I'm not ignoring you, honest

I've just been busy with other projects and the minis have been neglected.

So here's a pic of the mini I entered into an online contest.  She's actually a part of my personal dwarf army and was painted for that, not a contest.

Meet Gwyddis.

Gwyddis 09

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ReaperCon - Day 3

Yes, I know I'm posting on day 4.  That pretty much says it all.

I got my .. errrr ..  head handed to me in the Warlord tournament but I pretty much expected it.  I did have a darn fine lookin' army on the table, at least for a little while.  Pictures (thanks Spike!) will be forthcoming.

I'd tell you what I did the rest of the day but that tournament took me until mid-afternoon and the rest of the day is kind of a haze due to some very late rabble rousing.  I think we can stay in this hotel again next year.

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So who's surprised that I'm cranky?

First of all, the stores here aren't the same.  You would think that going into a Wal*****'s would result in the same products I have at home.  Heck no.  Which leads me into my rant.

Why can't I find unsweetened teas?  I know several companies that make them.  The stores carry the sweetened versions of them but I'll be darned if I can find one without HFCS or artificial sweeteners.  I don't want sweetened tea!  I want iced tea.  Plain, regular iced tea.  Is that so hard?  Down here, I guess it is.

I won't even get into the lack of brand of candy I wanted since that isn't nearly as annoying as the lack of a type of beverage.  I don't want to go to the grocery store and buy a multipack since I'm not at any one place long enough and at ReaperCon they have Sonic in and they will have unsweetened iced tea.  And with any luck they'll give us the same "pay once, drink all day" deal since this is stuff they just dump at the end of the day.  That's a nice deal.

On the mini scene I did get all the bases painted and the first coat of varnish on.  I'll put the second coat on tomorrow (today?) morning so they have all day to dry before I pack them back up.  One of the larger figures needs to be put back differently since her sword extends higher than the foam and it was slightly bent when I pulled her out.  That's not acceptable so I'll probably have to turn her on her side.

I did get craft paint to edge the bases and it took 3 coats before I was happy with the depth of color.  I grumbled a bit but realized I use at least 2 coats of the mini paint to do it so another coat of cheap craft paint isn't that bad.

The real problem is that I didn't think ahead about the availability of the color of static grass I wanted.  For whatever reason I thought I could find something close enough and dry brush the ends once I got to Reaper.  Yeah, silly me.  I ended up sending an urgent pleading e-mail to Skullcrafts asking for a small bag of the flame static grass so I can add it to the bases.  He'll have to send it to my next hotel so I get it.  I'd really like something less vibrant but Skully stopped doing the larger variety of colors so I'll take what he's willing to send me.

This army does look darn cool.  I'll try to get some pictures while they're in play so people can see just how cool they look.

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I can't believe I'm done

I finished painting and lining the last dwarf for my tournament army last night.  And I had enough time to put the basing material on all the other models.  Including time to putty up the holes in the slotta bases.  Wow.

Today I attached and varnished that last fella so tonight I'll be getting his base material in place.  I can prime everyone but him (the glue needs time to set) so they're ready for painting when I get to Texas.

I still can't believe I'm actually done.  Yes, I still have one figure for the larger pickup army and she's been started but I could field her as-is without being less cool but it would be nice to have that one done as well.  I just don't paint to my standards when I'm painting away from home.  I guess I'm too used to my setup.

I will have to paint a familiar (little beastie) for her and I'm thinking of using the tortoise.  Seems appropriate for a dwarf.  That is something I can paint while at ReaperCon since it's a fun little paint job.

The mercenaries aren't even an issue right now since I haven't bought them yet.

So now my plans include creating the cavities in the foam inserts for the carry case, getting all my melt boxed up and shipped down, shopping for those things I have to bring with me (not including the bakery items for my father I have to get on the way to the airport), and making about 37 lists so I don't forget things.  Which I will.  And which is why they have Wal-Mart.

