#workbenchWednesday 27/02/19 and Month in Review - February 2019 Two for One Special.

Ok, so I held off posting up the #workbenchWednesday stuff yesterday to avoid spamming all the groups I post in two days in a row, and it made more sense to just roll both posts into one. 

The workbench is looking quite sparse today, as I'd just finished off the 15 Black Knights earlier in the week, and was only working on the Krell model as my Undead hero for the #talesofinstahammer secret challenge.  Work area looked thus -

It'll be all wight...

Multicoloured Horrors of Tzeentch

I worked away in a haphazard manner on Krell, varnishing certain areas when dry and moving onto others.  Basically to try and have him ready for the end of the month.  The style and colour scheme for my Draugr Undead is very forgiving in terms of effort and time commitment.  Or. in other words, it is really quick to do a kinda sloppy job that still looks passable on the table.  Or something like that...  Anyway, I managed to get my Vanguard challenge plus Hero done in time.  The Black Knights were a bit of a slog, really wasn't feeling much love for them, but they are done now, and tie in with the rest of the force.

Charge of the Wight Brigade.

The not quite Pink Horrors were just me testing out various transparent paints before committing to the colours for my spectral undead stuff coming up, and they just happened to be the closest models to hand already primed white.  I reckon I am going for the Turquoise (back left) as, combined with white robes should give off a Corpse Bride vibe.

I've been getting stuff assembled too, built up my first Clockatrice (Thanks Allan) for my Grymkin, as well as a  15mm Stug and Tiger from Plastic Soldier Company for What a Tanker! 

Vikings and Tanks and Nightmares, oh my!

I'm getting pretty close to having most of the stuff I already own for my #hobbyresolutions2019 projects built up, and I'm throwing in the occasional odd model too, just to keep things fresh, and, like the 15mm tanks, I only need to paint one or two models to have enough for a game.  The Hordes of the Things elements are started, so, the biggest job now is getting the Warband models cleaned up and on painting sticks.

I've also been gaming more, Warhammer Underworlds and Warmahordes, and have knocked out a few games versus Sarah's Skaven, and played into Cole's Gaspy2 Bane list on Tuesday.

The Bane of Heavy Warbeasts...

By my reckoning I've finished 63 miniatures this month, played 17 games (and completed my new opponent challenge) as well as building up a load more.  Current #hobbystreak day 59.

I missed doing an extra blog post this month, although I have done some work for it, so I'm not beating myself up too much.  I also lost some time between 2 of the kids birthdays and travelling to Belgium, so, I'll catch up with that at some point.  Plan for next month is to finish off Sam's Blighthaven Warband, do my Tales of Instahammer stuff, and crack on with the Hordes of the Things elements to get them off the desk.  I also want to get more games in before the Welsh Masters in May, and get more stuff assembled and primed.  Not sure that I'll also get the Warband army finished, but, well, it is just a rough guideline, 10 months left to get it all done.

Overall Challenge Completion is below.

Cheers,

John

Amount	Task	Completed
78	Fully Paint Grymkin (HORDES)	16	21%
152	Paint Tales of Instahammer 2000pt Death Army (AoS)	138	91%
31	Paint 15mm Tree Folk army (Dragon Rampant)	31	100%
8	Paint 10mm Taurian Army (Warband)		0%
8	Paint 8 new elements for 15mm Picts (Hordes of the Things)		0%
6	Paint 6+ pts Jomsviking force (SAGA)		0%
4	Paint 4 Shadespire Warbands		0%
40	Paint 1200pt Norse Army (Of Gods & Mortals)	1	3%
100	Play 100 Games	22	22%
8	Play 8 new opponents	8	100%
8	Play 8 Boardgames	2	25%
1	Run April Fuel Daze 3!		0%
64	Maintain blog with weekly and monthly posts	11	17%
4	Go to 4 shows or conventions	1	25%
467	Transfer flip top paints to dropper bottles		0%
12	Write 1 extra blog post per month (BatRep, tutorial, review etc)	1	8%
991		23.31%
	January, February, March	2	50%
	April, May, June		0%
	July, August, September		0%
	October, November, December		0%

#workbenchWednesday 20/02/19

Well, Belgium didn't kill me so back again  :)

Workbench has 15 Black Knights, 6 Trolls and 6 Wolves that I primed yesterday, along with Sam's 15mm Warband.  Plan is to get all the basework done on the new additions, then bust out the Knights for #talesof\Instahammer, then finish the 15mm stuff.  Not sure if I'll get around to the secret project, as I've still a blog article to do too.

