Ultraforge Greater Plague Demon

Not bad for a night's work. I am slightly mystified at this model's disappearance from the Ultraforge lineup. Dakka Dakka forum threads as long ago as 2009 confirm that it's gone and not coming back, and theorize that GW cease-and-desisted poor Sophia. All blame casting aside, I am glad that I have one of these.

You like grilled cheese?

Like all Ultraforge minis, he's resin and horrifically hydrophobic. Seriously getting this guy even primed was like putting two like pole magnets together. Scrub and scrub these minis until you don't think there could possibly be any mold release left, then double the time spent scrubbing. I kind of surprised myself painting him this far in one night. It was regular hobby night and we started early, so this is maybe 4.5 hours work. He was only primed before that.

Oh, and he's big. Like Forgeworld GUO big.

You! Stand still laddie!

We Need More Zombie Antelope

I finalized my Kingdom Death Monster Kickstarter pledge today. Realization: I really need to stay off Kickstarter.

Imma hoof you!

I really find the artistic direction of Kingdom Death appealing. All fantasy is a collection of tropes and cliches at this point, and a good execution requires expertly picking your cliches and fitting them to your imagery. Say what you will about the hyper-sexualization of that world, Kingdom Death Monster is stylish, disturbing and consistent.

The mini I am most excited about painting from the game is the never-really-mentioned antelope. He appears for a moment in the Kickstarter pitch video and in group shots of the game contents, but that's it. I l love the eviscerated abdominal cavity, the exposed musculature, the bushy tail, all of it! It's the sort of mini that I want to show to every manufacturer as an example of how to still be original with cliches like zombie animals.

Sanguinary Guard and a Sandwich

Yes, they're very gold. It's kinda their thing.

 The Sanguinary Guard are complete. Well, at least as complete as they are going to get because I'm giving them to their recipient now. It's March, and we're getting into ridiculous territory for late Christmas present. Talking with my friend today, he mentioned selling some of his Blood Angels, so I may deliver these guys just in time to be complete pointless. Whoops.

CMON link for attractive, intelligent people.

==== Completely Unrelated ====

Take a Wendy's Crispy Chicken sandwich, no mayo. Take a Wendy's Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, also no mayo. Take the bottom bun off the chicken sandwich and the top bun off the burger, then combine them to make The Barnyard. Chicken, cow and pig surrounded by lettuce, tomato, cheese and wheat. I feel so rustic. Also fat.

Man's Greatest Culinary Triumph

The Plan Backfires

In an attempt to diverge from the path of "everything 30% complete" that I seemed to have been on lately, I attempted a new policy of not switching figures once I started painting one. I would paint it start to finish. Wow, did that go wrong. Instead of focusing me on painting one model, I ended up just not painting if I didn't feel like painting the current exclusive model-of-the-moment. Whoops.

Anyway, here is the current thing I am finishing. Yes, that's the same model that was going to be part of someone's Christmas gift. It still is, just a tad belated.

A few things need completion (including the gems and top piece) and there is some cleanup to do. I tried to stick to the box art for the banner as much as possible, but I'll be going with a darker cloth base to match the wings I did with the darker interior.  I did learn one thing with this... don't make the background of any detail work a series of paints and washes. You will inevitably need to fix some slop and you'll never get it right if the fix is elaborate. Stick to paint color that you can reproduce easily in one small spot.

I have been trying to transition to the new GW paint set someone bought me for Christmas. Ouch. I am surprised how much of my planning involved knowing the colors of the old range. I find myself scanning the cardboard "chest" that holds the paint jars (a great idea if you ask me) for something that looks like color x.

Thrift Store Treasure = Good Photography

So I found myself at a Salvation Army thrift store recently. Now typically I can't stand pawing through thrift stores or garage sales... that's not to say that good things can't be had, only that I have no talent for finding them. (In contrast, my brother-in-law excels at finding things that will have 10x eBay value.) Anywho, I come across a "Clairol True-To-Light VIII" in the electronics area, which looks to be a lighted vanity for seeing how your makeup looks in various light-types. There are settings for day, office, evening and home. Two fluorescent tubes provide the light, and colored filters provide the difference in light coloring. On a whim I dropped the $6 figuring I could try it for photographing minis.

