Well, November is basically over and I’ve thrown in the towel for my portion of the Tale of 4 Gamers.  I know there are a lot of reasons why I didn’t fully engage in this project (real life certainly had a way of intervening) but in reality, I did have the time that I could have completed my monthly commitments.  After working on new Dwarf models for 5-6 hours over the extended Thanksgiving Holiday, I realized that I’m just not enjoying painting these models.  I went out on a limb to try and learn to paint using a NMM approach.  My results thus far are a mixed bag.  Some of the models look okay but others look downright awful.  I was working on some Khazad Guard this weekend… these models are absolutely amazing sculpts and I just couldn’t make them look good.  It really put a damper on my hobby spirits and I just pushed the tray of models to the side.

Currently, I’ve got about 2/3 of the models for the army painted in various stages from almost finished to 1-3 base colors put down.  However, I honestly think the next step is to dunk them in Simple Green and start over.  I think the traditional Metallic techniques would do them much better.  I could probably paint over the NMM parts but it might be easier to start with a “clean slate”.  However, having already spent the time on these that I have, I don’t have the motivation to “repaint” them.

So where do I stand?  I’m looking to focus on a different army for GitD (and Adepticon after that).  I’m going to start with armies that are already partially painted I think.  I’ll pick and chose my projects over the next few weeks and try to get my mojo back.

As far as T04G goes, I think I’m going to just fade away… I don’t like to be a quitter but the whole point of the T04G was to be inspired to work towards an objective and right now, the project I have feels like a chore.

Bilbo’s Birthday Bash, the  3rd Anniversary celebration of Bilbo’s Eleventy-first birthday has come and gone.  What a great weekend of Lord of the Rings Gaming.  Despite some life-related set-backs earlier in the week, my friends, the LOTR playing community really stepped up and did a great job of making for a memorable event.

I need to thank a lot of people who helped me out with this event.

• Kyle, Chris, Jeremy, and Chris for all the help with making terrain!
• Kyle and Frank for helping me get the terrain and Chris, Chris, Josh, and Jeff for also helping setting up the event!
• Chris from Miniature Painting Authority for being a title sponsor to the event!
• Tim for being a great host at the Chicago Battle Bunker
• Dan and Chris for their tremendous help in providing prize support.
• Joe from Battlefront Miniatures for helping provide the awesome custom made Gale Force 9 turn counters!

and of course, I have to thank all of the great players from all over the country that came out to support the event.

Here’s a few images from the weekend but be sure to check out the full coverage of the tournament up on the event website. 

Well, here we are in the middle of October and it seems as if I’ve already completely abandoned the Tale of 4 Gamers within the first 6 weeks!  I’m happy to report that is not entirely true.  I did miss out of my September painting commitment, sort of…  Here’s a shot of my monthly commitment and all of them would pass the three-color minimum at least.  However, I obviously hold myself to a higher standard than that.

With this army, I’m trying to learn to do Non-Metallic Metal painting.  Not entirely sure how I’m doing but at first glance I think the models look okay.  Learning this new technique has definitely slowed me down quite a bit.  Add on top of that a very busy non-hobby family schedule and I came up short this month.

So what did I get finished… I’d say that 5 of the dwarves are 90% done.  I just have some highlighting and shading to do on the non-metallic parts.  I really spent a lot of time working on the metallic armor and weapons but don’t have much more than a basecoat on the other parts of the models:

I also did some work on the other five models.  The armor is done on the Bow-armed dwarves.  The Dwarf Warrior with the chainmail needs some work still – I’m trying to figure out how to paint NMM chainmail.  I also started painting Floi’s armor and I just wasn’t happy with how it came out so I might have to start over on him.

So that wraps up September’s commitment… or lack of commitment.  I’ll give myself +3 points in the painting requirement as they are “modlels completed late”.
Now, its mid-October I guess I should lay out this months commitment.  I’m going to small in model count this month and hopefully still have a fighting chance to finish up.  I hurt myself already since I haven’t started and its October 14th.  I’ve been traveling a lot this month for work and I’ve got this little Lord of the Rings tournament I need to finish planning:  http://bilbosbirthdaybash.wordpress.com.  So we’ll see how much I can get accomplished!

