Five Skaven nightrunners by Games Workshop. I don’t own a Skaven army, but perhaps I could use them for Mordheim.
Nightrunners
These guys were primed black, basecoated, and then dipped.
I’m usually a black-primer guy for all the reasons miniature painters use black primer: hides mistakes, does the easy blacklining, can paint metallics without another layer, etc. But lately I’ve been priming in white because the Marauders are fairly brightly colored, being mostly red and flesh colored. But in the process I’ve discovered that paints that work great over black (like my dark brown and gray paints) look terrible over white.
I use a lot of craft paints for miniatures, because I’m not of the level of painter that really is hampered by the quality issues, but now they are starting to let me down. When the paint looks bad, I get discouraged and stop painting, or at least let it fall by the wayside for a while. So now I have two options–really try to work the cheap craft paints or overcome my frugal nature and invest in some decent paints.
My most likely course of action will be to “power through” the last Chaos Marauders (there’s 11 of them left) with the cheap paints, so they all match. Then, take stock of whatever the next painting project will be, then make the decision.
Nothing against the two big FLGS’s in Dayton, Ohio, but if I’m in Columbus, I’m going to the Guard Tower. For the years that I lived in Columbus, the Guard Tower was a place where I’d often go on my way home from school or work and hang out and buy way too much stuff.
So yesterday I’m in Columbus so, as I said, I’m at the Guard Tower. And I’m not buying anything. I stopped reading Knights of the Dinner Table after it became all about the Black Hands and World of Warcraft, plus the very protracted “BA gets his revenge” storyline (shark, jumped). I dropped White Dwarf almost a year ago when it became less about battle reports and modelling and more of just a catalog.
Pathfinder Beastiary? No thanks. DMG2? Pass. 4E splatbooks with more powers or magic items? I don’t even use all the options I have now. The hardest things to pass on were Mantic’s new plastic elves. Cheap and only slightly funky looking, I’ve been giving them the covetous eyeball ever since I saw them sprayed-and-dipped over at The Army Painter. They are a little funky looking on the packaging–I think they could’ve come up with a more striking and effective paint scheme.
But, then I remembered that I’m still in the running for Andadas’ lottery over at the HA site, and that I had promised myself I wouldn’t buy anything until both the lottery was over and I had finished painting the Chaos Marauders.
Stupid mature judgement and new-found frugal nature.
So, I’m thinking strongly about having a marathon painting day Friday. It’s my day off, the schedule looks clear (knock on wood) and I’ll be pretty busy over the weekend between trying out the new Skype-based RPG I’m playing in, work, the lottery, and having the missus be out of town so I’m single-parenting. So maybe, maybe I can get the rest of the Marauders primed and perhaps a few of the major block-painting steps done before that, and then do the rest Friday. That way, when the lottery is over I can jump into whatever I’m going to do next.
One final note: I did see while I was at the store four guys playing a pretty lively game of 1949 Secrets of the Third Reich. It looked like fun and I’m always a sucker for games that other people enjoy, but the $40 price tag and the knowledge that I would have to find players allowed me to resist temptation.
I leaving my local K-Mart when I passed these guys in the gumball-machines:
My $2 Mech Lance
Obviously inspired by Battletech minis, these guys are made of soft plastic (think Heroclix). At $.50 each, they are pretty reasonable. I gave a couple to my kids, but I may try to paint one up just to see how they come out.
I have painted a few more Chaos Marauders with my speed painting process. Here’s a pic (included is the first trial figure):
Excuse me, can you direct us to the He-Man Fan Convention?
I thought you might be interested in the painting process.
And that’s it. I got these four painted in the space of two evenings, another day to dip, and a final day to spray with the matte finish and flock.
I’ve had a little while to think about my eBay-based hobby fund and I’ve decided to play it a little conservatively.
I bought the Ruined Fieldstone Mold, which I have loved since I borrowed it from my friend Fibble. I’m going to cast the bejeezus out of that thing once it arrives.
