Tectonic Craft Studios bases pt. 1

I picked up a bunch of Tectonic Craft Studios bases for use with my Deadzone Plague, and boy have they been a dream. The pre-textured bases mean that you can speed-paint a whole clutch of them and base an entire army in no time flat, while having them look amazing. Here's what I did for my Plague.

I grabbed the 25mm and 40mm base toppers for the deck plating and hulk plating, since I'm going for a sci-fi aesthetic. Then I primed them black.

Then I simply gave them a heavy drybrush of P3 Pig Iron. I considered doing something fancier like a bronze or something, but these are for a horde of space monsters, so I wanted to keep this simple.

 To give it an aged and rusted look I thinned down P3 Bloodstone and gave them all a thorough wash. I like Bloodstone for rust because it has a natural tendency to separate when watered down into yellow and brown parts when it pools, which gives a mottled rusted effect. I've also used Secret Weapon Miniatures rust pigment suspended in water, which is also really good, but gives a very different look.

I wanted to break up the brown rust, so I decided that some parts of this would be more likely to develop a blue patina. I just washed them heavily in GW Nihilakh Oxide where I wanted to break up the pattern, mainly using it to pick out any details like bolts or grates.

Finally a tore a small piece of blister foam and stippled on GW Ryza Rust anywhere it looked "broken" to emphasize where the metal was most worn.

And that's pretty much it! I'll do part 2 after I get the Plague models on the bases and do a few finishing touches like blood or slime. Hopefully get to that later this weekend.

Blog Necromancy and Time Management

I've been on a zombie kick lately, so I suppose it's only appropriate for me to raise the ol' blog from the dead again. This time I was inspired to write after reading my friend Marina's blog post in which she discussed creating a better, more efficient To-Do list. Having had good success a few years back with the idea of the $35,000 list when I was self-motivating to paint more commissions I fell out of the habit and subsequently my life has been kind of falling to shit. I need something better.

When I was doing the "6 things that had to get done the next day" list it ran into a number of problems, the two biggest being that a lot of daily chores got on there (I REALLY need to do dishes tomorrow...) and my wife would see my list and start adding things SHE thought were important to it, so that instead of a list of my 6 most important projects I needed to get done I had a list of 6 marginally important Honey-Do chores every day. Make that happen every single day and it's easy to see why it fell apart and I stopped doing it.

One of the great benefits of my current job is that I have ample time sitting at a computer with nothing to do, so I would like to figure out ways to more efficiently use this resource. Time is always one of my big constraints on doing things I want/need to do, so turning down time where I'm trapped at work sitting on my butt into checking items off a list seems like a good move. I currently waste most of this time farting around on the internet (doing things like writing a blog post...), so this seems like an ideal place to re-focus some energy.

I made a Google Document of a To-Do list. I don't think it's done, but it's a completely transparent attempt to cash in on Marina's great idea and customize it to my situation. I have a lot of chores that do need to get done, and I need to not forget about them, but I also have important projects that I've been slacking on (sometimes for dangerous amounts of time) that I shouldn't be ignoring any more, and those needed a spot. I like the "10th step" verbing that Marina used, as it will hopefully help me re-focus at the end of every day and prevent the list from devolving into the last one, as well as just keeping me honest with myself.

My original idea was to print the list out at the beginning of every week, but then I realized that doing so would defeat one of the greatest strengths of the digital document - the fact that I don't really need to worry about formatting as much (especially important in the 10th step part) and can be as verbose as required for a particular situation. So including Monday and Tuesday (when I started this), I have the beginnings of what this actual week is looking like, and how I'm doing.

As you can see, I didn't end up getting much done yesterday. I went home, started dinner, then played a single-player game of Deadzone. Jackie got home and had to leave immediately for an HOA meeting, so I was left to my own devices, which ended up being watching TV and screwing around with miniatures stuff. In the back of my head I knew I needed to do some of this stuff, but I just...didn't. So that was bad. That Google Doc has a 10th Step sheet attached to it, which ended up looking like this:

I like this part a lot. I am a master of ignoring problems and deceiving myself, so forcing myself to face the fact that I basically just flaked last night is eating away at me. I brought some of the pile of mail with me to work, and hope to get a start on that today, as well as call AT&T and deal with customer support for however long it takes to figure out why our internet sucks butts right now, then probably call the DMV to decipher the cryptic piece of mail I received (Do I owe them money? Do I need to get my car smogged? Did I just forget to sign something?). If I can knock those things out while bored at work I'll be miles ahead of where I was this morning, and in a good spot to weed eat the lawn (it's too small to mow properly), water the plants (it's not a long or difficult chore, I just always forget and they keep dying), and do the dishes (I have heard rumors that if I can keep on doing them every day or two they won't pile up into a terrifying mound of filth!).