Here’s the commitment:

• King’s Champion
• 1x Iron Guard

That’s 150 points and only 4 models!

Wish me luck.

Time to start off the September painting commitment.  I wanted to start off with a LOME legal army, even though we aren’t going to start playing games until both Month 1 and 2 are complete.  So my commitment is:

Floi Stonehand

5x Dwarf Warriors with Hand Weapons and Shields

3x Dwarf Warrios with Bows

1x Dwarf Warrior with 2-handed Axe

Here’s a picture of my “unpainted” models:

As you can see, some of the models have been primed black and even have some red paint on them.  I’m going to re-prime these with white and start from scratch.  I’m probably going to go with a blue and golden color theme I think.  Haven’t really decided yet for sure though. I’ve got a nice mix of metal and plastic models here for month one.  One of the things I’m going to try to do is make sure every model is uniquely posed.  This means as the months go on, I’m going to have to do some conversion as well.  However, for month 1 so I can get my feet wet, just painting stock models!

Time to kick off the Tale of Four Gamers!

After my experience with the Unexpected Party, I felt certain that I was done with Dwarves; however, in 2011 I managed to win a few of the new dwarf models (King’s Champion and Floi) and decided that maybe, just maybe, I should start a “proper” dwarven army.  The King’s Champion is a beast and I haven’t yet seen the new Floi model in play so I built an army around those two “models” (granted the King’s Champion is really 3 models).

Here’s the “Master” List I’m going to build off:

1x Floi Stonehand
1x King’s Champion
8x Khazad Guard
4x Iron Guard
10x Dwarf Warrior w/ Shield
5x Dwarf Warrior w/ 2H Axe
13x Dwarf Warrior w/ Bow

44 Total models and right at 600 points

As anyone who follows my army building, you know I’m a big fan of conversions and striving to make each model as unique as possible.  The dwarf warriors I’ve chosen to work with aren’t especially amenable to many conversions.  So time will tell how successful I am with this venture.  In order to help make this army stand out, I’m going to try to learn and apply a new painting technique for me – non-metallic metal.  Hopefully all goes well, otherwise this could be a collossal failure!  Wish me luck!

My next post will be my first month commitment!

Inspired by the rousing success of the Tale of Four LOTR Gamers from our friends in Phoenix, four AWC LOTR Club Members have taken up the challenge and are starting their own Tale of Four Gamers.  The participating members are:

Brent Sinclair - http://thereandblogagain.wordpress.com/

Jeremy Williams – http://chefofwar.blogspot.com

Jamie Welling – http://www.fivearmies.blogspot.com

Chris Balke – http://galadriels-mirror-cbalke.blogspot.com/

Our contest will last for the next 5 months and will culminate with each participant having a fully painted, based, and displayable Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game army.  To accomplish this task, we will paint 150 points of models each month to a grand total of 600 points (after four months).  The last month will be used to “finish” any of the bases and build the army display.  Since some participants may be starting with armies that have already begun, we are agreeing to the rule than no more than 50 points per month can be previously painted and still included in the competition.  While some may view this “cheating”, I think its still in the spirit of the contest!  What we are trying to do is get motivated to get a 600 point army painted and ready for battle, if we have some models already done but not enough for a full army, why not flesh it out!   The last month will be used to “finish” any of the bases and build the army display.

Each person will be responsible for posting an update on their blog by first of the month to announce their monthly commitment and then at a minimum a post at the end of the month showing their completed progress.

To follow the competition, the following points will be used:

Models painted on time +5pts
Models painted late +3pts
Models Not painted +0pts.

In addition to painting models, we are all hoping to get some more gaming in using these armies as they build up.  We will be scoring the results of the gaming using this format:

Major Win: 5pts
Minor Win: 4pts
Draw: 3pts
Minor Loss: 2pts
Major Loss: 1pt

Games can begin anytime after the first two months so that each player has 300 points available.

