ReaperCon 2023 - The Entire Thing

 

This year I'm going to do one post for the entire convention experience. I found that daily posts just didn't have enough information for my taste so instead you get one after it's done. Also, that way I didn't tell the part of the world that reads my blog that I wasn't at home. Gotta think of these things, you know.

I drove down this year since I had the time to do it and I brought my cat rather than boarding her or having someone spend ten minutes a day at the house to feed her. I think it was the right decision. I don't know if she's saving up to punish me when I'm least expecting it.

Overall it felt like, well, ReaperCon. Same kind of vendor setup. Same kind of general space setup. Same pretty much everything. And that's the problem for me. It's the same as it has been for the last few years.

Don't get me wrong - it's a good all-around convention with the added bonus of having the well known artists as guests. People enjoy themselves thoroughly. But I've reached my saturation point. Hence it was my last year attending.

The pre-game was the Meet and Greet. I chose the package that came with the limited edition 100mm version of the convention Sophie miniature. Sadly the extras sold out before I could get one for my friend. My roomie and I went shopping after I got settled in the room and I was able to catch the tail end of the food options for MnG. The options are limited to what the hotel can provide and it's been hamburgers and hot dogs the last few years. That might not sound good but it's leaps and bounds better than the 'pizza' they served before that. Trust me.

I also had a Buccee's brisket sandwich I'd purchased but saved that for another day. I think Buccee's BBQ is overpriced and overrated now that I've had some. But hey, I had it. We'd gone to Buccee's for my roomie and he picked up some merchandise he wanted. We also hit the local Walmart for basic supplies like water, booze, and snacks.

Since there's no more metal trade-in at the convention I don't have to keep Thursday open to go through the Boneyard (their unpackaged minis). I'm still sad about that. It was one of my favorite parts of the convention. But it left me the chance to take classes during that time.

I took two classes - one on freehand for non-artists and one on painting tiny text. The freehand one was good but I already knew the material from other classes. The text one was, well, not so good. Let's leave it at that. My class experience wasn't a stellar end to the series. I also crashed my friend's class on using paper and brass foliage so I learned a little there and got some goodies.

One class was Thursday, I crashed the course on Thursday, and my other class was Friday.

I did sign up for some of the Hobby Hijinks events. Those are free things like speed painting, conversions, etc. This year you could register for them like classes but with no charge. I liked that because in the past it was whoever got there first. So I had some fun with doing silly things and being kind of social.

I signed up to play a game but bowed out. I'd had a long, hard day. I was hurting. And the GM had allowed their friend to be an additional player that made the table one person larger than the event showed. I don't like either of those things so I gracefully gave them my seat and went back to the room. I would have liked to have played but I wasn't in the mental state to be a good player. I only showed up because I didn't want to leave the table down a player so having the extra person was a good thing in the end.

I didn't do any vendor shopping this time around for two reasons. One is that my knees didn't allow me much mobility. The other is that I didn't need or want anything from the vendors. I made one sweep through to get a punch card filled for a free mini and that's when I took stock of who was there and what they were selling. So I kind of did a speed browse to confirm that I was right in what I didn't need.

I did enter into the painting competition. I wanted the extra convention money (which I never spend), the badge ribbons, and I pretty much expected to bring home a bronze medal. Once again I grabbed a few minis off the painted shelf, touched them up, and entered them. They picked the one I thought they would pick to judge and it was a solid bronze. See for yourself.

I forgot they make you name your entry so the 'Redemption' thing was very last minute. It doesn't really mean anything. But I nailed the face on that one and I'm proud of that. Plus I don't think people use enough copper in their armor colors.

I now have two bronze medals to hang up by my painting area. As much as I don't seem to think much of them I'm going to show them off. I did win them at a convention painting competition, after all.

I spent more time talking with the artists I know than doing much else. I didn't paint because I didn't bring anything to paint or any paints. I was going to spend time at the basic paint and take table but the hobby events were enough painting for me. I really don't like painting away from home and the plan to practice what I'd learned in classes wasn't necessary. I did bring home a few minis that I would have painted, if I had been at the paint and take table.

