Simple Shiny Gold Technique

Metallic gold has been problematic for me.  When the very gracious Tim Lison asked me what painting advice I could use, metallic gold was my immediate response.  He walked me through painting the Dwarf pictured here.  It has been the "gold standard" (hur hur) for my gold painting endeavors so far, but I started wanting something a little different.

One common problem I have is that my gold looks too orange and not yellow enough.  Citadel's Shining Gold or P3 Rhulic Gold just don't look very gold to me.  Even Tim's Dwarf was intended to be a weathered gold rather than a new gold.  My attempts have met with varying success but I think I have the beginnings of a recipe now, and I'd like to share it.  Please feel free to modify and let me know how the mods go!  The goblin at right demonstrates the technique, and I've included Tim's Dwarf in each photo for comparison.

The steps are detailed in the captions.  For this example I used P3 Brass Balls, Vallejo Game Color Polished Gold, Reaper Master Series Polished Silver and Citadel yellow ink.  Any equivalent Citadel, RMS, P3 or VGC paint should work fine.  Citadel does not make inks any more, so I would recommend using P3 yellow ink (or any artist's ink) if you need to buy some.

1. basecoat with brass

2. wash with Devlan Mud

3. Paint polished gold on the upward facing areas.  This could be done as a drybrush if desired.

4. Add extreme highlights of polished silver very selectively.

5. Wash with a very thinned out yellow ink.

6. Shade very selectively with Leviathan Purple wash.

That's it.  It fits my needs for a more pale, yellower gold.  Let me know how it works for you!

Gravity 1, Wraithlord 0

Last night was a pretty productive night for painting, with one notable exception.

A slight miscalculation when passing by a shelf in the kitchen swept this fellow off his perch and caused him to swan dive into the dog's water bowl.  He, um, didn't fare well.  T8 only counts during the game I guess.

After looking it all over, there is really no paint damage, and all the breaks are glue-points.  Putting him back together will be trivial.

Have Some Orky Fun - Win a Paint Job From Me

My friend Auberoun over at The Digital Waaagh is having a follower contest, and the grand prize is a paint job from me.  Follow his blog by 2/26 and get an entry into the drawing.  There is also a way to submit an Orky army list and get a second entry in the drawing.

So join up and put me to work!    You provide the mini and I provide the paint.

Details can be found here.

Blood Drinker, Heart Seeker, Swift Killer, Defender

After my daughter asked for "WoW: Cataclysm" for Christmas (which precipitated the purchase of Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King as well, since I had never upgraded from vanilla WoW) I got to thinking about the MMO experience.  Way, way back in the day my coworkers and I played Asheron's Call.  AC was contemporary with Everquest and Ultima Online, so definitely in the trailblazing era of MMO's.  The thing about AC that strikes me now is that it was big.  Really big.  To get anywhere you had to make a fairly harrowing and time-consuming run that would likely use several of the portals that existed throughout the world.  This was not an "on rails" experience, by any means.  Even getting from the starter town to a somewhat larger town required a dangerous run on a road through territory with monsters that could easily kill you.  And death in AC wasn't as forgiving as death in WoW.

In retrospect I can see why AC hovered around the 100k subscriber level while WoW has more people than the nation of Portugal.  WoW streamlined the fun parts and did away with the tedious parts.  AC embraced the tedious parts, and the "buff cycle" was a big part of it.  Going out into the big, wide world in a somewhat non-suicidal way required a series of protection and enhancement spells.  Since most fighting types could not cast those spells at any respectable level, a decent mage would be required.  To a great extent this required a lot of player cooperation; you did not solo this game very effectively.  You would get protection from piercing, blade, bludgeoning, acid, fire, lightning and cold.  You would get enhancements to your strength, coordination, endurance, quickness, willpower or focus depending on your role requirements.  You'd get a boost to your run skill, mace mastery, sword mastery, healing, etc.  Often the buff cycle would start with the mage casting a series of self-buffs so that he could successfully cast the high level buffs.  It was, to say the least, complex.  Oh, and there were spell components you had to carry that would sometimes get consumed when you cast the spells.  Out of hyssop?  Sorry, you can't cast anything that requires hyssop now.  (This was significantly simplified in the few years we played, being reduced to just a few different components.)  The title of this post refers to the four buffs that every melee character's weapon would get (yes, the mage would target the weapon and cast the spells.)  Blood Drinker increases the damage of the weapon.  Heart Seeker increases the accuracy.  Swift Killer improves the speed of the weapon.  Defender improves the melee defense modifier of a given weapon.  Yes, carrying a weapon often gave you increased your ability to defend yourself against others wielding melee weapons.  The game was definitely thorough.

