Finished Wind Maiden and Dettol

Hi All,

Well since the response to my last post was so underwhelming, I'll bore you with another. Here's that figure from the Caeser fantasy adventurer set that I've used for a sorceress and a wind maiden of late in my games of Rally Round the King (RRtK).

She definitely doesn't merit the uber closeup photography, but she is done. Overall my layering is too rough and the gold belt in particular kind of globbed on a little. Techniques that work well on 28mm are hit and miss on 1/72. I still need to figure out how to improve my female skin.

Anyhow, no progress on the hobby for me today as we went to our first track meet. It was 90F today (so 32C ? or 305K). It felt damn hot. Unfortunately we missed our time for the 800m and then sat around in the sun for 2.5 hours until the 400m. I was proud of the boy. He came in 4th in his heat and, unlike some, did not throw up after his race. Since the race was way down south of us in Chandler, we took the opportunity to stop by a dim sum restaurant and asian market we had not been to in ages.

That's where I found a, relatively, local supply of dettol.

It's right across the aisle from the PG tips tea. So now I know where to go when I run out of my giant tin of Ahmad Earl Grey.

I'll have to check in on the stuff I've had soaking in Simple Green since last December and see if the paint is coming off.

Cheers.

Prep for next Talomir Tales Battle

I've been busy this week during the kids spring break. I've fallen behind on Talomir Tales, but what else is new. The current campaign season is Autumn 997. You can read about Tropilium vs. Stygustan here, and Altengard vs. Stygustan here.

So with all the various chores and activities I've put off my battle, I'm hoping to get it in this weekend. My son just started track, so we'll see how much of Saturday is eaten up by his first meet.

Here is the figure I've been using for the Wind maiden. I'll try to get some more paint on her tonight before San Soo class. I think that trying to get the last of the figures painted/ finished for these two forces will give me a good focus for painting.

Here is the army of Treyine. As you can see, mostly painted back in the AHPCIV. But some Knights, Infantry, Archers and Arquebusiers still need painting.

Tereken is in a much sorrier state. Only the Dwarf artillery man, Fladnag and the one mounted huscarl are finished. Although everything but the canon has some paint on it.

Welcome to Martin Cooke. Martin does not appear to have a blog, but was one of the fellow challengers for Curt's AHPCV a list of participants and their blogs can be found here. I really enjoyed Martin's work during the challenge as he obviously broke out of his comfort zone and successfully added many new techniques to his painting style. He also came up with some incredibly creative figures and bases. Thanks for following, and if you do have a blog I would love to post a link to it and follow it as well.

Hopefully a report will be here soon.

Basking in that post challenge afterglow!

Well the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge V ended yesterday, and it was a great experience yet again.

I think the theme for this challenge was the little challenger who could. I thought I could, had many moments of self doubt, wasted some of my time and came very close to achieving all my goals. I had fun and painted a lot of stuff so lets look at a spreadsheet comparing this year and last year, shall we?

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge
	4th	5th
	2013 – 2014	2014 – 2015
Points Target	1000	1000
Points Scored	574	806
Bonus Rounds	7	8
Bonus Rounds completed	6	8
Figures Painted	64	82

So, while I failed to hit my target for the second year in a row, I got much closer.  So close in fact, for a brief moment this week, I believed I could make u the 271 points to make it. In the end I settled for finishing everything I had started on the painting desk.

That was these:

18 20mm plastics and one 28mm metal for 77 points.

Caesar fantasy Dwarf and Goblins.

Caesar Numidians and Orion Khazars.

Reaper Dwarf "Dain" from the Learn to Paint - Intermediate Armor Kit.

I won't say there was no stress, because I stressed a lot actually, but I came away feeling more accomplished and energized at the end this year. Last year I was totally burnt out and didn't pick up a brush again until July.

So aside from painting more miniatures and scoring more points, what did I accomplish? I proved to myself that I can push myself to bang out figures. My biggest hurdle has been getting things almost done and then leaving them that way. I achieved my goal of entering all the bonus rounds. Last year I missed the last one as I crashed and burned when I realized my points goal was out of reach. I got Curt his fee figure during the challenge. More than anything else it bugged me that I hadn't completed my Curtgeld in a timely manner last year, so that was a weight off. And lastly I finally made an honorable mention in a bonus round. I hadn't initially even considered it but surprised myself with some of my own entries this year. While I'm sure that some of the heavy hitters not submitting entries may have played a part, I'll still take the accolades. You can even put an asterisk next to it.

