New Site Live

Welcome to the all-new twilightemporium.net. 

I'm still in the process of updating some of the older content so bear with me. Most of the older content has been updated and relinked. Unfortunately anything pre-2015 is a bit spotty. The important content is still there so you can reference my old terrain articles and other articles.

On the painting table ... More Mice and Mystics

Boardgames – My painting table was recently grace by these two nifty little models. These are from the Mice & Mystics: Heart of Gloorm Expansion. I've never played the game but my client seems to really enjoy it so I might need to check it out. 

The two models are both sorcerer/wizard types one being a lighting bug and the other a shaman type character. For these I've been asked to paint them to tabletop standard with a little extra glow on the lighting bug. 

Browns, grays and tans are the order of the day for these matching or coming close to the box/card art pretty much dictates my color choice, so the only thing I needed to think about is the final execution. 

Ballers...First Guild Ball team wrapped up

Guild 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.

Kingdom Death - Second Batch

Kingdom 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.

Happy New Year!

Year 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.