Here is the setup I contrived. I took out the central rotating mirror from the vanity and stuck a plastic tab on the bottom with construction adhesive. The stand it came with was made to tip it back so one could look slightly downward at it, not really conducive to my intended purpose. The backdrop for the mini is a 40k Razorback box I hacked up with a piece of thick gray poster-board nestled in it.

So then I started taking some pictures... and .... wow!

I have never, never gotten a good photo of this guy. Until now. This was my first attempt at a Golden Daemon entry and it got an honorable mention, finishing just behind Cathy Wappel's bronze winning Chaos Spawn.  I'm tempted to throw this guy back up on cmon now that I have a decent pic.
 

And this feller is what I actually won a daemon for. Again, a better photo than I have ever taken of him.

Best $6 I've spent this year.

The Perils of Low Light Painting

No no no no NO. How many times will I fall into this trap of stupidity.

So, there I was, painting up some Sedition Wars Vanguard troopers. They weren't anything special, just tabletop quality. A little clean, a little dirty. I have enough of these that I can use a few to get a feel for the model before I try to make anything look nice. Still, I was pretty happy with the overall effect.

30 points of shooty goodness

For reasons of sheer laziness I had painted under my kitchen overhead lights instead of my Ott or gooseneck CF lamps. I thought, "Hey, the light isn't that different, right? I mean, how much could light affect my ... OH MY LANDS WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE, WOMAN?"

Looks like phase 2 infection to me

Seriously, what looked like a smooth skin tone and decent eyes from my overhead light looked like horrible acne scar makeup death mask under real light. On top of the acrylic texture issues, the mold line remnants don't help one bit. So are they getting repainted? Noop! Like I said, I have so many of these that I don't care all that much if some look like crap. I'm certainly capable of painting faces (shameless, I know) but this one is going to stay disfigured. Maybe I'll paint a big scar there. I dunno.

I still haven't come to grips with this plastic either. The mold lines are just torture to remove for me. Maybe I should have bid for the chance to spend the day with Mike & Aly at their paint studio just to learn how to clean the models. Sigh.

Ubuntu Wireless and 2Wire U-verse wifi

Ah, technology. It enables us to do so many things, yet spend so many hours banging our heads against a brick wall trying to get the simplest thing working. Like Wifi and my Ubuntu laptop. For the longest time it just worked with my home network. Then it didn't. Then it did. Nothing that I am aware of changed.

Finally, after a little poking around I determined the problem was the Wifi encryption protocol. Ubuntu and the 2Wire router play just fine with WPA-PSK (TKIP) but not with WPA2-PSK (AES). So when the router is set to use either, of course the two of them negotiate to use the one that doesn't work. Yay, technology. The solution was the tell the router to only use WPA-PSK (TKIP). Every other router I've tried just works with my laptop, but something about those 2Wire routers is just odd.

Anyway.... played Sedition Wars for the first time last night. Lots of rule questions. Lots of inconsistent terminology in the rulebook. I guess it's a matter of "come for the miniatures, stay for the voluminous FAQ and errata." All the same it has a lot of fun potential, and the wonderful cinematic climax to scenario 1 was worth the game. Everyone was pretty happy at the end. Vanguard won, by the skin of their teeth. One more turn would have ended it. I love a close game.

Sedition Wars: Patient Zero Identified

Last night was hobby night and the first of the Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster minis got painted. There are maybe 100 figs total in the "Biohazard" level Kickstart package, so assuming one model per night I have a good amount of painting ahead of me. 

This is a start to finish one night paint job, and that leads to my new "thing." I'm going to try and stay focused on any model I start to paint until it's finished. I have way too many models at the 25% completion level, and I want them to be done. They don't have to be painting competition level or perfunctory level, just done. Like Mr. Revenant here. Done. 1% of the way to fully painted SW:BfA set. I am not limiting myself in the same way for building models, since I might want to assemble some for gaming, but once paint touches a model all others shall be forsaken until that one is done.