Maybe I'm nostalgic for AC simply because it was the first MMO I played.  Maybe just because that was a more game-filled time in my life.  In light of my recent playing of WoW (as a Cataclysm Goblin) I see that AC gave much more freedom to the player than WoW does.  It meant there were tons of places to go but not always a sense of why you wanted to go there.  A lot of the play was emergent from playing with friends.  WoW gently guides new (or new-ish) players to the next area through the quest chains.  I suppose much later in the game you would have more options... I've never gotten past about level 40 in WoW, and I will say that getting there in WoW was quite a bit more interesting than grinding the Lugian Citadel and then the Olthoi Hive Nest was.

There was less to do in AC, but you were more free to do it.  Wait, what?  Okay, never mind.

Protectorate Goes 0/3

Okay, remember when I said I am a terrible general?  Well, this weekend I proved it with gusto.  Game Day over at Brian's house was an unmitigated success for everyone who faced off against my Protectorate army.  In three 25 point games I managed to lose to Khador, Cygnar and Legion.  My singular mistake, which I never seem to learn from, is that I put my warcaster too close to danger.

Battle 1 was against Khador.  I was actually doing pretty well for a while, taking out a Marauder with my Reckoner and doing some damage to Torch with my Redeemer.  I should have used Severius' feat immediately before this photo, because Torch got loaded up with focus and scrapped the poor little light 'jack.

Battle 2 vs. Cygnar was a lesson in Cygnar shooting.  eKreoss was around the corner from Kara Sloan and her pet Defender, but they still managed to get some amazing shooting off and take him down in a single turn.  Ouch.

Battle 3 was against Legion.  The "take away" from that was "no matter how scary Typhon is, the Carnivean can still eat you if you let him."

All in all, fun.  I imagine it's fun if you win, too.

In other news, it's snowy here and looks kind of pretty.

'Jack in a Day

Despite having played Warmachine for 4 or 5 years, I've never had a completely painted force.  Well, I can play a 15 point game if I'm very selective about the models but anything like 25 points?  No way.

So Wednesday, being a snow day here, I decided to open, assemble and paint my Reckoner for play this weekend.  He turned out pretty okay!  I tried to do the same thing Thursday, but being sick put me way back on any progress.  The Redeemer didn't go nearly as far.  Maybe, just maybe, I can finish it up tonight along with a 4 member choir.  If I play my painted Revenger as "Blessing of Vengeance" then I'll finally have a 25 point painted force.  pSevvy, Crusader, Reckoner, Redeemer, Revenger, choir, Gorman DiWulfe.

And we all know painted armies play better.

Warmachine Template Scatter Cliff Notes

In prep for playing some Warmachine this weekend, I looked over my prior math regarding template scatter and base sizes.  It occurs to me that there is a simple rule to follow, regardless of target base size:

3"/4" templates:  scattering 1"-2" hits the target; 3" or more scatters off target
5" template: scattering 1"-3" hits the target; 4" or more scatters off target

There's your short answer to whether Eiryss was hit or not.  I think I might be able to remember that.

Black Templar Dreadnought WIP 2

Not looking too bad so far.  The banner still has a few things I'd like to clean up.  Some of the skulls are pretty lackluster too.  I also need to figure out what to write on the sarcophagus and leg scrolls.  Other than those I'm sure I'll find something that doesn't appeal to me that needs fixing, especially at the resolution of this pic.

Seriously... photography is unforgiving.

Completed work in this post.