After all this I'm still excited about painting other things.  I didn't burn myself out too badly getting this army done and I credit all my tabletop paint jobs for that.  And Mr. Rastl for just letting me do what I felt I needed to do.  I did try to spend some quality time with him every evening but generally he just sent me off to paint.  He knew that he wouldn't get me back until after my trip.

I am taking my camera with me (of course) but I won't even try to post pictures while I'm down there.  Once the convention kicks in I won't be spending much time at all at the hotel if past years are anything to go by.  Here was last year's schedule:

07:30 - meet for continental breakfast in the hotel lobby
08:30 - gather up folks who are riding with me
09:00 - arrive at convention
23:00 - get kicked out of convention for the day
23:30 - meet up for beers
01:00 - stumble back to my room

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I really feel my age after this convention.

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Age is not kind

I really didn't do what I would have thought to be an extended painting session today.  5 hours, broken up a few times to get up and do other things.  But by the end I knew I had enough and couldn't do anything else of value.

I didn't get nearly as much done yesterday as I had planned but it was too nice of a day to spend closeted in the paint room.  I won't say it was wasted because it wasn't.  I still got a couple of hours of painting in and I didn't burn myself out by trying to do 2 marathon paint days.

Of the remaining figures the fiddly one is done.  It's still in 2 parts since it is much easier to varnish them separately and then epoxy together.  Epoxy is clear so I'm not worried about a little overflow.  She turned out quite nicely and the hair was so well sculpted I had to spend extra time to make it look good.

I started on the last figure and I'm guessing he's about 1/3 done.  Knowing the colors really does make it go faster and if I hadn't been starting to wander mentally I probably would have gotten more done.  But he's well underway and I can see him getting done in short order.  Then my army is fully painted!

For the pickup army I only needed to add 2 figures from my stash.  I painted up one of them at paint night last week (yay easy paint jobs!) and the other one is either going to be easy or hard.  I won't know until I get started.  She's prepped and mostly primed so I can try painting her after I finish the required ones.

I'm going to work on building the bases this week so they're all done by Wednesday.  As previously noted I'm not that concerned about painting them here but priming would be great since that works like glue to hold the basing materials down.  I also need to cut the foam inserts for the transport case for these figures.  Again, time.

At least for next year I'll have at least one completed army so I won't have to go through this again, right?

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The end is nigh! The end is nigh!

Well, kinda.  I'm on the last 2 models of my regular army.  The piercers (archers) are done and glued to their bases.  The bear rider captain has been lined.  All 5 of them are waiting for varnish, which they will get tomorrow.

The last 2 figures are prepped and I actually started on them last night.  I only started the second one because I had extra skin tone on the palette that I didn't want to waste.

Obviously the basing isn't done.  As I stated previously that's the last of my concerns at this point.  Gluing the materials to the base and priming can be done here and the painting once I'm in Texas.

I'm waiting on my light tent before trying to take pictures.  Even if Mr. Rastl waits until my birthday that's soon enough that I can take pictures before I leave.

I'll also need to work on the carry case and carving out the spaces for the minis.  I had a friend send me a bunch of old cotton t-shirts that I can use for wrapping the figures when they're in the carry case.  The foam is a very mild abrasive, which leads to paint being rubbed off in places.  I'd like to avoid that if possible.

I'll be starting on my lists of things to bring and things to ship ahead of time.  I need to get my stuff shipped out by about Thursday so it has a week to get there even though it will be sent in a Priority Flat Rate box.  Better early than late.  That's just my melt.  The army will be in my checked luggage.

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Epoxy + end of the night project =

Well, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  I was slow in getting together all the things I wanted to epoxy so it set up before I was done.  That meant mixing another micro-batch.

Paint night went very well.  I had one new painter who already has good brush control so he's going to be a fun addition if he keeps showing up.  As with all new painters he's a little hesitant but once he gets some confidence he'll be slappin' paint like the rest of us.

I was able to get the lesser earth elemental painted and sealed with time to spare.  He's one of the epoxy items from above.  Time was taken as I confirmed what size base he needed, since I somehow misplaced the one that should have been in his package.  I know I'll find it now that I replaced it.