In other news, Khador Brian brought in FFG's X-Wing and we played at lunch. Wow, is that fun. Simple rules and nice pre-painted models meant everyone could get into the game easily. Matt immediately realized that he would be dropping a lot of money on this game, and I know he was shopping online shortly after lunch. Larger battles appear to be in our future.

Last Of The Horsemen

An epic poem of seriously inside humor

No more the crack of salty seeds
no more the jest at some's expense
the final horseman met his end
hear now his final tale

In days gone by of fleeting youth
the horseman stood flanked by his peers
but years did pass and fade they did
and left him last to stand alone

Though challengers arose in turn
outlast each one in turn he did
as years went by he persevered
by moving not an inch

But at last the vicious beast
reared its vile head and roared
Amperdragon was its name
Its bane a thing of arcane lore

Long fought the two in fields of strife
What manner of epic conflict this?
What can you say of struggles such?
What knowledge can you lend?

At last the arcane lore revealed
the beast was slain and vanish did
to be replaced by the next threat
an endless queue of ceaseless foes

But in the end the horseman's foe
revealed to be his hand alone
and now the horemen gone are they
their legacy to be forgot

=====

Have you ever wondered what could fill someone's shoes, only to discover that those shoes were actually rotting squirrel carcasses held together with scotch tape and bits of twine? Yeah, better buy some new shoes.

Overcoming the Sedition Wars Glass Ceiling

An analysis of the "Biohazard" level kickstarter rewards, Vanguard faction.

14 male Vanguard models

• 4 w/ heavy weapon (29%)
• 9 w/ helmet (64%)
• 2 hero classification (14%)

19 female Vanguard models

• 6 w/ heavy weapon (31%)
• 8 w/ helmet (42%)
• 1 hero classification (5%)
• 1 commander classification (5%)

If you are a female Vanguard you are less likely to be assigned a helmet and less likely to receive a promotion from trooper to hero. You are more likely to be promoted from hero to commander. You are slightly more likely to receive a heavy weapon. Those promoted to hero or assigned a heavy weapon cost the same as their male counterpart. 

Looking over the breakdown, I note that the two female Vanguard promoted to hero or above have some form of mechanical augmentation. Akosha Nama is a cyborg and Captain Kara Black has a bionic arm. Does this imply that females must suffer some mutilation to advance in the Vanguard ranks? Or perhaps that one must put herself in harm's way more than the average trooper to be considered for promotion? No Vanguard of hero level or above wears a helmet, save for Vade's rebreather mask. Could the stark discrepancy of helmet use between male and female troopers be an attempt by female troopers to show that they are like their superiors and not averse to risk?

I have daughters of my own, and should they choose the Vanguard as a career choice they should be able to advance within the ranks based on their talent, not their bionics or ability to stay perfectly coiffed through the entire scenario.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series where we tackle Strain bias against bipeds in high level classifications.

/// end transmission ///

I started building my Vanguard force last night, and I am torn between loving the models and feeling a little crazy about getting the mold lines cleaned off. I never got the hang of this new plastic, either in Privateer Press models or now McVey. I shudder to think of all the struggling I will do when my Bones vampire level gets here.

I love that they all come with bases like this, but having to pin each one onto the base is going to be a bit of a pain. I'm using a new alchemy called "Loctite Plastics Bonder" which is a combination activator and cyanoacrylate that they claim will create a very strong bond. I'll do a couple models to the base with this stuff and try a drop test and report back. The tests I've done so far seem like the stuff is pretty strong.

 Here's a little scale pic of the SW minis. From left, Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth Deliverer, Sedition Wars Vanguard Reaver, spess mreen, Wargames Factory shock trooper, GW Chaos cultist, Wargames Factory zombie. The primary difference I see is that the head is more adult proportioned than some of the heroic scale minis. That lends to the illusion that the mini is smaller/shorter even though they are comparable.

Can't wait to play some Sedition Wars!

I Will Finally Own A Quality Painted Miniature!

James Wappel, one of my painting heroes, has just kickstarted his series of painting tutorial DVD's. The full set is not, shall we say, inexpensive. At 100 minutes each, I also wonder why the colors red, blue and green need their own DVD, or why multiple flesh tones need their own DVD. Hey, you know what? It's his party and if I painted as well as him I'd be in a much better position to judge that.