I have a battered folder with all my class notes and handouts from every class I've ever taken at ReaperCon. It's got a lot of history in it. Since I wasn't coming back I felt it was acceptable to have the artists sign it - sculptors on the front and painters on the back. I'll cover those over with packing tape to preserve them as part of the whole. I do refer back to those notes at times so it's a nice way to remember everyone.

I stayed a day later than I normally would because it meant spending time with my roomie. Last convention and all that. He left early the next day to get to the airport and I wonder if the room felt as empty for him when I would leave early in previous years. It was nice not to have to rush but it was sad that he was gone and I'll probably never see him in person again.

The attendees seemed to have a good time like they always do. This is their convention now and it's a good one for them. It's a nice mix of the art side and the gaming side with the chance to socialize all weekend. And it's one of the nicest, friendliest conventions I've ever attended.

That being said the unthinkable happened. This was a convention where you could leave your stuff out all weekend and be sure it was safe. The artists left their minis at their tables so you could see them even when the artists were out and about. This year someone went through - twice - and stole minis from the artists. That really bothers me and I'm hoping desperately that it wasn't a convention person who did it. I also hope they can get the minis back. But it's going to change the tone of the convention going forward. I could have done without ending on that note.

I don't know if I would drive rather than fly if I were going back. It was a very long, boring drive broken up into two days on either side. If the hotel were closer to the cheap airport I don't even think I'd need a rental car now that I have no reason to go to the factory. If I'd been running games and needed all the accessories then driving would be the way to go. I've seen how careful my roomie is with his luggage weight and how much he has to bring. Driving means it's whatever fits in the car.

I don't have pictures of the convention itself. I didn't find any reason to take them. It was an event hotel with all the generic fittings and some Reaper specific decor. The painting contest entries are on the ReaperCon website so if I feel the urge to see what was there I can scroll those. There's a lot of entries if you want to see some good painting and imaginative work.

Last year I didn't think much of missing the convention. I have a feeling that I'll get a pang when it rolls around again but no more than that. It turns out my roomie only showed up this year to force me to show up so we could have a proper goodbye. I think that's sweet in a number of ways. I needed this last visit all around.

So there it is. After all these years my last ReaperCon. And it goes out with a whimper, as it should.

ReaperCon 2021 - Day 4 and Wrapup

 

Day 4 barely exists for me now as a convention experience. I say goodbye to people and fly home. There's a few classes and until this year the biggest Sunday attraction was the auction where you could use your ReaperBucks. Way in the early days I was part of the auction (it was fun and informal) but that changed and I didn't see a reason to stick around.

The last few years they started having prize drawings and you could buy additional tickets with ReaperBucks. This worked out well for people who weren't there for the entire convention.

This year there was no auction and no raffles. They did a straight up booth to buy stuff with convention money. I heard the prices ran the gamut from reasonable to not so much without much sense in how they were assigned. I don't need anything so I ended up handing over mine to someone buying up discontinued terrain tiles.

I did pick up my painting contest entries and got my medal since I wasn't at the award ceremony to get it then. I'll do another post to talk about my personal experience with the painting contest now that I sold out and entered one.

After that is was all packing and travel back home.

My ribbon collection isn't impressive but it pleases me. I don't try to accumulate them on purpose so if I get them I get them. This is the final result for 2021. Notice that "Bronze" ribbon in the lower left because you don't get those until you pick up your entries so they're hardly noticed at all at the convention itself.

I'll hang this on the corner of the bookshelf with all the previous passes. It's quite colorful over there.

As I have for many years now I wonder if the convention was worth the time and money. I do ask myself that every year. And so far the answers have weighed towards going again.

I'm thinking about it this year and the balance has shifted again. Some rumors about next year are making me hesitate but since they're rumors and the convention is almost a year away I can set those aside. My class experiences are making me wonder if I've learned all they have to teach me, given my interests. Then I wonder if maybe it's time to try teaching again. I know very few people at the convention now and it's fewer every year so the social aspect has dwindled to almost nothing. The main swag was purchased online by anyone and the convention swag will hit the store anyway. There's a lot to drop into the hopper as I put this one behind me and think of next year.

One thing that never changes is my hate for Texas weather. I could accept it more before my move but now the whole concept of 'humidity' is unpleasant in the extreme.