By that point I should feel accomplished enough that I won't mind going to the bottom part of the list, which is basically the fun stuff I want to make sure I have time for. This part is important for me, because if I neglect to make time to play games I will end up being miserable and will get even less done. I will reward myself for being so productive today by playing Deadzone, most likely. I can't do any painting because my painting desk is covered in shit, so I'm motivated to check off that item as it will allow me to unlock other fun things I can be doing. If I extend this logic I should be able to turn this list into a way to do more of the things I've wanted to by doing more of the things I've needed to. Exercise will assuredly end up in the daily section pretty soon.

I also started a Someday Maybe list in the same Google Doc Folder, which I will use to kind of eyeball and think about the projects I need to do, but that are really back burner things. I can use this space to start planning them when I get bursts of inspiration, and the closer I get to having a fully fleshed-out plan the more likely I'll be to actually get started on those things. Just setting it up made me realize I'm way closer to the laundry room project than I thought I was from my disorganized notes on my phone, so I may try to get that done within a month or two.

Anyway, this whole thing may fizzle out completely, but I really hope not. I need to start making serious progress on some life goals, and getting on top of daily chores is something I need to be doing. I'll probably edit the lists to add other dailies as they come up, but for now this seems like a solid start.

Trygon

Been a little while, but I'm particularly pleased with this Trygon that I painted up on commission for a friend. Picture quality isn't amazing, but should be plenty good enough.

Battle Report (the app and an actual report!)

This is both a review of the Battle Report app for iOS, as well as an actual battle report!

Review first: The app is solid, and easy to use. It took me all of ten minutes of futzing with it in my spare time to figure out how to work it, it automatically catalogues whose turn the picture represents (assuming to make the setting correct) which makes for a vastly easier situation when it comes to looking back over it later. However, when I went to email the pictures to myself the file was slightly too big to send through Gmail (with only 10 pictures!), so I had to get the pictures off the phone in a more roundabout way. Slightly obnoxious, but overall the app does what it's supposed to, even if that's just basically taking pictures with the camera on your phone. 3/5

Battle Report!

First off: I hate Cryx vs. Cryx matches. The game becomes weird when none of your faction's tricks work, and models you expected to do certain things can't because of the lack of souls, living models, or both. Anyway, I went first, running a Skarre1 list I whipped up to try as a tournament-level list.
Points: 50/50
Pirate Queen Skarre (*6pts)
* Defiler (5pts)
* Kraken (19pts)
* Skarlock Thrall (2pts)
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Blackbane's Ghost Raiders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (5pts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (5pts)
Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls (2pts)
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall (1pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)

In case you're wondering, the descriptions will be describing the picture below them.

My friend was running an Epic Deneghra list that I TOTALLY underestimated.
Points: 50/50
Wraith Witch Deneghra (*6pts)
* Nightwretch (4pts)
* Deathjack (12pts)
* Kraken (19pts)
* Nightmare (10pts)
* Skarlock Thrall (2pts)
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall (1pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)

Seems like he's pretty low on models, right? Like he's going to get swarmed by my zillions of infantry? Well, as you see below, turn 1 for me was just running forward. Between Ghostly and Incorporeal my flanks had no trouble with terrain, and I just jammed forward with Mechanithralls and the Kraken, hoping to get some goodies in range.

He also moved up, but stayed cautiously outside of charge ranges.

Without anything to charge, I opted to just jam forward with Mechanithralls and try to keep him held back long enough for my second wave heavy hitters to get there and for me to score some scenario points. The Kraken tried to kill the Skarlock with its big canon, but a bad die roll (one of many, many such rolls this game) meant the little bugger survived.

Wait, what happened to all my models? Why are they all at the corner of the board, where dead models usually g...oh no. Now I understand how his list works. In one turn he killed over 30 of my models by casting Hellmouth twice, having the Kraken forfeit its movement to become a gun turret for a turn, and 4 pistol wraith shots, all while under the tender mercy of Denny's feat. Without any defense to help me my army disintegrated.

My turn was depressing. Since I couldn't move anything, I took some shots in place (Denny was incorporeal that turn, so I couldn't even shoot at her) and feated defensively (something I hate doing). I killed something to the order of 1 Pistol Wraith the whole turn.

Next Nightmare came in for the kill of the Kraken, barely breaking armor (ARM 24! Get bent!) while the Deathjack moved in and scrapped my 'node. The Kraken couldn't make his charge, so he just moved into position. Denny ran her full 14" away up onto the hill - which meant she was safe from my retaliation, but also didn't have Nightmare in her control area.

A series of more bad rolls left Nightmare standing, even though I was able to finish off Deathjack. Skarre was basically just hiding out, and I was running out of models fast.