So, plans for next year? While I'm feeling the euphoria I'll lay out a basic plan for next year.

1. Prep more figures. I seem to spend way too much time still prepping during the challenge.
2. Set my goal to 750. I never seem to hit my target so I'll lower it a little. You can always revise up.
3. Perhaps be a little more selective in the bonus rounds. While I enjoyed all the bonus rounds I didn't always have the mojo for them and I think it showed.  Better to just do a couple that really click.
4. Try to do a better job of blog interaction during the challenge. In the heat of it all I was unable to comment and read on all the entries, let alone other blogs not involved.

There you have it. I'll leave you with a group shot.

Perhaps not as impressive when it's all stored in a Really Useful Box.

Looks a bit better in the group shot.

Thanks for looking.

Dark Future - Ooh Shiny!

As another interlude during the last week of the challenge I thought I'd share with you some sweet stuff that fellow Oldhammer: Dark Future group member Christopher Regan sent me.

Dark Future metals in front. Looks like 600124, 600148, 600161 and 600158 that you can see at solegends. They are backed up by those aberrant figures, the hotwheels on the left and theAberrant Interceptor on the right. In the middle are two resin buggies from aberrant that Christopher also gave me.

So I do want more actual DF figures, but I haven't broken down enough to try and get them at the prices I'm seeing at the moment. The Apocalypse miniatures recommended in the files section look like they might be good.

I also recommend going to your local Target/ Walmart or what have you for getting cars to mod. My Target had a whole slew ow Hot Wheels for 97 cents.

As is tradition here on the blog I'll wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day. Pandora suggested a holiday channel which introduced me to The Tossers, enjoy:

I don't drink green beer myself, but when I was a brewer I made it by the keg so I wouldn't be left with too much and the Bartenders would have to make it themselves. It sells like crazy. Go figure. How do you know you've had too much Green beer? When your piss turns green.

And to follow that gem, wlecome to new follower PaulJ. Sorry Paul. I don't see a link to your blog in your friend connect. Let me know if you have one and I'll add a link.

Where I'm at in the AHPCV in the final week free for all

Just an update as we enter the final week of The Challenge.

As you can see it looks like I'm not going to hit my projected goal of 1000 points of painted miniatures. I think I may be able to squeeze out another 96 and make the third points tier of 750.

For some reason I seem unable to dedicate time to the hobby regularly. As you can see from the weekly points graph, I had too many (every other) weeks where I submitted nothing. So something to strive for. We'll see what I can do but I'm going to be fairly busy this week.

Wish me luck.

My Submission for the Anti Hero bonus round on AHPCV

Hi All,

Things keep finding me either too busy or too tired to manage the blog as well as I would like. I'm taking a little time off from Cardio to try and let my foot heal after a lego incident the other day.

My entry post can be found here.

I'll repost the fluff here:

So from the Great White North comes Curt "The Cannibal" Campbell. Curt had headed West to the Yukon territories to escape the hustle and bustle of city life. All was well and good until the territory was flooded with rubes looking to strike it rich in the gold rush. Some say it was syphilis and others say bad moonshine, but Curt became obsessed with the most dangerous prey, man. After some miners went missing near his camp local law enforcement went to investigate. All they found was a burnt out cabin and a fire pit with what appeared to be human remains. There have been many sightings of Curt over the years. Some say he's a rich San Francisco Banker, others that he farms Sugar Cane in the Bahamas. But most sightings have come of a mysterious figure on the plains of Saskatchewan.

This figures is from the "Mad Trappers of Rat River" pack from the Yukon Peril range by Pulp Figures. These figures are great! Characterful and detailed sculpts, I don't think there was any flash or mold lines to remove. If there were, they were minimal. I painted him with a mixture of Craft, Reaper and GW paints. He also got my grunge wash to try and help blend the layers a little better. I used three colors each to blend up the clothing and four on the skin. I'm still feeling like the transitions on large areas are not smooth enough, but right now I'm not sure how to improve that. Washes hide many sins. I did the Hudson Bay Blanket coat to make it more obviously Canadian, I couldn't fit a Beaver or a Moose on the base, and am not sure now if I had already seen the "Northland Adventurers" or not. A much better HBC capote than mine.

One new technique I tried was to try and mix a metallic highlight with some reaper Pearl White. I used it on the Silver and Brass metallics, but ended up hitting the silver with some Reaper Honed silver to punch it up even more. I also tried using the GW snow flock dry this time, like I would use regular earth tone flock. To me it looks like short white grass. I'm trying to convince myself it's hoar frost.