Black Templar Dreadnought WIP

Just one for fun, worked on over two nights so far.  I had done some conversion work a while ago to make a Black Templar dread out of a AoBR dread and I figured I'd throw some paint on it in between Eldar.

The assault cannon arm is mostly a scratch build using some bt bitz and a gun from a land speeder.  The sarcophagus plate is from the regular dread box.  The fingers on the dreadnought ccw have been extended with styrene.

I'm not sure what to do for the main banner.  That chain is going to make it hard to do any cohesive freehand, and I will definitely have to work around it since it's fixed in place.  I also need to do some outlining and clean up on the aquilla in the rubble.  The basing is fimo (or sculpy... can't remember which)  rolled out to about 1/4" and then baked and broken up and interspersed with sand.  It makes great ruined masonry.

Update: click here for next WIP

Funny, But Still Untrue

Wife: What are you eating?
Me: Kashi Go-Lean Crunch.  With flax seeds!
Wife: Yeah, not really my favorite.
Me: But it has flax seeds!  You know what is made from flax, right?
Wife: No.
Me: Linen!
Wife: Well, that explains why it tastes like sheet.

Protectorate War Engine

There are two things I absolutely love in wargames: people carrying books and pipe organs.  (Yes, that means I'm a big Adeptus Sororitas fan, even though I don't have an army.)  So Privateer Press really has my number with Protectorate of Menoth.  First came the Covenant of Menoth, and now behold the concept artwork for their Protectorate Battle Engine.  Cygnar may shoot lightning, and Khador may make lob armored mountains at you, but the Protectorate will kill you with the sound of their awesomeness. 

Also, is it me or is that priest guy throwing the "double deuce"?

The Splendid Tofu

Here's a dish I cooked up for dinner earlier this week. I didn't use any kind of recipe, just a mental image of what I was going for, and it turned out quite good, so I'll share!

Ingredients:

• 14 oz package extra firm tofu
• 26 oz jar of pasta sauce (I used tomato and basil)
• 1 cup water
• 7 oz can of mushroom stems and pieces or buttons
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 1 Tbsp dried red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 small onions, coarsely diced
• creole seasoning powder (optional)

Cut the tofu into 3/4" cubes and place on baking sheet, slight apart.  Optionally sprinkle with creole seasoning.  Bake at 425 for 1 hour 15 minutes.  The tofu will stick to the pan, but should pop off with a little spatula action.  The finished result is cubes beige in color with a somewhat chewy outside, some of them a little crispy. 

Mix the tofu, pasta sauce, water, pepper flakes and black pepper in a sauce pan and simmer low uncovered for about 20 minutes to allow the pepper flakes flavor to permeate the sauce.  Add the spinach, mushrooms and onion and simmer until onions are translucent but not completely soft (to your taste.)  Serve by itself or over rice.

The whole batch has about 970 calories (without rice) and we typically get 5 or 6 servings out of it.  Good low cal food and absolutely delicious.

New Year's Eve Snack Challenge

Battle of the Depression-Eating Heavyweights!  Fight!

It's a whole bag of Kroger Potato Skins (with cheddar and bacon) vs. an entire box of OreIda Bagel Bites!  We're sure to have a battle on our hands, folks!  Which of these foods yields the most self destructive power?!

Round 1: Pure Energy
Bagel Bites:  4.5 servings @ 210 calories per serving = 945 calories
Potato Skins: 4 servings @ 240 calories = 960 calories
The judges are calling this a tie!  The contest could go either way!

Round 2: Sheer Mass
Bagel Bites: 88g/serving = 396g total

Potato Skins: 99g/serving = 396g total

Another tie!  Have you ever seen such a match-up?!

Round 3: Fat City

Bagel Bites: 7g fat/serving = 31.5g fat total
Potato Skins: 16g fat/serving = 64g fat total
Advantage, Potato Skins!

Round 4: Take That, Pancreas!
Bagel Bites: 28g carbs/serving = 126g carbs total
Potato Skins: 17g carbs/serving = 68g carbs total
This round goes to the pizza equivalent!
We're all tied up again!

And now, the lightning round...