Due to circumstances I didn't have nearly as much time to paint as I normally would but I actually expected that.  I did a nice amount in the time I had.  But I did have to do something that I prefer not to do - leave a color unfinished.  Typically I'll try to finish up a color so that when I pick up the figure again I can move forward.  In this case I got the base coat done and that was it.  There won't be that much highlighting (and a colored wash on one thing) but it irks me that it's unfinished.   I just don't have the time to do it tonight.

The lesser earth elemental actually isn't for my tournament army.  It's for my optional 1,500 point army used for pickup games.  But it was assembled and easy enough that I could work on it at paint night so I decided to get it out of the way.  And I did.  Yay me.

Contemplating the amount of time before I leave and what I need to do has been a painful experience.  My goal right now is to get all the figures painted and the base material glued in place.  Priming it would be a bonus.  Then I can take the paints and static grass with me and finish them in the hotel when I'm visiting my dad.  Yes, I take time out for myself when I visit him.  I suppose I could take them to his house when I visit but it doesn't seem right.  I would have to take a few paints with me but they're legit to take on the plane and I don't mind taking half a dozen little paint bottles.  I'll already have the brushes.

I just checked on the last dwarf with epoxy and it looks like his hand/weapon are going to stay attached at the angle I wanted.  I'll leave him braced overnight just to be sure.  One nice thing about the epoxy is that it also works as filler for the joints.

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Paint .. Paint .. Pay Bills .. Paint .. Prep .. Post

I think I'll grow tired of these subject lines in the near future but no promises.

Errands and other things kept me from painting until a bit later in the evening but I made very good progress on the piercers (archers).  Even though they're all in the same pose I have to take the time to make the hair/beards different colors.  It's a quirk of mine and I like the way it breaks up the army.  So all the beards are done and the belt pouches except for the detail since that's a color I'm using later in the paint job.  I also touched up the primer (again) on the bits where it rubbed off.

I can see these getting done by the end of the week,easily.  I'm pushing it out because tomorrow is paint night and I'm not sure how much time I'll get to paint after all that.  I will be working on the lesser earth elemental so with any luck that additional figure will be done.  That would be spiffy.

I did take the time to prime up the next figure so I can move on quickly.  She really needs to be painted in 2 parts so the pieces are set up separately.  I was pondering colors as I was priming her.  I see a lot of white on this one for some reason.

I also started assembly on the last figure.  He's going to need epoxy to hold his appendages in place.  There's no pegs of any kind so it's all face-to-face assembly.  That doesn't hold well with superglue and I'm just not up to pinning them.  I'll mix a little epoxy and get that done quickly enough.  The odd thing tho is that this figure is very much like the mancatchers in how he's designed so I can use the same color scheme and painting order to get him done.  The hard work is already completed (decided what colors go where) so I can just fill in the pieces.

I keep all my colors on notecards for the army figures.  That way if I need to paint more later I know what colors I used where.  The unique figures don't get cards since if I ever do paint them again they'll be different.  Why would I paint a unique figure again?  Some special army sub-lists remove the 'unique' flag from figures.

I'm actually quite pleased with how these are looking but I'm getting darn sick of painting them.  I don't think I'll be choosing dwarf figures for paint-and-take at ReaperCon this year.

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Paint .. Paint .. Paint .. Post .. Paint

I think you get the idea.

To tell the truth I'm getting heartily sick of painting dwarves.  I know I'm on the home stretch and there really weren't that many and I should have been painting them much earlier but none of that really matters when I'm sitting at the paint table and painting more dwarves.

The piercers (archers) are actually coming along nicely.  They're mostly armor and that paints up fast.  As always there's some fiddly bits that will take a little more attention but that's to be expected.

I hoped to be farther along tonight than I am (going to do a bit more painting yet after posting this) but I also thought that the armor was complete after last night.  It wasn't.  Oh well.  It is now.

At paint night this week I hope to paint up the lesser earth elemental.  I'm not using him in this army build but I have my reasons for choosing him.

1. He's not very futzy so I can paint him reasonably well at paint night
2. I can use him in the 1,500 point pickup games, if I play
3. He'll be done

I think those are all very good reasons to paint him.