Reading back over the daily posts to correct stuff (I typed them on my phone for reasons that made sense at the time) I noticed a generally negative tone to them. Some of that I'll put down to being in pain. It comes through in my writing. Some of that I'll put down to be just stupid tired due to travel and socializing after so much time being alone. The rest? That's because my convention experiences just aren't all that light and fluffy. I go there expecting to have fun and then rediscover that the events and general activities aren't what I enjoy very much. 

Don't think the convention isn't fun if you like painting, gaming, hanging out, etc. ReaperCon is still the nicest and friendliest convention I've ever attended. Where else do you feel people could set up their large paint stations in the main hall on Thursday and leave them there until Sunday, unattended at times? No one gives that a second thought. Overall people are friendly and there's plenty of things to do. I think my personal experiences come from having been to so many of them and seeing the changes in the convention, the attendees, and the company. I accept that things change. My question is whether I want to be there for them.

ReaperCon 2021 - Day 3

  

Day 3 should be a shorter post. It was my 'day off' as it were. No classes, no obligations, etc.

I spent the morning hanging out. I would have liked to have shopped the small selection of vendors but on my first pass through on Thursday to get the punch card done I saw there weren't many that interested me. So that was out.

Because I entered the paint competition I was eligible to vote for Best in Show. I made a pass through the entries and didn't find anything I really liked so no one got my vote. I'm harsh on that kind of judging.

My Best in Show choice has to 'catch' me. It doesn't need to be the best paint job or anything. There has to be something that makes me want to take it home. I didn't see anything like that this year so I abstained.

I made good on my promise to myself to at least do a Paint and Take. That's where you sit down, pick a mini, and paint it. It's a nice way to introduce people and get them started - free mini and they provide brushes and paint.

I painted a bit on this one and realized a few things. I really dislike painting direct on their 'these minis don't need primer' models because they do need primer unless you want to wait forever and have to keep throwing paint on until it covers. I also didn't like the strangers who don't understand painting etiquette. The person who I think was supposed to be keeping an eye on things seemed more inattentive than they should have been. So I stopped after that bit of paint on her thorax. 

That experience let me cross off all the scheduled paint events from my list.

I physically overdid it when I took the factory tour. Walking isn't my best thing and by this point I was in bad shape. Even after being here so many times I enjoy the tour. This year they included new areas that they bought and/or built out since the last convention so I was excited to see them.

Unfortunately my knees were not of the same opinion. I expected to have to skip the upstairs portion. I did the last few conventions. I didn't expect to have to miss other sections. The owner giving the tour was nice enough to ferry me over to the new buildings in the company golf cart tho.

One new building will be warehouse. That makes sense. The other is mostly for their streaming stuff and that didn't interest me. I may blog about that later.

In the building with the studio is a wall of names. We were asked during their last Kickstarter if we wanted our names painted on the new building. I certainly did. Instead they put them on an inside wall so they wouldn't be exposed to the elements so our names will last a lot longer.

It was nice to find my name in there. It was even nicer they're in alphabetical order.

The studio areas were efficient and they find them useful. The other areas are still being made less industrial, except the room where they make their newest type of plastic minis. I'm still not sure of that process or material. I'm also not interested enough to ask.

After a brief look at a couple of specific vendors I cleaned up what I had at the paint table and took it back to my room to pack. I still have the gift certificate that came with our VIP ticket to spend. They didn't have what I wanted in stock but they should be refilled tomorrow. 

Finally there's the paint contest results. I never go to the awards ceremony and didn't see why this year shod be any different. I got a text that I won a bronze medal for this dude

Not too shabby for the amount of work I put in. I did spend time replacing the broken dagger. I also think he looks better with the replacement.

So that's day 3. Tomorrow there's more going on but I leave before the official end of the convention. 

ReaperCon 2021 - Day 2

 

Yup. Still ReaperCon.

Yesterday we got a note from the hotel giving us coupons for breakfast. I guess people who weren't staying here were taking advantage. It's a nice idea but not very practical. They took the coupon at the official entrance but everyone would go back for refills using the 'exit' and no one was checking anything.

No biggie. Brought the coupon and had a nice breakfast.