Round 6:  Fiber Is For Bran
Bagel Bites: 1g fiber/serving = 4.5g total
Potato Skins: 4g fiber/serving = 16g total
Potato skins have more fiber!  Bagel Bites are the winner!!!

Tune in next week when we pit an entire bag of Doritos Spicy Nacho against a box of 'Nilla Wafers!

Reality Imitates Comedy

I need you to read something.  Seriously.

First, read THIS. It's from 2003.

Now, read THIS.  It's from today.

Is it April Fools Day or something?

40k Fingernails

"Daddy?  Will you paint my nails?" my 9-year old daughter asked.  My daughters have only asked this particular service of me a handful of times.  "Sure, sweetie.  How would you like me to paint them?"  After a few ideas suggested and rejected, she asked if I could paint Space Marine symbols.  Have my ears gone insane?!  Of course!  An opportunity to nerd out and have daddy-daughter time?  Oh, yeah!

Behold the results.  I picked the Space Marine chapters for their basic colors, and she picked Hawk Lords because "she likes birds."  I suggested painting her other hand as enemies and she loved the idea.  She picked most of the enemies from the 40k rulebook.  I wasn't really sure what to do for a 'nid fingernail, so I went with a warrior face.  I did a basecoat of white enamel, followed by the design in acrylic, followed by a clear enamel sealant.  All in all it took about 1.5 hours.  She is absolutely ecstatic with the results.  I am ecstatic that she is ecstatic.  There is a lot of ecstatic here right now.

Chili Cook-Off Strategy

I like chili.  For more than 15 years I have toyed with different recipe variations for chili, from the basic to the more "open" shall we say.  All that remains the same is that my recipe always uses beans, beef, and tomatoes; I don't cook white chili or chicken chili or what have you.  Way back in the early days someone asked me if my recipe had a name.  I chose "Chili for Forty Humans," an oblique reference to the first Simpsons Treehouse of Horror.  The recipe has evolved but the name has not.

Anyway....

My chili is a weekend chili.  The kind that stays on the stove for three days as the liquid reduces down and the taste homogenizes between the ingredients.  Only this past year have I had the opportunity to participate in chili cook-offs.  I have not won.  I have not even come close.  Today was a good example.  It got me thinking, what makes a good cook-off chili?  These are the things I will be thinking about next year at my employer's cook-off.

1. Thickness - since each person could not possibly take an entire bowl of every entry, you chili should be thick enough to have a small ladle full contain most of the key ingredients and hardly any liquid.  My chili was way too soupy today, but after it simmers for another six hours it might be okay.
2. Punch - the chili should have an immediate taste/heat effect upon eating.  People are trying lots of chili, and if yours is mild or subtle it will come off as tasteless.  Again, that's where mine was inferior.  After tasting some of the other entries I could barely even taste mine, and I know what my chili tastes like.
3. Quantity - this one is mostly smoke and mirrors.  The photo above is a good example of an obvious incongruity in popularity.   If you had to pick which two of the above three chilis would finish first and third, which one would you not pick.  I filled that crock pot up practically to the top, and even though it got consumed a fair bit it still looked like someone had seen a fly floating in it and word got around.  Granted, it wasn't exactly terrific but if it can't be popular it could at least look popular.  By the way, congrats to Josh (left) and Brian (right) for their winning chilis.

There you have it.  I'm not, by nature, a sore loser but I am a curious loser always looking for ways to improve.  There, if someone ever needs to write something about me they can truthfully say "self described curious loser."  That's just great.

Thoughts on Ultramarines: The Movie

Expectations are a complicated thing.

Last night my wife and I watched Ultramarines: the Movie (let's call it U:tM.) I specifically asked my wife to watch it to get her input as a scifi fan but not a 40k enthusiast. Her knowledge about Space Marines specifically is limited to the fact that they wear power armor and that mortally wounded ones can be entombed within a Dreadnought. I asked her to point out anything about the movie that was perplexing in a "I feel like I should know what that means, but I don't" sort of way. As for me, I do not possess an encyclopedic knowledge of Space Marines. My knowledge is limited to the codices and rule books, as I have not read any of the Space Marine related novels.