Back to the table.

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Progress on dwarfy goodness

The dwarf army is progressing!  The mancatchers are done and the bear rider captain is done except for the darklining.  I painted her up today.  She wasn't a 2 hour paint job, unfortunately.

The missing figures came in today's mail so now I have all the models I need to complete my army list.   Next on the block will be 4 archers (piercers).  They're the last of the multiple figures, which is true army painting.  It's assembly line work but in a way it's fun.

Then I have 2 unique models.  One is pretty simple, one has a lot of detail.  I'm going to work on the detailed one next and save the simple one as a treat for finishing all of these up.  I'm rather proud of myself for getting these done to my painting standards.  I probably could have been a lot farther had I not decided that I wasn't going to rush them just to get them done.  I'm never happy with the result when I do that.

I've been playing with doing colored washes over the metallics.  I started on the mancatchers with a blue wash over the gold to bring out the details and tone it down a little.  The bear rider captain (Ursula) got the blue wash over all of her armor and a red wash over the gold on some of her weapons.  It adds a nice variety to the metals and I'm looking forward to experimenting with this more.

I've got some time left tonight so I'll probably take that last piercer out of the package and get him ready for priming.  I have to glue his arms on and I like them to set for a while before I start painting.

As I've been painting these I've found quite a few mold lines that I missed when cleaning them up.  I was tempted to clean them some more and prime those spots again but I know where that leads.  There's always mold lines unless you're completely obsessive about it.  These aren't for a painting competition.  They're tabletop army figures.  A few mold lines won't matter.  I try to clean them up nicely and if I miss something really obvious I'll go back and get it but I won't worry if I find one here or there.

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And back to the paint table I go

My sojourn into sewing completed, I hit the paint table again.  Well, not literally "hit" because that would have made a mess.

Of course I've had a few delays that put me about 2 hours behind my designated paint schedule over the last 2 days.  And guess what, I'm about 2 hours away from completing these guys.  Funny that.  And I mean complete up to the lining.  I always let the figures sit for at least a day after the last paint before I put on the varnish.  I like to make sure the paint is completely dry.

3 mancatchers, 3 different eye colors, 3 different beard colors and just for fun 3 slightly different bedroll colors.  The bedroll color differences are so slight I really should have just painted them all the same.  I'm going to file that away for future reference.

What's left?  The highlighting on the grip bands on the polearms, the blades of the polearms, some metallic accents like rivets, and the darklining.  Not a lot, not a lot of work, but enough to keep me amused.  I don't think we have plans for tomorrow night so Spaghetti willing and the creek don't rise these guys will be painted by the end of Friday night.

I got word that 5 of the 9 minis I sent off to be painted are going to be coming home soon enough that I can use them at ReaperCon as I hoped.  I only need 4 in my army so I'm very happy that I'll have enough.  The problem is going to be choosing the ones I want to use.  Actually, that isn't my problem.  I told Mr. Rastl he gets to choose the minis when I have more painted than I need.  He said it's just so I can blame him if I lose.  He's right.

No gaming this weekend so that gives me large blocks of time when I can paint.  Hopefully.  I'm sort of scheduled to go to a gem and jewelry show on Sunday but that's looking iffy on my companion's part and I won't be all that disappointed if we don't go.  I will miss the used book store we were also going to visit but there's a good chance I need to head up that way with Mr. Rastl for a project I just handed him.

Mr. Rastl and I had a franker-than-normal discussion about my birthday present.  Yes, it's coming up.  We're at the point in our lives when we really don't need anything and if we want it, we buy it.  So presents are difficult.  After some thought I said I would really like and use one of the portable light boxes so that I could actually take pictures without a lot of setup.  I found one I liked, sent him the link, and I believe he ordered it.  Not a lot of surprise there but something that I will truly appreciate and enjoy.  Sometimes getting old isn't that bad.