I took some pictures of the main room again. I will admit to these being carefully framed to look like there was a good crowd. In fact there were sparsely occupied areas to be found as well as dense ones.

My first class was on weathering. Even I admit this looks pretty darn good for a class mini. However the instructor did a LOT of prep work for us. The bulk of the darker rust areas were from them sponge painting rust, using a product to mask areas that would be rusty, then spraying on the main color. Our part was rubbing off the paint/mask to reveal the rust.

We did do the streaks and scratches.

As always I like this instructor and after seeing how well it works I may buy the product depending on price.

My second class was a mistake. I was too advanced for the material. The instructor was also reading off their handout like it was a PowerPoint presentation. No pictures because I didn't feel it warranted any.

I chatted with the instructor after class and found out they learned all this from someone I learned it from before they every started painting.

I demurred about going to the second class that was supposedly more advanced material. They even gave me a copy of the handout to help me make my decision. My decision was to give away my ticket.

If you're going to read off the handout for your class there's isn't a lot of incentive to sit and listen to it. 

A lot of people would find inspiration in that class. I'm not one of them.

I did finish painting the dagger. I remembered paint dries a lot slower here than at home and planned accordingly. With that done I could enter them into the contest.

I pre-registered even though I was on-site. They seemed to be trying to speed up the process by having us enter the bulk of the information online rather than filling out paper forms someone else would enter into the computer. I found out that was the way to get the special coin anyway so it's all good.

I chose to gave them take the display pictures. There was a self service photo booth but there wasn't a line and I'd rather have a good picture from a good camera that someone other than me took.

Toxic Blue

Hangry Dwarf

Appearances are not always deceiving 

These are much better. I had to come up with entry names and since I'm not vested in the results I picked what came to mind.

The rest of the evening was spent socializing.

I mentioned I'm wearing my old convention shirts as a flex on the majority of attendees. Someone else I know is wearing the same range of shirts for the same reason. We never said we were nice.

I Designed and Printed Something!

Ok. It's not going to be amazing. That much I can promise. But it's something neat.

My friend painted the two (very large) new monsters for my dungeon crawl. She's such a sweetie! She used bases she had on hand that fit the monsters which is fine.

She used round bases. I use square bases. Hrm. This is a problem. At least for me it's a problem.

OpenSCAD to the rescue! If you don't want to click the link it's a text based CAD program. It's great for learning how all this works and for making pretty much anything. All the plastic parts for my printer were designed in it. And I understand words a lot better than menu commands at the moment.

I wanted a square base with a cutout for the round base. I'd done similar things. So now it was time to do it again.

Meet Carol, the carrion crawler. Actually she's a cavern crawler from Reaper Miniatures due to IP stuff. And yes. That's a metal mini so it's darn heavy.

You can see her round base fitting very nicely into the square base. A bit of double sided tape and she'll be secure enough. And I can remove her from the adapter if I want a round base.

I did the same thing with the hydra. I'll post pictures of him some other time.

It doesn't sound like much of a design challenge and it wasn't since I've been playing around in OpenSCAD for a while. But it's so nice to be able to design something you need and then make it. AND have it work!

Is the Airbrush Worth All This?

So I have not just one but four airbrushes. I've never used an airbrush. Um. Actually I have five but one of them is going to be sold when I get around to it. So I don't count it.

I got the airbrush bug mostly for priming stuff so I don't have to be dependent on the weather and deal with aerosol fumes. Then I started seeing all the very nice things they can do with practice and foresight. Therefore I thought airbrushes were good things.

I didn't take into account my limited space. I really didn't. But I'm working around that. Or working in it. Whatever the phrase I'm still moving forward.

I have all the minis to paint for the dungeon crawl. I kind of neglected to think about that while I focused on printing up the dungeon. Whoops. Since these are full adventuring parties I need sixteen minis painted. Plus the three NPCs. I got them at the convention and they've sat in the bag since I got them home.

I ordered new triggers for all the airbrushes to make them more comfortable to use. Over Christmas I replaced the triggers on all four of them. I'm rather proud of that. I also took the time to completely disassemble each one and put it back together so I had that under my belt. All of them have the quick connect adapters as well. It's now a pretty sweet setup. Final triumph is that they all fit into the plastic bin I had gotten for airbrush stuff.