After that, I think I’m just going to wait. My hobbies exist to give me something to do in the evenings instead of watching NCIS re-runs and to have a reason to gather with my friends two or three times a month. Right now I’m painting a unit of Chaos Marauders for WHFB that came in the big lot and will be absorbed into my existing WHFB Chaos army. I’m also still building Coyote’s Normandy Farm house, and will soon be working on some more ruined fieldstone terrain (naturally). Plus I’m also selling off more of the lot, although I think I’ll soon be reaching the end of what is really worth anything.
In addition, weekends in October are looking a little full with a lot of one-off events that supercede my D&D game. In fact I’ll be lucky to get a gaming session in this month, which sort of kills the impetus to rush out and get the DMG2.
So here’s my plan. I’m not going to spend any of the hobby money for a while, but instead wait until the Chaos Marauders are done, which should be two weeks minimum. At that point I can look at all the different oddball things that I have considered buying and either make a decision or wait some more. I don’t doubt that I’ll roll through dozens of different options (Field of Glory, Wargames Factory’s Colonial British, etc.) but I really want to avoid the impulse purchases. After all, at this point I’m pretty set for stuff to do. Why spend money needlessly and subject myself to possible buyer’s regret?
I decided to try out the speed painting technique (just base coat and then dip in wood varnish) on something a little more complicated, in this case a Chaos Marauder. Here’s the result:
Where the dwarf women at? I mean "elf"! Elf women...
I have to tell you, it surpassed all my expectations. The paint job was dicey at best, and the varnish covered a lot of sins, not to mention doing a nice “blacklining” job. I think I’ll speed paint my way through the whole unit, perhaps to use in the upcoming gaming club Warhammer campaign.
Small factoid: I used the Olympic Pecan varnish for the marauder.
Speaking of the gaming club, the first and largest item has sold, and my share is about $110, representing about $85 in profit from my initial investment. That’s a good start to a New Miniatures and Molds Fund. The second item is up. Here’s the link. It’s for 16 Lizardmen Temple Guard, the OOP metal ones.
Just thought I’d quickly share the fifth version of the em4 Miniatures Space Ranger line, the Sergeant. I was interested to see how flesh tones might work out with the varnish dipping speed painting technique.
I wear those sunglasses under my helmet
When I play Warhammer, 95% of the time I’m playing the same guy, whom I frequently call my “arch rival” Vince. Vince works for the local Fire Department, and we play over in the station break room. It’s worth noting, for the purposes of this story, to understand that in my city, firefighters do double duty as EMT’s. Vince is a captain, which means that he can send other guys out on calls, or at least the first one.
Vince and I have been the “captains” of two teams of players who have been butting heads all summer long. My team, led by my Vampire Counts, have been keeping pace with my rival’s, led by his Bretonnians. Most of my battles have been against Vince, with two factors generally making the difference in games: his blowing fear checks versus my miscasting. His failing fear checks means his knights hit me peacemeal where I can pick ‘em off. My miscasting usually means my 500 point special character goes poof.
In the most recent game, Vince had blown three fear checks and I was feeling it. Then the first call came in: a toddler with a badly lacerated face. Vince dispatched his first squad. About twenty minutes later a second call: an eleven-year-old with a football-related neck injury.
Side note: about ten years ago the OSU Buckeyes were playing Penn State when a Penn player named Anthony Talliafaro (sp?) suffered a very serious spinal injury. I happened to be working as chaplain at OSU Hospital that year as a way to earn a little side money while in seminary, and was on call that day. I met Anthony’s father, his family, and both head coaches, and got to sit with all of them as they heard Anthony would never walk again (they were wrong). But these kinds of injuries always give me a chill.
“I have to go,” Vince said. ”You win.”
“You sure?” I asked, glancing at the table. A few fickle die rolls and the game would tip in his favor.
“No, it’s cool. I’ll have to go transport to the ER on this call. See you at the final battle.”
Just not the way to win, and I’m feeling a distinct lack of victory thrills.
The first (and biggest) item is up on eBay. Take a look.
And here are some pics of the army:
The entire army
Lord on Carnosaur
Slaan Mage-Priest
Saurus Warrior and Skink Priests
Salamander hunting party
Fieldstone Terrain
