrough Assault that it's a force in the Late War Bagration book but given that it requires 5 Ferdinands (unlike the v3 version, that required 2 and a Tiger 1(P)) it's not really fieldable for anything other than oversized scenario games.
   
5. Complete my Brotherhood army for Kings of War 3E. Done! Clearly and cleanly. A good use of the additional time I got for painting during lockdown.
   
6. Complete the stupid. I stopped working on World Eaters in June and spent most of the rest of the year working on Titans. Did I do 50PL of Apocalypse each month? And then some with all those Knights and Titans! :)
   

So calling it a 4/5 since I'm not counting item 2. Not all bad.

Prognostication?

 So what's on the plan for 2021? Nothing that structured, that's for damn sure! While I'm genuinely more optimistic about the world's prospects for this year, on a personal level I'm not going to commit to anything that might get derailed by more COVID, more lockdown, more whatever. Having said that, there are a few things on the boil:

About to go out for priming

1) Flames of War and Team Yankee - I'm keen to do a snow-based Flames army and Grenadiers are what I have decided on. I've done a lot of the support weapons, so this next stage is painting the infantry, mortars and HMGs. For TY, I'll be looking at some list changes to make competing with the vastly more terrifying later-Cold War Soviet gear. I have a few ideas at the moment, but they all involve painting more MASSTER. Urgh. I've picked up some M1s and some Bradleys to kick that off though.

2) 40K Crusade - we're planning a run at Crusade, driven heavily by a narrative, this year and for some people to slow-grow new armies or in my case, slow grow into the 9e Deathwatch. I'll be kicking off with a 500 point army made up of Phobos-armoured sneaky marines!

3) Frostgrave - I think another Frostgrave Wizgang. Because I want to. There is no other reason. 

4) Something old - I've been talking with Blogger Scotty about trying some Warmachine Brawl. It is a game I still enjoy and would like to get some of my gear back on the park. There's still a fairly vibrant community in Wellington so I should try and take advantage of that. 

5) Something new - definitely Adeptus Titanicus this year. I'm looking foward to some serious God Engine smashery. 

Actual Stuff

And since I'm rapidly approaching the end of the Ghosties project (I just built the Hexwraith cavalry and ZOMG I love those models A LOT) I decided that I'd treat myself to the centrepiece over the Christmas break, and thus I give you Kurnoss Valentian, the Craven King:

Float me closer! I want to hit it with my mace!

I tossed up between this model and Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief, for the big based model and decided I could get a better finish on this model than Olynder. So the Craven King will be riding his chair into combat as one of the four or five Titans that are permitted in the Nightstalkers list in Kings of War. 

Next Time

First club day of the year this weekend and we'll be playing some Frostgrave 2e for a light and breezy start to 2021. I'll also be working on the two bases of Dreadscythe Harridans to move me very close to the end of the Ghosties.