Last week I spent the time to find them, double check I had the right ones, carefully placed them in their parties, cleaned them up, assembled them, based them, glued them to 'bottle caps', sand based them, and added the gesso to the sand bases to glue it all in place. Overall they're ready to go.

Then I pulled out the air compressor for the first time and it does sit nicely on the kitchen counter where I planned to put it. Check.

I attached the pressure regular and moisture trap. I may have to use thread tape on it but for now it's attached. Check.

I looked for the air hose I bought that's brand specific and has the matching quick connect adapter. Um. No. Can't find it. And the search begins...

I looked for literally hours last night with no joy. I gave up and sulked. I also thought about where I could have put the stupid thing. There was a brief time when I thought about ordering a new hose and adapter but stopped myself because I don't NEED another one and can't use another one. That and they're not cheap.

Today I didn't get to looking again until later in the evening and dug through a lot of stuff. Finally, tucked away in a canvas bag, I found the stupid thing. Once I found it I realized that it was in the carry bag from when I took a fairly useless airbrush class at a regional game store. The airbrush was put away, the hose wasn't.

Check! Air hose on the compressor. Again it may need thread tape and I'll deal with that if needed. I know where the thread tape is.

The final thing was the photo tent I got to use as booth. I do have a portable booth but that thing is large and a pain to set up. I don't need heavy filtration for acrylic. A note on that later. The photo tent is one that folds down like the car sunscreens do so it's perfect for my space.

Except that it's not. I didn't think to measure so it's far too large to fit into the space I've allocated for a spray booth. Sigh. I needed a YouTube video to show me how to fold it back up (twist it all into the center and squish) and then I measured the space, converted inches to centimeters, and ordered the correct size. I'll figure out a use for the larger one at some point.

By the time all this happened it was way too late to consider doing anything. It was too late when I found the air hose. However I could continue to get it set up and that's how I found out about the photo tent.

Tomorrow I will be using a cardboard box as my spray booth because I have a very large number of them sitting in my living room waiting for a new home. There has to be one in an appropriate size in there. It's not perfect but it's better than a piece of posterboard or something.

Had I not found the air hose tonight I was going to use aerosol primer on the minis because I couldn't wait any longer. Now I can use the airbrush and I may even try putting down skin base tones with it as well. Those are always the first layer of paint and if I overspray badly it won't matter. I need to learn to do this and the best way is to just do it.

Ok. Some notes here. The 'bottle caps' are actually 3D printed ones that are supposed to fit the painting handle I haven't printed yet. It's a knock off of the Citadel one and was designed to fit these caps. The good news is that I can print as many of the darn caps and handles as I want. If they work.

I do have some other ones that use bottle caps and are on spools but I like this one better. While most people only have one that's because theirs cost a lot of money. Mine just take some printer time and a little filament. Plus I can print all the caps I need.

Unicorn!

He's actually part of my elf army. If he's not immediately killed he's got some cool special abilities. When I play, he tends to get immediately killed.

Reaper 14457 - Silvermaine

He's been converted by the sculptor to be anatomically correct and there's a whole story to go with that.







The colors match my army colors and even though it's difficult to see his eyes are painted in gem fashion to match the coordinating color I used for the entire army. His horn is highlighted the same way. Kind of a nice change from the white/grey typically seen on unicorn minis I think.

Monstrous spider - with freehand!

I'm working on improving my extremely poor freehand skills. Hence the use of the phrase 'the F word' when I refer to freehand. But if I ever want to get better I need to keep trying.

I need 2 monstrous spiders for a game I'm setting up and here's the first one, painted to tabletop quality.

[caption id="attachment_429" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Monstrous spider with blue markings"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_430" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Monstrous spider with blue markings looking at ya"][/caption]

He's not based yet. I attached him to a spare Hirst custom block so I could paint him without continually rubbing off the paint. I'll base him and the other one at the same time. Next one gets red markings!

Mini progress. Well, proto-progress

I call it "proto-progress" because I haven't actually put a brush to a mini. But they're on deck for painting.