Nightmare and the Kraken both rolled absurdly over average (something like 5 rolls of over 10 on 2d6 for damage in sequence) to scrap my Kraken. Denny went incorporeal and ran forward to hide behind the wreck marker. By dominating the flag he had 3 points, while I had none. It was looking real bad. If I didn't win next turn he would win on scenario.

I had exactly one chance! Skarre had a pile of focus (from the Skarlock casting sacrificial lamb last turn - and every turn), and she moved forward, her 7 SPD enough to clear the cover guarding Denny. Def 16 meant I needed 10 to hit. I cast Hellfire, boosting to hit, and...rolled a 9. Shit. Well, I might as well go for the second one I had planned! Cast, boost to hit...another 9. At this point we just called it, because Nightmare was right next to Skarre, Denny and the Kraken were deliciously nearby, and Skarre was hanging in the wind.

I learned a valuable lesson about eDenny, though - she's nigh impossible to pin down if a good player is fielding her. I haven't really run her ever (I can't bring myself to be That Guy), and I can see why she's absolutely top tier in competitive play. We agreed that since both of our casters were the pawns of liches that there was a dispute between Asphyxious and Terminus, and since they are "busy liches" they sent their underlings to hash things out. Asphyxious' interests clearly have won out. 

I want to run this list another time or two to see if I can improve it, or if I need to scrap it entirely. It seems good, and I think I just had a particularly bad matchup. We'll see!

IKRPG Commissions

I painted up some minis for a friend's IKRPG campaign. The Narn mini and the Kovnik Joe mini are for specific NPCs, while the Kossites are just to be used for general enemies to be fought. There are a pile of Winterguard and Kayazy as part of this commission as well, but I haven't gotten to those yet. I plan to paint the Khadoran troops as if they were part of an army (specifically an army I'd want to paint/play), that way if the client wants to pick up a warcaster and a handful of warjacks it's a short step to playing with an actual army.

Nyss Hunter Commission

All right, just a short post here to show off some Nyss Hunters I did for a commission for a friend. The super-close-up camera shot picks out all the problems, but they look pretty damn good at tabletop distance. The client was rightly pleased! I think one of my favorite touches was the purple hair on Cylena, making her easily visible at a glance.

Tyranid Commission 1

The first 20 Termagaunts are done. I'm rather pleased with how good they turned out, for how simple they were. When speedpainting this many matching models, a certain amount of not-give-a-shit has to set in. There's a lot of details, but I simply can't spend time painting every crevasse.

Freshly Married and some Commissions

I'm married, honeymooned, and back into miniatures! You know, the important thing in my life, right?

Anyway, I painted Aiyana and Holt for myself while waiting for some info to start commissions:

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. Nothing super fancy, but should look pretty nice on the table. And mainly...now I can use them! Playing fully painted armies is a pain sometimes. :-/

I have taken on a number of commission, including the current monster project, painting roughly one zillion Tyranids.

Ugh, what have I agreed to? That's not even kind of all of them (some are already done, some are giant Hive Tyrants that are on the main painting desk. Some of them were previously painted, but I will be painting the others and re-painting them all to match.

The color scheme on the right was painted on some of the 'Nids in the box of partially assembled and broken models I was given, and the customer decided that he wanted to go with it. My version is on the left, including some gloss varnish on the armor. I really like the effect, and will be posting up more pictures as I complete things. I'm hoping to have 20 Termagaunts finished today, out of about 40 I have to paint. The Hormagaunts will probably be last, since they are at least painted in the inferior scheme (and I'd have to strip them down to repaint them anyway). Next might be the Genestealers, or even some of the bigger things like the Tyrant Guards.

In any case, it's an exciting prospect to be making money painting, even if it's at a cut-rate so as to build a portfolio. With any small amount of luck, word of mouth and a few postings of finished armies will expand the business and I can actually make a living doing this!

X-Wing Miniatures Game

While I'm thinking about it, over the weekend I had a chance to play the new X-Wing Miniatures game, and I wanted to give a quick summary and my impressions.

 

 

 First of all, the game's pretty slick in its box. It comes with 1 X-Wing and 2 TIE Fighters, which is pretty basic but more than enough to learn the game. I'll skip going over all the rules, but basically there are special 8-sided dice for attack and defense, cool templates for turns, banks, and all the other maneuvers. I love the movement mechanic, where you assign your orders in secret, then everyone moves and depending where you end up will determine where you can shoot. The first couple turns you can easily shoot anything in front of you, but after the first pass it gets...tricky.

 

Anyway, I learned the whole game in 20 minutes and was ready to try a 100-point game, which is "regular size" for a decent game. I was Imperials (because they're obviously the best) and had Darth Vader in his TIE Advanced, with 4 additional TIE Fighters at his side, while the Rebels had 2 X-Wings and a Y-Wing with Wedge Antilles, Luke Skywalker, some other random pilot, astromech droids on each fighter, and maybe other stuff. It was a fun game, and while I had an early advantage it came down to Wedge and Vader dogfighting with few hull boxes left - basically the next hit would end the game. He got a bead on Vader and that was that, but it was a hell of a game.