Anyhow, do yourself a favor and head over to the bonus theme blog. Once again there is some real talent on display. If it so happens that you find my entry deserving, please give it a vote.

Before I go I'd like to welcome Space Cow Smith of Space Cow Smith Productions, a site I was unaware of, as well as Tales from Farpoint and A Tale of Several Gamers which I am aware of. Very talented person, and I think that those of you who are trying to put together an Oldhammer/ Old40K warband or army should join AToSG and get some support and inspiration for your project.

Also welcome to Gordon Richards of I have wrought my simple plan. Some fantastic looking In Her Majesty's Name figures and scenery.

Thanks for stopping by.

Rebel Minis Goblins with GW Goblins

I wanted to take some better pictures of those Darkhold Goblins from Rebel Minis that I entered in the Comedic bonus round for the Painting challenge.

So these are the 4 villagers and 3 henchmen.

Here they are with the Oldhammer Stikas I finished earlier. Obviously in a different style, but I think they look okay. On to the close ups.

Diogenes

 I thought the guy with the Lantern should be called Diogenes. All the names are ones I made up. Sorry about the blurry back view, I must have bumped the tripod. The exposure times were pretty long, several seconds. The close ups show a lot of the flaws.

Eyepatch

 Eyepatch looks kind of like a leader type. I really like the knife behind the back. Those mold lines on the ears gave me difficulties.

Granny

 Granny looks like she needed more shots with the dust off. I did not even see the static grass stuck to her. The granularity of the White Liquitex spray is probably the worst on her. I probably won't use it to prime figures anymore. I'm not sure why it comes out like that, I don't have a lot of experience with sprays in general.

Hiho

 Hiho is a little odd in the mix, I like the candle on his hat though.

Nosy

 Nosy is the whole reason I bought these figures. I like how he turned out in the main.

Patsy

 I love Patsy too. I phoned in the frog, but like how the rest turned out.

Whizboss

Whizboss could be a wizard or a town elder. They do make a wizard figure, I just didn't buy it. He looks like he needs a wash behind the ears.

So there you have it. The close ups are a little scary, warts and all as they say, but I think I might have gotten a vote or two more if I had shown them like this on the bonus round blog. Oh well, I think maybe the bonus rounds are really just outside of my abilities. I don't have the skills or techniques down to do well.

I also forgot to welcome Airbornegrove26 of Give Em Lead, a great blog of Oldhammer, Heroquest and Comics. He doesn't have his blog listed in his friend connect profile, but I'd recognize Schmendrick anywhere.

Off to see Marvel Universe with the family. Enjoy your day.

Aberrant figures for Dark Future

  Once again I've fallen victim to the new hotness. In this case it is the resurrection of Dark Future, GW's post apocalyptic death racing game. I initially caught the bug for this with THW's Machinas, but failed miserably to try and get in a game with the family. So it was put on the back burner. (By failing I mean I tried to play with them before I had a firm grasp on the rules and it became one of Daddy's complicated games.)

  I never played Dark Future, or Car Wars, back in the day so I'm not really nostalgic other than that I was bit by the Post Apocalyptic bug like most of us in the 80's. A boy and his dog, Road Warrior, Blood of Heroes, Le Dernier Combat. Just a few of the films of a dystopian future I can name off the top of my head.

  But this is a miniature line review, not a film review.

  After joining the Oldhammer: Dark Future group on Facebook I was reminded of my Aberrant: Warlands car and figures. The line is 20mm and comes with obviously "not" Mad Max figures and vehicles. I found it funny when people on TMP bitched about it being 20mm. There is so much 28mm and 15mm stuff out there it seems pretty ridiculous.

  Anyway, here's two wasteland villains and The Stranger and his dog "Max" along with the last of the Tomato Juice Cocktail (V-8) Interceptors.

The figures are a little rough and on the flat side, but they are something that I couldn't find anywhere else. They were all slotta tabbed white metal and came with 20mm round plastic bases. Since I put all my 1/72 (20mm) figures on washers, I did a tab-ectomy. I had trouble with the dog's rear foot so I put a rock under it.

The Hot Wheels AMC Lancer Javelin AMX is shown for scale. The car was two part resin and for some reason had a striated texture to its surface. The blower, gun and stowage are all white metal. I added the hood mounted gun because it came with the kit, and who doesn't want a giant machine gun on the hood of their car, even if it isn't cannon. Hmm, maybe a cannon?

Just my two cents on the possibilities of this line for Dark Future.

Cheers.