And finally, I handed off a project to Mr. Rastl as noted above.  One thing that's really cool when showing miniatures is the 360 degree view, like I did for the exchange piece.  That was a lot of work:  moving the turntable, taking pictures, editing, making a video file.  So I'm asking for a turntable that turns at about 1 revolution per minute, perfectly smooth.  I have to send him the details but he's already got ideas.

If anyone can make this, it's Mr. Rastl.  Seriously.

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Dwarf army update

This is pretty much my main project right now.  I've tweaked the army list some more but luckily that didn't remove any figures I already had painted or I probably would have gotten very annoyed at myself.

The bear riders are done.  I might put one more highlight on the gold metallic but that's in the 'nice to have' category.  I'll have the color out in the next day or so and I'll make my decision then.  I did try something new to do black hair and I'd rate it 6 out of 10.  It will do for now.

The mancatchers are pretty darn close to done.  Faces and hair, the polearms, and a few miscellaneous metallic buckles and such.  I had a bit of a mental block less than halfway through but once I got past that things really moved along nicely.

The only remaining multiple figures are the archers and I don't have all of them yet.  I need 4, I have 3.  So the last one is on order.  Since it isn't efficient to paint the other 3 I'll turn my attention to the unique figures that need painting.  Given that I'm missing 2 of the 4 uniques (on order) that gives me a very small painting selection.  Hopefully the missing figures will show up soon.

Now, why did I tweak my army list again?  I realized that I was confusing 2 model types again and I could collapse some of the troops.  Letting me use the leader points on other figures.  It's a gamble.  I have fewer troops so I have fewer opportunities to use them and react to my opponent.  On the other hand these are some pretty darn solid troops so they can take a lot of abuse.  And once they hit something, it stays hit.  With the changes my point level is exactly 1,000, which is the point limit for the tournament.  Nary a wasted point.

I'm making the assumption that I'll have the 'special dwarf figures' that other people are painting back in my sweaty little hands so I can use them in the tournament.  I need 4 of them and I'm using them as a proxy for the actual figures.  So if I have time I'll paint up the actual figures as well.  Especially if it looks like I might not get them back in time.

The circumstances haven't been right for me to take pictures of anything.  Lighting, time, etc.  And the longer I wait the more pictures I have to take, edit, post, etc.  It's a vicious cycle.

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I promise, pictures this weekend

The undead pirates all have the sand on their bases.  That still means primer, paint and vegetation but it's better than nothing.  I know the last post had 'everyone except the monster' but now it's just everyone.  Yay everyone!

The bear riders have the bears finished and varnished and the riders are primed.  So I can work on painting the riders without as much worry about scraping/wearing the paint off the bears.  When I get them done the entire figure will get a coat of varnish so the bears get a double helping.

This weekend was supposed to be very, very busy but now it's just very busy.  It looks like the only time I'll have for hobbies is Sunday night.  And I'll try to be good and finish up the base coat on the arena pieces then so that project is ready for finishing.

I will try to get pictures this weekend so you can see how things look.  I've been talking about them a lot but it's really cool to actually see them.

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Yeah, yeah

A quick update on various and sundry things.

The hankie/lace issue hasn't been resolved.  I need some time on the couch without too many distractions and that hasn't happened in the last few days.  It's on the list.

The undead pirates are painted, varnished, and have the sand on the bases.  The monster is one step behind because he needed to be attached using epoxy and I was waiting for another project to get to the epoxy state as well.  That has been achieved.

I'm also painting one of my personal armies to bring to ReaperCon so I've been working on those as well.  5 dwarf bear riders are well underway.  The bears are painted except for a couple of touchups where they were lying down and are currently letting their epoxy set as well.  See above for 'another project'.  This was it.

The bear riders need to be painted yet but now that I will be able to handle the model without fear of damaging the paint it will go much easier.

I also have 3 mancatcher models (nasty models with reach) that I started at paint night so those are the next ones up to be done.  I'd say they're close to 1/4 done already.  I'm such an optimist.

Terrain-wise I did get the final arena-in-trade pieces base coated but they need the touchups.  I'm hoping to get those done over the weekend even though it's a busy one.  That's looking for the holes and seams where the paint didn't get so it's kind of a finishing thing.  The drybrushing goes really quickly and his decorative painting is easy.