8 skellies on sticks, based and primed.
2 large spiders on wires, primed.
6 elves (to be painted as drow) prepped and based

There's some other monsters that are prepped and based but I can't remember exactly what they are in the game. I could probably look them up but I'll just note there's 2 of one thing, 2 of another (think that is a partial group) and 4 of one other thing (I think that's a partial group too).

I'm working on matching up the minis with the monster list to know what the heck I'm painting and so I can mark off progress as I paint them. Luckily they're monsters and don't need the full detail painting.

And for whatever reason I don't know if I bought the character minis or not. I need to dig through the boxes I brought back from ReaperCon to make sure they're not hiding in there. I wasn't that organized when I made the list and bought the minis.

Some DungeonBash in process shots

I don't *need* this until the convention in February so I'm finally being kind of responsible and not rushing at the end.  I planned it using Sketchup and need to tweak the 'official' pieces to match adding in wall segments.  That's easy.  A few sections need to be enlarged a bit to accommodate the walls and corners.  It won't matter in game play so I'm not worried.  That and that DungeonBash seems to be a dead game since the publisher isn't available any more.  Sad.  I would have liked to have shown him the game board.

Yep.  I use my off-brand Legos from when I was a kid as building frames.  Still playing with toys.  There's a couple of gothic arena pieces tucked in this construction set.

Here's a nice stack of wall and corner sections.  There's also a stack of wall bases on top.  I need to use my True Sander to smooth the bottom edge of the walls and then I'll epoxy them in place.  One thing I've learned is that I can use wood glue on almost all of the construction but when attaching walls to floors for pieces that will be handled I have to use epoxy or they snap off.  Easier to just attach them correctly in the first place.

I prepped these tonight and will GENTLY reposition them tomorrow before priming so they're a little more dynamic.  Reposing skellies is tricky since they can break easily.  I can probably pin the arms back on if needed but would prefer not to do so.  Heck, if they seem weak I'll probably put in a small pin just to make them more durable.  Looks like the bases on this set will be sand painted similar colors to the dungeon itself.  It's a cheat but if you're not cheating, you're not painting.

By the way - I need two sets of every encounter since there's a chance that if there's two random encounters going the second one can be the same as the one that's in progress.  That's the luck of the dice.  So not only do I have to paint twice the number of minis I want to distinguish them so each encounter is visibly different.  In the case of the skellies I'll do different color glowing eyes and different colors on the shields and weapons.  And I'll be numbering the back of the bases to make record keeping easier.

I didn't forget my elves

Honestly, I didn't.  Once I finally got them here I carefully examined each one, put them in the "good" and "repair" piles and then went about fixing the paint on the ones that got abused.  I have all of the repairs done.  There weren't many - mostly a paint chip or where it rubbed on the foam.

I have to finish up the 3 that were painted onsite.  They were painted but need detail and cleanup work.  They're off to the side, watching me work on a small commission.

Yes, I said commission.  A friend needed some minis painted as part of his booth display at a large convention and asked me to do it.  How could I refuse?  Yes, I know.  Easily.  But that's what friends do.

After all that I hope for pictures this week.

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A couple of pictures of my elf army

I hope to have good detail shots in the near future but until then feast your eyes on the army on the table.

Elf Army 01

Elf Army 02

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More mini progress!

I keep getting distracted by phone calls so it takes me a little longer to get the minis done but I also get the fun of talking to my friends.  Go figure.  Of course I could use my Bluetooth earpiece and try to do both but I hate fixing the mistakes that happen when I attempt to multitask.

I've got Saturday to try to finish painting the last minis and paint the bases.  At least try to paint the bases.  I can always do the basing while I'm in Texas but it would be nice to actually have a mostly finished army for once.

I'm hoping time permits me to put up the light tent and take pictures of what's done.  Well, mostly done since the bases aren't painted.

Once again the newly finished stuff is in green.

Here's the total list of what's being done and what has been done:

Troop 1
Larnach the Grey
Lysette
Caerwynn
Royal Guardsman x 4
Death Seeker x 2
Vale Long Thorn x 2

Troop 2
Chiral, Centaur
Centaur Warrior x 3
Hunting Cat x 2
Faery x 2

Troop 3
Silvermaine, Unicorn

Troop 4
Mossbeard the Treeman

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6 more minis painted

No pictures - I hope to set up my light tent this weekend and get pictures of what's been done.  The bases aren't painted yet but I might take some time to do that since it's pretty relaxing end-of-the-night work.