Here's what I'm excited about: one of the reward levels gets you a DVD plus the miniature painted for the DVD. I don't think it's the actual mini painted for the tutorial... the text says "you will receive a PAINTED VERSION of the mini that is featured on the DVD!!"  If you've ever priced a really good commission figure you'll know that getting the DVD and the figure for $135 is a steal. 

Turn, Turn, Turn 2013

Well, apparently the world didn't end. Kinda makes me wish I had paid my mortgage in December.

Plans for 2013? They are well defined, with bullet lists of actionable items following the continual improvement cycle as seen below. Okay, maybe not.

I usually skip step 3 altogether and replace step 1 with "Purchase"

I refuse to make New Year Resolutions, because I have enough failed commitments to feel guilty about without having to include myself in the mix. Perhaps 2013 will be the year of hobby self indulgence for me. I will work on what I want to and not feel obligated to get anything done for any reason. Ah, who am I kidding? 2013 will be an endless series of artificial deadlines that mean nothing, flitting aimlessly from hobby idea to hobby idea and never completing anything I start. You know, kind of like every other year.

Here's the current situation:

1. I am finally finishing a Christmas present for a friend. It's been quite a long time coming, but the models look nice.
2. I am working on my Chaos Space Marines, but now that I have enough functional models to play I do not feel driven to build. The box of 30 Zombie Vixens I just picked up will add to my Typhus list nicely when mixed in with my other 30 all-male zombies. That's a whole lot of scoring, fearless, FNP troops.
3. I eagerly await the arrival of my box of Pirate Gobbos.
4. I eagerly await the arrival of Sedition Wars: The Battle for Alabaster.
5. I eagerly await the arrival of Reaper Bones, Vampire level.
6. I anxiously peruse the fan-made Kingdom Death Monster pledge calculator to try and allocate my meager funds to the various tantalizing expansions. (And no, the pinup models are not, nor are they the cause of, "tantalizing expansions" no matter what your dirty little mind is thinking.)
7. I am playing Talisman for the first time, and have committed (hah! see! already!) myself to paint whatever model wins each game. So far the Troll and Prophetess are in the queue, with the Troll already started.
8. I am playing Evil Baby Orphanage. It plays quickly and is tons of fun. We love shouting "USE YOUR WORDS!" at each other and other parental nonsense.
9. Something Blood Bowl-ish or Warmachine-y or Skavenesque. When I feel like it.
10. FTL. Soooo much FTL. I think I'm up to about 300 games played and 2 wins. This is the best $10 you can spend on gaming right now IMHO, since it goes to the developer.
11. Fallout 3, which I picked up for $4.49 at local Gamestop. I play for a while, laugh when I die horribly, realize I'm motion sick and then stop playing. I had motion sickness problems playing old PC games with poor frame rates, but I attribute this to my inability to keep my viewing angle reasonable with the PS3 controller. Seriously, it's like I have lost all control over my neck muscles or something.
12. Dungeon Village ... seriously. There has been a major update on Book of Heroes and I still find myself going back to DV over and over. Must.... get.... 5..... stars......
13. Thinking about game design... I have three ideas that I have been trying to flesh out for a while. They are very different scale, and I would like to eventually see one of them come to fruition, at the very least as a homebrew thingy.
14. Mobile/Flash development. haxe-NME is still the platform I've picked for my Android/Flash dev, and I really want to get something done and posted to Kongregate. Maybe a completed Ludum Dare entry, like my work buddy jomomomo has been doing.

Yep. Laser focus.

Stupidly Easy Tabletop Gold

I'm painting some gold power armor, and I am pretty happy with the gold tones I'm getting currently. Here is the stupidly easy recipe. It works great with you have multiple models to paint gold. Remember to let each step dry adequately before going on to the next.

1. Paint the area (or entire model in this case) Vallejo Model Air silver. The brand is important here. Model Air silver goes on incredibly smooth and even. What you are seeing in the pic is one coat, and not a thick one. It comes fairly thin out of the bottle. Once you try this you will abandon all others.