Also regarding terrain I'm stealing a really good idea from a friend and making mold masters for village houses.  The masters are completed walls with knuckle joints so I can pour an entire house in just a few pieces and assemble them quickly.  It's an easy way to build a village.  I'm currently making pieces in 4, 5 and 6 inch wall lengths so I can make some real variety.  I'm out of the 30 degree blocks that are great for the roof angles so I'll need to cast some of those to make the roof sections.  Gee, me having to cast more blocks to complete a project.  Who would have thought it?

Maybe pictures this weekend, maybe not.

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So much for self-imposed deadlines

I did not complete any of my March goals regarding minis and terrain.  I'm a terrible person.

One reason for that is realizing that I need an army if I'm going to compete in the ReaperCon Warlord tournament so I needed something besides my demo armies.  I do have 5 complete armies on the shelf.  None of them are painted, of course.

I know I have elves started but decided not to go with them.  I have my reasons.

Two friends are painting up some dwarf minis for me so I decided to field them with my army.  The decision went to dwarves.  I then used the online data card search to find my troop composition.

I blatantly imposed on a friend to review my list and make sure I hadn't done anything grossly stupid and he agreed it was a pretty solid list.  I'm actually 8 points over the limit but I can adjust spells and such to make it fit.

Then I had to bring out the models and see what I had.  Given the list I'm good on all but the 2 sergeants I picked.  I don't have those models.  Of course.  But the proxy rules are good and I can use some solo figures I'm not fielding to fill in for them.  I do have the real ones on my 'to acquire' list (or will when I get around to it) so I can put the solos back into play.  There's no reason why I have to play the same army all the time.  A good part of the fun is trying new things.

I'm also in the process of painting up the Razig monster.  He's got his base coat on him and I'm running into the same issue someone else so astutely noted.  How can you paint something as undead that looks dead when it's alive?  I'm trying to paint an undead crab.  Not quite the easiest thing I've ever done but I think I have the colors worked out so it should turn out decently enough.

Once I apply myself he should be completed in an evening.  There's a few fiddly bits but nothing that requires a lot of painstaking detail.  So I can work faster without having to go back and spend all the time I tried to save doing cleanup.  I already painted the inner details and assembled the shell so that's done.  Now it's just externals and then attaching him to the base.  That's going to be interesting since there's no good connection points.

I think I'm going to mark where his legs touch the base, carve out some holes, then use the 2 ton epoxy to put him in place.  That seems like the most effective way of keeping him attached.

Everyone's bases will be a mix of driftwood, sand and seaweed.  That's going to be fun.  Undead pirates, remember?

And I'm going to try to enlist help in getting the arena base coated.  I'm kind of a control freak when it comes to my painting but I don't think they can screw up a base coat too badly.  Hopefully.

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OCD isn't always a bad thing

I'm sending some minis off for friends to paint.  It's a nice thing.  They're specially converted minis and I'm looking forward to seeing how they paint them.
There was just one problem.  I couldn't find the arms and shields that went with them.  I found the bodies with no problems.  I had two options - give up and try to get new ones or find those ones that came with the minis.
Guess which one I chose.
I knew I had them at last year's ReaperCon so that meant finding all the various containers with stuff from then.  I finally found a box in the corner that had all the things I wanted plus a whole lotta things I knew I had but didn't have handy.
So I carefully wrapped up each mini with it's associated bits and now have packages ready to go out tomorrow for the guys who are painting my minis.  They're not secret, just special.
The Reaper dwarven shield maidens are really cool, but they're missing something.  Specifically, they're missing beards.  Dwarves have beards.  So in exchange for some Hirst Arts casts the sculptor agreed to put beards on the lovely ladies.  I've had them in the painting queue for quite a while.  So when my buddies asked to paint some minis for me (long story) these are the ones that came to mind.
They're unique, they're fun, and they're mine.
So this evening was spent tweaking the website Mr. Rastl has been making and then trying to find these mini parts.  Now that it's done the rush is gone and I'm heading off to sleep.

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