Last week, before flying out, a lot of the guys in the chat for Belgian Masters were saying they were doing some last minute painting, so, in a fit of solidarity, I figured I'd do some last minute painting too.  I grabbed the Wanderer, 2 units of Piggy Backs and a Witchwood and got started.

I got as far as this before we left Friday morning -

Best part of 50pts and a caster in 6-8hrs...

Not bad, right?  I probably could have finished them (cleaning off the excess grass and doing the blood) but figured I'd let them dry over the weekend.

The event went well, really cool location, good food, managed to stomach the cherry beer, and finished off my #hobbyresolution goal of new opponents between the Masters and some games of Secret Hitler in the evening.  5 Game breakdown as follows -

Game 1 - Loss (was still in bed.  6am finish drinking may be the cause, but crappy sleep the days before didn't help either)

Game 2 - Child vs Krueger2 - Win.  Opponent feated thinking he was going to score, and in my turn I managed to kill his Storm Raptor, get a couple of swings on his caster, and kill his Gnarlhorn.  He conceded after that as he only had some Mist Riders, solos and a damaged warlock with nothing to transfer to.

Game 3 - Child vs Rask.  I move up, wait out the feat, and prepare to capitalize the following turn.  Screen my caster, but he oneshots a Crabbit and pulls the Child out from behind 2 heavies that were just a touch too far apart.  Cue one Skarryth coming in and making short work of her.  Loss.

Game 4 - Child vs Iona.   Wasn't the best matchup for me.  Playing into Iona of Wurmwood in Devourers Host with a large central forest.  Game was a bloodbath (if you were a Tharn) and ended with the Child falling after clearing out a Warpwolf Stalker for some points.  Loss.

Game 5 - Old Witch vs Issyria - Opponent being too aggressive with his caster gave me a decent shot at assasination top of 2.  Witch feats, blinds the solo next to Issyria, and burns through a couple of her camp.  Longfellow gets some damage on her, and crucially, I totally forgert the Hollowmen ignore the rubble when targeting her, and miscalculate the rolls and how many CRA's to make.  Don't kill her, and Sentinels and Invictors put paid to Old Witch... 

Final result 1-4 (or 1-3 not counting the one I didn't play) which is disheartening as I've been playing more recently and had a good shot into all my games with the exception of Tharn, which I think does a number on both my lists.  List changes will probably have to wait until April/May until the new Grymkin models drop.

We got dropped off at the airport Sunday afternoon, and after dumping our bags in the hotel, went for dinner with the English contingent. 

Monday was spent sitting on the terrace at the airport dojoing lists until my tablet died (was saving my phone as my boarding pass was on it) and cleaning off the grass from the Grymkin when we got home.

Not used to the lack of rain or mountains...

Tuesday was priming stuff and doing the blood on the Grymkin, before getting them into the cabinet.

Wanderer

Piggy Backs 1

Piggy Backs 2

Today has been doing all the basework on the primed stuff, and I've got the metal down and washed on the horses.  Hopefully can at least get the skin blocked in after I've been fed, and work on the bone and exposed flesh tomorrow.  I've removed the riders until the horses are done, and I might just glue them on at the end and paint them that way.

Until next time,

Cheers,

John

#workbenchWednesday 13/02/19

Back again, current #hobbystreakday44.  Workbench looks pretty static this week though -

Not even sure anything moved...

Couple of reasons for this, kids were over at the weekend, so they spent some time pottering about with their Dragon Rampant army, so, I took the opportunity to do some assembly and basing too.  Figured I'm going to try and have as much as possible cleaned, assembled, based and primed so that I only have the secret projects for #talesofinstahammer to prepare.  I'm at just over 60% of the planned stuff assembled and based for the year, and I reckon doing the 10mm Warband army will really ramp that number up.  Also, that doesn't take into account any of the stuff I already did over what I had planned.

Speaking of which, the challenge this month is Vanguard, and the secret project is to paint up a hero (or two).  I kind of scunnered myself here by painting 3 Necromancers last month, along with the 3 Skeleton Champions...  Not sure, what I am going to do this month, maybe source another Necromancer model, or a Vampire of some description.  My Vanguard unit will be 15 Black Knights using the Mantic Cavalry.  They are the restic versions, so clean-up was minimal and annoying, so I just clipped off the injection points, trimmed them, and scraped the mould lines off the front legs and face plate.  I've based them on 40mm lipped bases, so they match my SAGA stuff, and could also be used for Lord/War of the Ring(s).  