Here's the total list of what's being done and what has been done:

Troop 1
Larnach the Grey
Lysette
Caerwynn
Royal Guardsman x 4
Death Seeker x 2
Vale Long Thorn x 2

Troop 2
Chiral, Centaur
Centaur Warrior x 3
Hunting Cat x 2
Faery x 2

Troop 3
Silvermaine, Unicorn

Troop 4
Mossbeard the Treeman

The ones crossed in green are the latest ones done.  The unicorn and the treeman have base coats on them so they're "in progress".  Next up are the centaurs since they're kind of grunts as well so they don't need as much attention.

Two of the centaurs have their torsos done and one has the horse body started.  I'm trying to get away from the 'brown with black socks' that seems to be a standard horse color.  Of course it takes longer to paint but looks SO cool.

If I push myself I should have 2 of the 3 centaur warriors done before Saturday and the third one started at least.  Saturday is the monthly paint day so I'll bring a solo figure (one of the ones from Troop 1) and see about getting that done during the paint day.  Maybe 2 of them since I might even finish the first one.  Gotta love army painting.

Oh, and for the record.  Spraying varnish on fairies feels like spraying them with bug spray.  Icky.

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Some work in progress shots

The colors are tinted yellow even after correction so they're not quite as vivid as in person.  The blue is really a nice blue-green that I love.  I'll have true color pictures when they're painted.

I'm making this army for the ReaperCon Warlord tournament.  I know, I know.  I've been painting dwarves like a fiend but didn't want to field them this year.  And then there's the troop of battle nuns.  But those are for later.  This year, elves take the field.

WIP Elf 01

WIP Elf 02

WIP Elf 03

Obviously the armor isn't nearly done yet.  The plan is to pick out some details with a thinned metallic blue and then wash all the silver with green liner.  That should get me the blue-green to match the dominant color in the minis. I'm a big fan of color washing my silvers.

I got myself all confused by trying to work blues and greens into the colors to go along with that blue-green I like so much.  For the record, it's the Ocean Triad by Reaper.  I love using it as a skin tone too.  But I digress.

A friend of mine helped me talk colors and that's why almost everything else is a neutral.  The leather is a red-brown but not heavily so.  Mr. Color Wheel says it's the compliment of my blue-green and I think it looks pretty darn good.

I did spend a good chunk of tonight fixing and cleaning up the work I did here with inadequate lighting.  My paint table lamps has been packed away, along with the chair I've used for over 20 years at my work tables.  Excavating in the small bedroom resolved both of those issues.  The lamps are yellow shifted but I don't use them for picking colors so it's all good.

I also got most of the rest of the army based and primed in the last couple of days.  The last pieces are on order so I'll be painting like a fiend for the next few weeks.  I need this to keep myself occupied.

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Teaser!

I get to be a tease once in a while.  OK.  I get to tease as much as I want.

Tomorrow I'm going to be playing at least one demo game of Warlord with the game group here.  I'll have my "normal" demo armies but have also put together a couple of slightly larger, more complex armies.  These guys are experienced gamers so after getting the basic rules out of the way I think we can move on to the more fun stuff.

On a related note I plan on testing a 500 point Dwarf army, since I need one to kick some orc butt.  Yes Spike, I'm smack-talking your precious green overgrown goblins.

I'm going to try to take pictures for battle reports but it all depends on how the games go.  Battle reports are fun.

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Just what the heck do I have?

I did pack up all my minis for the move but now I need to sort out the armies so I know what to acquire at ReaperCon.  This is not as easy as it seems.  Luckily most of them are still in their blisters so sorting is relatively (hah!) easy.  Please note the number of boxes below.

Boxes o Minis

The storage container at the very top is one of three that I have, filled with minis both in packaging and not.  In one of the three is an assembled and primed elf army.  This isn't even considering all the painted dwarves I have.

If you count along with me you'll see 7 boxes on the floor.  Add dwarves for 8.  And there's a mini-faction that isn't represented here for 9.  So far.  I might find another faction lurking in a storage container before this is over.