2. Wash with yellow ink. In this case I used Privateer Press's version. Keep the ink moving to avoid it pooling any one place too thick. It's hard to screw this step up unless you didn't wait long enough for the silver to dry or to proceed to the next step before the ink is dry. I tried mixing the yellow into into the silver to try for the same effect but it came out looking like antique gold, not nearly as vibrant as I wanted.

3. Heavy wash sepia. Use this to get contrast where things connect and basic deep shadow washing. Try not to let it pool on a surface too bad, but even if it does that's not terrible.

4. Heavy drybrush bright gold. In this case I used VGC Polished Gold. Make sure to hit any areas where the wash made tide marks. After gold, drybrush very selectively with silver to get top highlights.

That's it! You could probably go more lightly on step 4 if you wanted the gold more yellow, or maybe just apply the sepia wash more precisely so less correction is needed.

Die In 1000 Fires

I cannot say enough good things about FTL. After hundreds of plays, I still have not won it, and yet I keep playing. In that sense it's like Nethack, and just like that venerable favorite death is permanent, "hardcore" if you will. It's hard (at least to me.) Most games I play end something like this:

The game itself is a race across a series of randomly generated star maps, jumping from system to system and either fighting other ships, rescuing castaways (who may be helpful or suicidal and destructive) and trading at shops for better weapons and systems. 

Eventually you will encounter all the various planet/ship combinations, but the game continues to be fun. Unlocking new ships though various challenges only adds to the challenge. I have taken to calling the game "Die In A Fire" for good reason. Like Nethack, dying is frustrating and so very much fun.

It's available for only $6.99, for Windows, Mac and (gasp) Linux. I play the Linux version. Go buy it! Now!

Standard Template Construct Contest Voting

Voting is open in the Standard Template Construct Champion of Chaos contest. There are some fantastic entries, too!

So go and vote on best painted and best converted. Of course, if you wanted to cast your vote for Chaos Fan I wouldn't be disappointed.

Converting the Helbrute With No Plan .. Part 3

So in my completely unplanned quest to make this gentleman of a Helbrute look something different than the stock model I decided that the very prominent "halo of horns" should be changed. I liked the multi-level mouth thing, but the big rack is too much. So I cut that piece in half...

 ...and the result definitely reveals the crazy face better. It has more of a dreadnought feel too. The other Helbrute I have uses the horns, so this one should look different.

 One thing I never noticed us how much that front armor piece looks like a cyclops face. Also, his many, many abs kind of resemble the roof of a mouth. Maybe if I...

Oh yeah. Big scary mouth ready for more converting. It's just poster-tacked in right now, and I can't decide whether to remove the large horns. I could also add a tongue. Since I already have one Slaaneshi Helbrute I figured when I bought the thing that I would make this one Nurgle. Now as I convert him I don't know which direction to take. Deciding Nurgle or Slaaneshi would definitely affect how I model a tongue.

Anyway, this continues to keep my attention, so stay tuned for more!

Converting the Helbrute With No Plan .. Part 2.5

Not quite enough for a part 3. I worked on the scourge base/ends some and modded up a Reaper Autocannon for him, and I'm getting happier with the results.

Maybe I'll sacrifice a plasma cannon from my loyalist venerable dread for this guy, or maybe a devastator plasma cannon. I will probably scratch built lascannons using styrene and vehicle sprue bits.

No more converting tonight.... part 3 sometime in the future!

Converting the Helbrute With No Plan .. Part 2

So last we visited this guy, he had lost his multi-melta barrels and his power fist arm and gained a couple styrene tubes on which to mount future weapons (I guess everything in 40k counts as "future weapons" but that's not what I meant.)

I still don't have a plan. Well, I have the most basic of guidelines... "make him look different."

Okay, the gun arm needs some changing. Let's saw it off. It's almost like this model was designed for straight saw cuts. I'm really liking the alignment of everything.

This would be much more difficult without a saw.

 Next, that odd "left arm up" pose needs to change more, so let's cut the legs off.