All your base...

I've also assembled both warbands from the Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault box, along with a box of the snap-fit Mystmourn Banshees, 6 Fenrisian Wolves, 3 Spirit Hosts and 6 Mantic Trolls.

The Underworlds stuff and wolves were a joy to assemble, and, just when I was thinking how nice it was to be putting together nice sprued plastic kits, I started the Spirit Hosts.  They were a nightmare.  I'm sure there could have been much better keying for the strands without losing the incorporeal look.  The Banshees, Spirit Hosts and Knights are planned for my Death army, and the Wolves and Trolls for my Of Gods & Mortals force,

Carrying on with that, I've also cleaned up and based the Warlord and 2 points of Two Handed Axe armed Vikings for my SAGA Jomsvikings, and the 4 Berserkers, for my OG&M list.  These two projects are pretty intertwined, as I'll be able to get a lot of double duty from the figures and switch up lists a bit.

Started work on 2 of the 4 units of hand weapon/shield Hearthguard too.

Finally, been upping my game count too in preparation for the Belgian Warmachine & Hordes Masters this weekend.  Mostly playing Grymkin, but also dug out Baldur 2 for a practice game to see how Sarah's army handles the Starcrossed/behind a wall/Roots of the Earth (and Spiny Growth in the case of Ghetorix) skew.  Lost on scenario, but had a real grindy game, and still finished with 3 heavies on the table.  Lost Wrongeye trivially, because Incorporeal and Transference (and re-rolls) is a thing that deals with Starcrossed...

Tonight we're gonna rock you!

So that's pretty much it.  Hard weekend of drinking with added Warmachine coming up, then back to the grind to get my #talesofinstahammer projects and getting on with the 15mm stuff that is already on the workbench.

Cheers,  see you next week (liver permitting)

John

#workbenchWednesday 06/02/19

Another week, another update.

Workbench currently has the following on it, which is to say, Sam's Warband for A Song of Blades and Heroes and my Copplestone Picts for Hordes of the Things.  There is also a stand that I painted last year to get some repairs as I'd dropped it getting it out the cabinet for the big end of year photoshoot...

More 15mm!

 I've had a productive week really.  Washed and cleaned up the worms for the Hordes of the Things elements and sanded and textured movement trays for my Dragon Rampant army.  Speaking of which, I started painting that on Friday and finished it up yesterday, clearing off one of my #hobbyresolution2019 projects completely.

Can't see the wood for the trees...

I had a lot of fun doing these guys, super quick paint job and just covering them in loads of effects.  If I was to do more, I'd probably trim down or remove the sculpted foliage in order to stop them getting super bulky.  Figures are all from Ral Partha Europe from the Demonworld line.  The entire force is made up of 1 x (4234) Giant Tree Shepherd , 2 x (4323) Tree Shepherds, and 4 packs of (4607) Shrublings.  All in it was less than £60, and I probably didn't need some of the Shrublings, as I fudged the army list to fit them in.

Army List I'm planning is -

Giant Tree Shepherd - Greater Warbeast/Spore - 8pts
3 Tree Shepherds - Lesser Warbeast/Spore - 6pts
3 Tree Shepherds - Lesser Warbeast/Spore - 6pts
12 Shrublings - Ravening Horde/Venom/Fearful - 2pts
12 Shrublings - Ravening Horde/Venom/Fearful - 2pts

Now, I know that the Shrublings shouldn't have Fearful, but it keeps the points down, and as I'll only really be playing folk from the club, I'm sure nobody is really going to care.  I'll adjust them as necessary after some test games.

So cute.

In other news, went down to Vapnartak in York on Sunday with the club.  Picked up What a Tanker! L'art de la Guerre, and the Rebels & Patriots rulebooks, along with some order dice from Warlord, and some Bones figures and more 15mm Celts/Gauls from Forged in Battle.  Also, my HATE kickstarter arrived, but, upon opening, I realised it wasn't mine, and was actually for someone with a similar name... Hopefully that gets sorted.


Plan for the next few days is get the worms and bases primed, and get through the HotT Elements and Sam's warband.  I also have to get started on my #talesofinstahammer stuff for the month.  Think I'm doing some Black Knights, as I have the models and it saves me buying Dire Wolves.  The secret challenge is to paint up one or more Hero models, but I already did 3 last month...

Rainer made some sweet collages for everyone's entries for the January Secret Challange, which I'll share here too.

That's it for the week then, hopefully I'll have more painted minis to show off next week.

Cheers,

John