Once I have them sorted out I'm taking a page from a friend's book and making a "list" of what I have.  You'll notice the quotes around the word list there.  I actually made an Access database with the Reaper product list so I can do some reporting on these armies.  I'd really not like to have to look at a box and ask myself "now what's in here again?".  Again.

These are all armies for the Reaper Warlord game and they put out new rules, new data cards and there's a new command structure.  I know I'm light on command figures.  The question is just how much.

I'll report back as to what my findings are.

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So tired ...

But progress is being made!

I'm too busy painting to take pictures right now but between the stuff I had already done and the new miniatures I have enough for 4 demo armies.

I'm still finishing up the last ones.  5 of them need lining.  4 of them need shields attached.  All 5 of them need to be sealed.  The last one got a base coat tonight but he should be easy enough to paint.  Simple monster.

The 2 new factions aren't based, much to my shame.  I'll try but won't kill myself to get it done.  They're painted and that's most important to me.  The official rules say paint is optional but for demonstrations a painted army is best.

I will have to use some proxy figures but that's OK.  I need to remove some abilities since I'm sticking with straight melee.  I can still use the same figure, I just put a different data card with it.  Technically I'm breaking a rule with one faction by having the same data card and 2 figures but I'll deal with it.

I had to lower my demo armies from 400 to 350 points because of my own mistakes but that's still a nicely sized army for a demo.

The terrain is complete and I need to pull out 2 pieces of felt in 2 foot by 2 foot sizes.  That's the game board size.

I forgot that the round counters I wanted to use kind of belong in the gaming group and they are gaming this weekend.  So rather than take them out I'm making new ones for myself.  The first half of construction is done (drying) and tomorrow morning I should be able to do the final construction.  That will let me paint and seal in a timely manner.  Even sealing is optional for this time but I'd like to do it if I can.

I'll try to get pics of the demos in action since those are always cool pictures.  And I will get pictures of all the things I've painted up recently.

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Well that was a waste

I'm currently working on painting the Dragon Turtle and pretty much everything I painted today is going to get repainted.  In short I picked the wrong colors and I was trying to do too much.

Longer story.

He's got plating on his arms, legs, neck, tail, etc.  I had already painted the skin to match the guy down below and was working on the underside of the shell, the plates under the tail and all those other places I just detailed.  And some around the face.  All those other places I was going to use the same tans as on the body wrap of the grunt so that the shell would stand out more.  And I was trying a new technique that suggested taking the base coat a shade darker to make the effect really pop.

I did all that and it just didn't work.  The colors were completely wrong against the bright skin.  I should know better than to pick colors when I'm in an unhappy mood.

A friend gave me links to his painted figure.  His has the plating the same color as the skin.  Only the shell, underneath the shell and the plates under the tail are a different color.  That looked much better.  So I pulled out the skin colors and painted over all the stuff I did.  And yes, it looks much better.  I still need to highlight it and I'll probably pull the highlights one shade higher than on the rest of the models just so he pops more.

I also prepped 2 more minis that I need for this demo army.  I'll be pulling out the epoxy tomorrow and these guys need to have their arms attached.  Since I'll have epoxy mixed I'll use it wisely.

Oh - I put the base coat on some new arena pieces.

I'm doing all this in preparation for doing Warlord demos at Oshcon next month.  With the new rules and datacards I need to make sure my armies balance.  I did get new models for new armies so I really need to get painting.  I need 4 demo armies that balance.  I need to check my Crusaders to make sure those are the same and then work up 2 more.  I don't think they'll take as long as these since they're not nearly as complicated.

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Wow. I'm surprised you're still checking this

I'm making the assumption that you are.

In a nutshell, I have too many hobbies.  I went on a complete sewing binge and that kept me from the paint table.  Heck, I even used the chair there as storage.  I'm a bad, bad painter.

But now that's over and I'm back to painting.  I'm finally making progress on the Reptus demo army.  Or as I like to call them 'leezards' after the Taco Bell commercial.

Grunts 03

Grunts 04

I painted up 4 of these bad boys.  They're not based but they're painted and lookin' mean.

I tried for an enameled look to the armor and I'd say that I pretty much succeeded.

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