A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Warhammer 40,000 – It's a good sign that the new CSM books are good when I start getting new clients requesting new Chaos Marine forces. It's one thing when I'm updating existing clients existing armies (ie putting paint on stuff they've had for ages) but totally new forces are something special, considering how long they've been lamented as a "bad book"I'm excited to start seeing more varied CSM forces on the table.
Read MoreBlood Bowl – I've never actually played Blood Bowl, the game never really appealed to me so I can't really speak to how the new box compares to the old ruleset other than the miniatures are really nice, easy to put together and on round bases all wins in my opinion.
Read MoreGuild Ball – I wrapped up the Hunters and Union commission I had been working on earlier this month. While I still haven't had time to try out the game I did enjoy painting the models. Each one has quite a bit of character and reminds me why skirmish games are so much fun. It sounds like my client also has an Alchemist team that he's going to need painting so I'm also looking forward to working on those models.
You can see the rest of the team in the gallery.
Warhammer 40,000 – Finally I have all my genestealer cult assembled. With what I have I've built a solid 1000 point and two decent 1500 point lists. The next step is to get these bad boys painted up.
Read MoreDungeons & Dragons – I've been working on this Rogue for a little while, with the coughing fits I was having it was nearly impossible to do detail work. I just need to get the face and edge highlights done and this will be on it's way back to the client.
Read MoreKingdom Death – Starting 2017 off right I took a little time to work on one of my own projects, as a commission painter i don't always have a ton of time for my own projects so every now and then i need to take a break and do something for myself.
Read MoreKingdom Death – The next batch of models my client has ready to get painted consists of the four unarmoured survivors, two intamacy survivors, Screaming Antelope and King's Man.
Painting on these is very similar to the prologue survivors I did before. Basic flesh tones with white robes. I'm using the same fluorescent yellow technique on the lanterns which I feel give a really nice OSL effect.
The Antelope is a gory nasty beast that looks like mostly exposed muscle and the massive gut mouth. After painting I applied a hefty amount of Blood for the Blood God Technical paint to complete the terrifying effect.
I had to pause on these while I got over a nasty bug (coughing and detail work don't mix well), but I'm eager to get back at them to finish out the details. Now that I'm feeling better it was right back to work on these.
For the lantern effect I'm working with fluorescent paints which really help to bring out that glow effect I'm trying to achieve. The most difficult part is figuring out where the light would naturally fall given the arm positions of the models I was provided with. By shining a light aligned with the lantern was able to determine the natural highlights to apply the yellow glow.
Warhammer 40,000 – Thunderfire Cannons are really good. I own a few myself and rarely do I regret bringing them (unless of course it's against an army of assassins). Seeing they in any Space Marine gun line list has become almost a staple. For 100 points you get several firing options all of which are good especially when facing a horde army.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Salamanders on bikes. Yes they seem to look a bit space wolfish but this is another one of those salvage jobs. My client got a good deal on some models and wants them to look like the rest of his force. So green space wolf looking bikers will be one of the more savage clans from Nocturne.
Read MoreYear End Wrap Up – Wow 2016 was one of my busiest painting years yet. Sadly very few of those models painted were my own. I did make some progress on several fronts but no where near the amount I anticipated. Of course I didn't stop adding things to the pile to paint so my to-do list has grown. (Be warned this is a wall of text)
Every year I say the same thing (as do most other hobby blogs) I'm going to stop until I get some of this stuff finished, and then something shiny comes along and I forget myself to go hole hog into the next thing. Inevitably I lose steam or have something else more pressing come along that takes me off my current kick and derails my "finish rate"
Well this year I think I might actually follow through on this. I've been eye balling doing a Night Lords force for some time now but I'm not even going to attempt starting it until I get some of the stuff on this list done. It's not that I'm a slacker by any means its just a matter of focusing.
One thing I did manage to do this year was to slim down my collection some. By selling of game I'll most likely never play (Malifaux, Deadzone and some other randoms) I was able to free up some space in my cabinets and remove some items from my to-do list.
Dreadball Extreme is another game that I have on the fence for potentially selling off. The setting Mantic came up with seemed compelling enough but getting others to buy in and play a sci-fi game that's not 40K has become to much effort for me to spend time looking for/creating a community. MERCs is another game that I have on the fence, I haven't looked at 2.0 but the community is pretty much nonexistent around me so I might sell them off. Although the models are nice looking and I love the 1.0 rules it might be worth holding onto jsut for a random beer and pretzels game. Relic Knights is a game that I need to finish a ton of models for but another one with a nonexistent player base in my area. With these I think I'll hold onto them just because I love the models.(even the fugly ones).