I’m wishing my fellow competitors luck!  Stay tuned to this and the other blogs as we do brief introductions and what we are planning on doing…

As with most gamers, I have a hard time focusing on a single hobby task/goal.  In exploring the 40K world, I knew I wanted to get a “playable” and painted army on the table as quickly as I could.  I enjoy playing games with painted miniatures so much more than without them!  I started with the Orks and thought that I could get there quickly; however, despite my relatively simple color scheme, I realized that I would take much longer building my Ork army than I had thought.  I wanted to take my time with some Orky vehicle conversions and just didn’t want to “rush” these guys through the painting.

So I was off to select another army… enter the Tyranids.  Sure, its another Horde army and will still take me too long to get it ready (plus a I needed to invest a several key units available only in metal).  However, I found some disposable eBay related income and went off and got a Tyranid Battleforce, a box of Raveners (thought they looked cool), a Trygon, Carnifex, and finally a Hive Tyrant.   Add in some more Termagants from trades made on the internet and I had a big stable of plastic (except the Tyrant) ‘nids.  I assembled most of the models pretty quickly and started a basic test paint scheme.  I liked it so much, I got a bit carried away and started painting the lot.

Here’s a few WIP shots – still need to figure out the basing color scheme and paint the teeth and tongues.

Here’s a run-down on the simple painting scheme:

1) Undercoated using a Krylon Spray Paint (‘Pebble’ Satin finish)

2) Painted the Fleshborers with Snakebite leather

3) Washed the “skin” and flesborer with Gryphon Sepia

4) Painted the Carapace, Talons, and Hooves with Regal Blue

5) Washed the blue areas with Baddab Black

6) Paint thin lines along the Carapace and talons with Ice Blue

That’s it!  Pretty quick for sure.  I’ll paint the tongues with some sort of red and pick out the teeth and fangs with Bleached Bone I think.  After spraying dull-cote I’m going to use ‘ard Coat on the model as well.  Just not sure if I want the Carapace to be shiny or the fleshy parts.  I’d love any feedback people have to offer.

I hope to post a lot more of the Tyranids in the near future.  In the meantime, I still need to get them on the table too!

I’ve blogged before about starting to learn, build, and play 40K over the last few months.  Well as part of this new hobby experience, I’ve been doing this with my son and a friend of his.  My (first) army was the Orks (I’ve blogged a bit about them).  My son fell for the Chaos Gods and has been building a Chaos Army with a distinct Khorne and Nurgle theme.  His friend stuck with the tried and true Space Marines.

We’ve made some progress building our armies and learning the rules.  My son’s friend’s birthday was approaching and I suggested to my son that maybe his friend would like a new model that he could use in his games.  After making a few trades with one of my friends from the Lord of the Rings Community, I acquired the Captain Sicarius Model that was a limited edition Games Day model (I think).  Its a great looking model and features a pair of lightning claws and power armor.  My son is infatuated with the lightning claws on his Chaos Terminator so it seemed like a great model to give his friend.  When I received the model,  I came up with the idea of giving him a nicely painted model (or at least what I think is a nicely painted model).

This is the first Space Marine Model I’ve painted, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

His birthday party is later this afternoon.  Hopefully he’ll like the model!

• Scheme A: White Primer -> Basecoated -> Thrakka Green Wash (skin) and Devlan Mud Wash (everywhere else)
• Scheme B: Black Primer -> Basecoated -> Thrakka Green Wash (skin) and Devlan Mud Wash (everywhere else)
• Scheme C: White Pirmer -> Basecoated -> Minwax Antique Walnut “Dip” to the whole model
• Scheme D: Black Primer -> Basecoated -> Minwax Antique Walnut “Dip” to the whole model

My Basecoat scheme was:
Skin: Goblin Green
Teeth: Bleached Bone
Clothes/Shirts: Khemri Brown
Pants: Astronomicon Grey
Yellow Armor: Golden Yellow
Belts/Straps: Leather Brown (Reaper Master Pro Series)
Arm Wrappings: Khommando Khaki
Boots: Snakebite Leather
Metal: Mithril Silver

I painted up a few more Boyz using this scheme.  My Waaagh is growing, albeit very slowly!

Here’s each scheme (click and image to see a much bigger version):

I’d love to hear what you think of these options.  If you’d like to way in, please leave a comment!