All in all, I had a great time. The game is easy to learn, quick to play, easy to customize, and rewarding in your tactics. There's a surprising amount of tactical depth in the maneuvers, while not being so convoluted that new players are intimidated. I'm really excited about playing again, and I look forward to eventually getting a few minis myself. They're pre-painted, you have quite a bit of army customization (X-Wing, X-Wing with Luke or Wedge or Biggs, TIE Advanced, TIE Advanced with Vader, etc), and it's just plain fun.

Additionally, there are mods that people have made where you can play through the assault on the Death Star Trench or the Battle of Hoth, and I'm sure other notable battles from the movies and the extended universe will make an appearance. The game felt like everything I want space combat to be, and really made me nostalgic for the old TIE Fighter flight simulator game like no other game since.

Wedding Cake Toppers

Been a few weeks, but wedding stuff has made me put all miniatures on the back burner...well, almost all of them! My fiance and I decided we wanted unique cake toppers, but didn't want to pay out the nose for super unique custom ones. As a result, we got two cool ones that were high-fiving, then I did some modifications and painting to get them to look more or less like us. 

When they're both facing forward they totally look like the Argonath. But I'd say that compared with how they started they look pretty good. They're in the wedding colors, including the flowers, I have sideburns and glasses, Jackie has brown hair and a ribbon on the back of her dress. The rings are picked out pretty well, too. With any luck we'll get a comment or two at the wedding from people excited that they look like us.

Cygnaran Marines 8

I'm a madman! A Madman I tell you! I have painted so many units! Here are the Trencher Infantry, arguably my favorite unit in Cygnar, at least theme-wise:

This is 10 Trencher Infantry, the Lieutenant and Sniper, and one Grenade Porter. This means that my Magnus Mercenary lists are suddenly significantly better, at least options-wise, and I can run a Bad Seeds Tier list as I intended. I also feel like the combination of Snipe and Deadeye with these models and pCaine will be pretty solid, but that remains to be seen through playtesting.

Cygnaran Marines 7

All right, cranked out a unit of Field Mechaniks real quick. Yes, I know that they're a model short for a full unit, but I was having so much fun painting gobbers I decided to just do the ones I had and paint the inevitable next one eventually.

Yeah, they're standing in front of the newly based Sword Knights, but whatevs. Everyone who plays Cygnar seems to think they're terrible, so I look forward to giving them a try.

Cygnaran Marines 6

All right, haven't had a ton of time this week, but I managed to crank out a unit of Sword Knights today in 4 hours. Not too shabby, but considering they're all metal with a couple washes, it's not unusual.

The bases will get finished later, but the models themselves are all done and sealed, so I'm counting it finished (as of this posting the sand is drying on the bases). Derpy greenstuff armed guy is on the back left (can't see him great), and sure enough once some paint went on him it's really not noticeable. Up close it's noticeably enough, but especially from tabletop distance it's just another Knight.

Cygnaran Marines 5

Man, here I was expecting units to be the worst part of this - but they've been the fastest to paint up so far! I'm really excited, I painted these both up in about 4-5 hours total. So without further ado, here is a group shot of the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages and Rangers. I particularly like the gillie suits on the Rangers.

In preparation for my Sword Knights (the next unit, I think) I was checking them, and I noticed that one of them was missing an arm. I looked all over and couldn't find it, so rather than dealing with the PP parts store I decided to use the Insta-Mold I have to make a Green Stuff cast of another Sword Knight's arm. After trimming it up it looks pretty passable from the front.

The picture isn't great, but the back is pretty derpy. My hope is that between the positioning I did and some paint it won't really be noticeable. At least not among 9 of his buddies.

Cygnaran 3rd Marines Update 4

 All right, in the interest of keeping this brief, here is a group shot of all my Cygnaran Marines since the last update.

Left to Right: Black 13th (Ryan, Lynch, Watts), Gun Mage Captain Adept (GMCA), Allister Caine, Big Bertha the Defender, Journeyman Warcaster (Jr.), Captain Maxwell Finn, Jonas Murdoch, Trencher Chain Gun, Captain Arlan Strangeways, and Trencher Master Gunner. 

Next batch is already in progress: Gun Mages with the UA and Rangers! 

Mercs: The painted collection so far.

When I agreed to play an Unbound game with some friends, I realized that I had well over 150 points of painted Mercs. Closer to 200, in point of fact. This seemed like an excellent opportunity to take a group shot and show off how far I've come. I've still got plenty of unpainted mercs, but it seems a lot more manageable when I look back and see what I've accomplished.