These are not resolutions (as they're bound to be broken) but rather to-dos:
• Batman Miniatures Game – Paint Batman Crew
• Batman Miniatures Game – Paint Joker Crew
• Batman Miniatures Game – Paint Suicide Squad
• Batman Miniatures Game – Paint Black Mask Crew
• Batman Miniatures Game – Paint Wonderland Crew
• Modern City Terrain – Assemble and paint various MDF kits
• 3x3 Diagonal Board – Flip side of my 3x3 with the grid on diagonal
• Kingdom Death – Finish basic game monsters (core survivors, butcher, kingsman, lion, phoenix, watcher)
• Kingdom Death – Assemble and paint expansions I own (dung beetle, dragon king, flower knight, manhunter)
• Kingdom Death – Assemble and paint extra monsters (sell on ebay)
• Warhammer 40K – Assemble and paint Warhound Titan
• Warhammer 40K – Finish painting Imperial Knights (five total)
• Warhammer 40K – Paint Fellblade
• Warhammer 40K – Paint Fire Raptor
• Warhammer 40K – Paint Typhon
• Warhammer 40K – Finish Painting Centurions
• Warhammer 40K – Paint Landraider Formation
• Warhammer 40K – Paint Storm Talons (4)
• Warhammer 40K – Paint Landspeeders
• Warhammer 40K – Assemble and paint 1500 point Genestealer Cult
• Frostgrave – Paint up snowy ruins to play on battlemat
• Frostgrave – Finish painting warband and random monsters
So that's the plan for my personal painting this year, the order may be decided by what games I'm actually playing throughout the year but on that note here's my goals for games to play this year, I'm not including 40K on this list because I can drive to RIW any Thursday and get a pick up game every week if I wanted:
Batman Miniatures Game – I know I'm a little late to the party on this one but the box set seemed like the ideal jumping on point. Once I get the crews I own painted and the terrain a little more complete I might take the show on the road like I did for Malifaux to try and get more players interested. The fact that the models can do double duty in the other version of the game (and fight Marvel heroes) seems like it might add to the draw of the game. I want to play this game very badly.
The Others Seven Sins – This is one of those to good to pass up kickstarters that I haven't been able to get on the table yet. The components are all top notch and on paper the game looks fun. I want to get a few play throughs with this one.
Ghostbusters – Damn nostalgia bug bit me hard on this one. The game is fun and has a reliable system with decent mechanics the problem is it's too close to the same type of game as others I already own (and sadly don't play enough, looking at you zombicide)
Kingdom Death – We started a campaign and got to the Antelope before it fell apart and other games filled the void. I'd like to actually play through the full 30 lantern years. Assuming you get two hunts in a night this should be doable in 15 sessions. It may need to be one that I schedule separate from regular game days.
This is not a test – Got the hardback book, think I can use my Necromunda/Judge Dredd stuff to try this out. I don't know that I'll get to it this year but the concept is one that pulls at my nostalgia strings.
Warhammer 40,000 – I've had these three Knights on the back burner for far to long. Originally they were going to be done in trade to have a new game table crafted. My friend/clients lack of time put a bit of a kibosh on that idea. He's done several full sets of tokens for me including the big apocalypse set with my raven logo on them. He's also working on converting this lantern I found to a Kingdom Death Dice Tower. They're using something similar in the kickstarter videos, and once he gets it figured out I'll have a really cool dice tower that will help keep the dice on the table and off the board.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – One of my Salamander clients (yeah I know it's weird that there are several) recently dropped off a large crate of models he wants painted up to match his exisitng force. Yes, it was a literal crate (of the milk variety but a crate nonetheless) full of boxes of models, tubs of salvage models and bags of resin models.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I'm trying to crank through as many of the "when you have time" commissions I have sitting around so I can have a clean plate to start the New Year. Some of my clients already have huge armies and want to add new formations, got stupid good deals on stuff to salvage or just want to start new armies. These clients also tend to not be in a rush to get things back and are just looking for the best price. When I get rush jobs in they move to the front because the client is paying a premium to have their stuff done within a deadline. (Usually for an event).
Read MoreMice and Mystics – I have to be totally honest I know little to nothing about mice and mystics. When I started painting these I assumed they were for a Mouseguard RPG.
Read MoreMalifaux – Back through the Breech. I have to shelve this job for a hot minute so I could grind through some other jobs that had more pressing deadlines. Now I'm back and getting the band on the run, so to speak.
Read MoreBatman: The Miniatures Game – I finally picked up the rule book for this and my Suicide Squad starter box arrived so I'm trying to get models to at least a basic minimum paint job before I put it on the table. It's not the most efficient way to paint but for getting things on the table it's quick to block in the colors and put down a wash. Then I can go back and birng them up to a higher level at a later date.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Finally had a minute to start work on my genestealer cult. Not really much progress per say but getting them assembled is my primary goal at the moment. I want to have a solid 1000 points built that will be my core so I can learn to play them before I invest in more models.
Read MoreKingdom Death – I've made some more progress on the starting survivors and monsters for my Kingdom Death client which just so happens to coincide with the new kickstarter campaign. Totally worth checking out as it broke all the records for the first campaign within hours of the launch.
Read MoreBook Review – As I've mentioned several times before in recent weeks, I never was a big DC fan so I'm behind on the times and have been trying to catch up. My most recent haul from the library is the complete New 52 run of Batman: The Dark Knight.
Read MoreDungeons & Dragons – I'm just aboiut done with these fire demons. It's a bit odd because the models aren't technically sculpted like they're on fire so I'm really just winging it to determine where the hot spots should be and where it cools down to more of an orange from the white and yellow areas. I'm happy with the results and I feel like the models are conveying that made from flame look.
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