As a movie, Ultramarines is definitely more than just fan service. Dan Abnett's screenplay tries first and foremost to be a story about Space Marines rather than just a series of "I know what that is!" clips. This is what differentiates this endeavor from video-game intros and cut scenes. The Dawn of War intros (inevitably the standard by which any 40k footage will be judged) are beautiful and dynamic, but they are not really storytelling exercises as much as a series of short atmosphere shots or combat demonstrations. They are also very heavy on exposition, something a movie cannot afford to be if it wants to keep the audience's attention. I would also venture a guess and say that the entire budget of U:tM was less than the intro movie for a major video game. The scenes tend to be dark and the animation is mostly non-intrusive, with some awkwardly stiff times. When From The Warp's Ron Saikowski solicited questions from members to ask Codex about the movie the animation of marines was foremost in my mind. Here is my section of the Q/A:

18. I would like to know the challenges of animating power armor, especially in terms of trying to model a realistic human anatomy in there somewhere. Did anything need a "redesign" to make it able to be animated?

It was a challenge to animate the power armour, and we went to great lengths to really think about and explore how a Space Marine wearing it would move. One of the ways we thought about it was to look at someone wearing ice-hockey pads – it gave some approximation of the walk cycle. But, of course, it is power armour so not heavy. Games Workshop’s advice was that the Ultramarines are twice as agile and as fit as any Olympic champion, so the movement is still fluid despite the bulk of the armour.

Codex certainly took the Olympic champion advice to heart, as the marines were quite agile. I am admittedly not accustomed to seeing marines move in that manner, and the armor always seemed like it would have more obvious weight than it did.  It wasn't what I was expecting but I got used to it quickly.  There were some moments where the subjects on-screen just moved too fast to comfortably watch, but that was a function of cinematography rather than character animation.

Story-wise, it wasn't bad.  There's only so much you can do in 75 minutes, and I give Dan Abnett kudos for keeping the story small, which allowed there to be real characters rather than just a series of anonymous combatants.  My wife and I laughed about Allison's blog comment about it seeming very... manly.  It did.  "Are we talking Conan many or Brokeback manly?" my wife asked jokingly.  Let's go with Conan manly.  Only once in the movie did Stef have to ask me what was going on (the extraction of gene-seed, which brought the manly question back up.)  Other than that, it was enough straightforward scifi stereotype fare that she didn't have any trouble keeping up.  She did think the apothecary armor was too Star Wars Stormtrooper-like.  To my surprise, she actually rather liked it.  Not in the "I need to go buy an army now" kind of way, but more in "I just watched a fun SyFy Original Movie" vein.  (SyFy is a cable/satellite channel focusing on science fiction, and known for their crazy original movies, mostly about monsters.)  My overall opinion... it was good, not great.  The plot and execution would have probably made a better graphic novel.  In fact, I hope they do one in the same style as the short graphic novel that came with the collector's edition set.

If Codex makes another 40k movie I will buy.  I suppose that's praise enough.

--side note:  Distribution for the copy of the movie I got came from Datapak in Howell, MI.  Anything contributing to Michigan's terribly economy is good news to me.  Did any other U.S. recipients get theirs with a Howell, MI return address?

Ultramarines Movie Unboxing

It has arrived! 

My children are less than thrilled.
On the other hand, my parents took me to see Alien when I was 10.  Am I overprotective?

Ultramarines Shipped!

They said they would get order shipped this week, and it looks like they made their goal (for me at least.)


Hi Mike Howell,
This email is to confirm that your order has been shipped.
Your order has been despatched via Priority Mail.
If you have any questions about your order please contact us at support@createdistribution.com
Thank you again for your business.

The curious part to me was that my order number is around 4800, but my shipping ID is only around 4200.  Does that imply that there were as many as 600 people who ordered more than one?  I guess I hadn't considered ordering more than one, and the shipping price was low enough that I didn't even consider pooling an order.  Hmmm.

Other news.... nobody showed up for hobbying last night.  I haven't picked up a brush in a solid week.

40K Legos

Don't even pretend you don't realize how awesome this is.

Seriously.