Count the arms, the legs, the heads and then divide by 5

 Now put the legs back on, but trying now to give him a more upright posture. To accentuate this I elevated the right leg a little and cut the integral basing off the left leg. I positioned him squashing a Striking Scorpion. Someone had given me the model without a sword arm, so I cannibalized one from a Harlequin (assuring the Harly that he would get a H's kiss later) and semi-buried the sword to look as if the SS is being embedded in mud ... or something.... I didn't have much og a plan.

That said, the posture a quite a bit different. I decided to keep "crazy face" as is. That's a little too much conversion for me right now. Maybe on another one I'll just make that a big mouth with a tongue coming out. Hmmm. Maybe I'll still do that....

Next, I figured I'd give him a power scourge. S8 AP2, and it lowers the weapon skill of models in base contact. While this may be good against a small unit it falls apart against anything with more models engaged (within 2" of a model in base contact) than actually in base contact. Since you use the majority weapon skill of the engaged models, this guy won't be getting an advantage from the lower WS on any unit larger than about 5 models. Those in base contact use their actual WS to attack, so theoretically he could get hit on 5+ instead of 4+ or on 4+ instead of 3+. So why take a power scourge if it costs 10 points more and is on the whole worse than a power fist? I don't know! You act like I had a plan in all this! I just wanted it to be different.

In coming up with a mounting for the power scourge, I ended up gluing the arm that I had just cut off right back where it was originally. That's the risk when you don't have a plan I suppose. I then cut the arm at the armor point and carved down the back of it enough to fit the forearm shield over it. Cutting left a hole in the arm, which I used to connect the individual lashes of the scourge. I wanted something blade-like at the end of each, so I cut the fingers off the power fist and attached them.

The end result? I hate it. 

Seriously awful. Let's see what we can do to fix that.
First, I shortened each of the lashes by about 30%. Then I rebent them to go up instead of in front of him. I was really hoping to avoid the pose with the left arm in the air again, but oh well.

Is that better? I'm pretty sure that's better. I still need to do... something to it. Something on the end would be good. Maybe I'll thread styrene tubes on makes a more mechanical looking connection for each of the lashes. Also, I use Privateer Press palette paper but not the Privateer Press wet palette. It's pants.

So, more unplanned conversion to come! Maybe!

Converting the Helbrute With No Plan .. Part 1

The helbrute is a fun model. I don't know what the general consensus is regarding the sculpt, but I rather like it. The way it fits together is clever without being crazy (I'm looking at you Chosen.) Still, his dynamic pose is way to distinct to field more than one without them looking like they are background dancers. He's not the most egregious example of this I've seen, but being plastic I decided to chop him up and see what happens.

Oh, yeah. I don't have a plan. Oh, well. Let's get cutting!

First step, cut off that power fist arm! I assembled it and then sawed as straight and cleanly as I could to make a flush connection on the body. Next, I cut the multi-melta barrels off. I want to be able to interchange the weapon but don't want to lose the option of the multi-melta so I tried to cut as clean as possible. What was left were two holes big enough to glue styrene tubes into. There! Pegs!

I put the original barrels on the pegs and glued a tiny square of sprue between them to keep them together. They stay pretty well. Okay! Gun mount ready to make more guns! But what?

I put the front of the 'brute on just to see how it all fits, and the armor plate on the front doesn't intrude on the place where I cut the arm off. Hmmm. Maybe I'll convert that into a power scourge. That would give me a very different looking model.

Next I'm going to have to do something about that lopsided pose. But what? I don't know! I don't have a plan!!! I'm just cutting and guessing and gluing!

More in part 2.

Want: FW Chaos Sorcerer and Spawn

I don't experience ForgeWorld lust.... often. Sayl the Faithless and Nightmaw on the other hand is 90% ooooooh and 10% whuuu? Slap Ahriman's backpack on this guy and he would be an amazing CSM Sorcerer. That left arm though is a mystery. Check out the FW page I linked for closeups. Never have I seen such a "I rolled some green stuff and wrapped it around a staff" sculpt at FW. I almost expected to see fingerprints left in putty. So if I get this guy I might chop off the staff and replace it with something better. Maybe a Kromlech Technomage staff.

Is $35 a little steep for this model? Maybe, considering I still have quite enough Chaos Sorcerers to last me a while.

Plague Toads as spawn though? That would make me really happy like.