Modeling: Beast 09 WIP (1)

Beast 09!!!  This guy came in about 10ish parts.  I've been using him on a couple of lists lately.  I've also had him just sitting on a shelf and thought what the hell... let's put the punk together.

On to the basics as usual.  There was an average amount of flashing and mould lines.  I'm not usually too worried about such things on a model this big.  As usual my trusty Dremel with Diamond Point and Brass Brush took care of it.  What I AM usually worried about with models this big is "miscasting", meaning that parts of the model don't actually jive well with the parts they are supposed to.  Well, in this case there was none to be found!

The image above is just an example of some of the flash and mould lines encountered but easily tackled in this kit.  At the end of the day this model took me just shy of an hour to put together with pretty much no problems.

Dabbed him lightly on the base with some super glue as I'm certain I'll be doing some work to his base. For now though no more proxying!  More to come...

Modeling: eSorscha WIP (1)

More models to put together!!!!  Ok, here is eSorscha.  I've made a couple of lists using her but been having to proxy her so this puts a shameful end to that (shameful since it's still not painted).  Lets' go over the basics...

As far as mould lines there was some just slightly on her shoulderpads and weapon handle.  Oh, before I forget!  These weapons seem to always come bent some how.  Straighten it out slowly to avoid breakage.  This model took me about 5 minutes, no joke, it was easy, and there is also no worries about being too fancy about basing since she comes with her own icy terrain!  More to come...

Mould lines were scarce which is always good.  A bit of flashing was found here and there, and of course the cleanup needed for separating her weapon from the sprue.

As far as mould lines there was some just slightly on her shoulderpads and weapon handle.  Oh, before I forget!  These weapons seem to always come bent some how.  Straighten it out slowly to avoid breakage.  

This model took me about 5 minutes, no joke, it was easy, and there is also no worries about being too fancy about basing since she comes with her own icy terrain!  More to come...

Modeling: eEiryss WIP (1)

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution!  How much we all love when she joins our armies... and how much we hate her when she joins the opposition.  Love her or hate her... I think most people would agree this is an outstanding model.

This model came in a blister, 4 parts, 3 of which were still attached to a metal sprue.  So, the basics...  Flashing was pretty much non-existent.  Moulding was present but very mild and easily dealt with.  This model actually looks more complicated to put together than it really was.  It literally took me about 15 minutes total from unpacking to "together".

This mini does have one small issue.  I say small because honestly, I'll be able to fix it easily.  The "building corner" or whatever it's supposed to be doesn't quite close in correctly.  I don't have a picture that captures it but I'm sure whoever owns this model knows what I'm talking about.  Basically the edges of those two pieces don't quite close in.  At the end, it looks like it's easy to fill it in with some green stuff / miliput / or maybe even gap filler.

This is one of those models that I really wasn't liking proxying it.  Besides missing the card and having to have my Mercenaries book constantly open to remember the small details of her statistics there is always the dreaded "who is that again?" question that inevitably comes up during proxy games.  She's now ready for some paint and no longer needs to be proxied.  More to come...

Modeling: Manhunters WIP (1)

Here is another post as part of my ongoing effort to stop proxies but of course also to just get all the models I've ordered put together!  Here are my manhunters!  I decided to go with the variant simply because hey, I like chick models better most of the time, but especially the manhunters.

These guys come 1 per blister in 3 pieces.  The 2 axes had a bit of molding on the blades and the edges that were attached to the sprue.  The manhunter had some mold lines on her pants and hat.  All of it easy work with the dremel / files.

The picture below shows the only pieces of flash I found on both the models I purchased.  If you look carefully it's just a piece coming out of her right arm stump.  Easily removed with hobby pliers and smoothed out with the dremel.

Glueing them was pretty standard easy work.  No real pinning required unless you plan on transporting them in a very abusive way.  The arms although small were not attached to very tiny areas it was in fact I believe their biceps so with that said I think they are on there to stay.

The next step will probably be some gap filling on the base either with tape or plastic card (as suggested to me by one of you!  Thanks!).  After that some flocking and some painting!  Another model off of my list of proxies ready to play.  More to come...

Modeling: Devastator WIP (1) & Quick Annyssa Update

I'm going to be giving my Annyssa Ryvaall model here a bit of a break for now.  I have to figure out if I want to remove her from the mount or not so I can really give her a go.  I'll keep you guys updated on which way I go one way or the other.  However,  I've gotten a bunch of orders in and honestly while I do agree that one should not unpack / put together models until the lot are painted I  have been proxing some of these for a little too long.

So, without further delay!  The Devastator!!!!  So this guy was actually part of the auction I went to this summer.  There was no flashing.  I imagine that's due to it having been put together before and someone removing it.  However, there was a bit of molding which came off easily with my Dremel's Diamond Tips and Brass Brush (Click here for more info).

I've seen a handful of pictures now on the internet that have him in sort of a "shell" format.  That is to say his shield arms are glued in such a way that he looks like he's covering his body on both sides while holding his arms very very close to his body, almost like a turtle.  I have nothing against that except that it looks like it would be even harder to paint his body had I glued him like that.  I imagine people that did that probably painted him first and then glued the arms.

There's actually a couple of things to note on the picture above.  The top part of the shoulder was cleaned with a Diamond Tip and Brass Brush and as hopefully you are able to see it's shiny and porous enough to be good to go for priming.  However, for some reason even with my brass brush I am unable to remove the yellow grime on the top shell.  That's even after a nice warm water and soap bath.  I washed it and brushed it the best I could but I'm thinking the previous owner simply left the mold release agent on the miniature a little too long without washing.  I hope it doesn't cause too many problems with the primer!

This model was not difficult to put together except for the part where I basically waited for each segment to be dry before pressing on.  This guy is HEAVY!  So pin if you can (I'll probably do an article on that sometime in the future).  For now though, I can stop proxying this guy and bring the real thing to the table, alas, without paint for now.  More to come...

Modeling: Iron Fang Pikeman WIP (1)

First, I'd like to apologize for the pictures.  Not that I'm a master photographer or anything but usually I at least have HD turned on so that more detail can be seen if necessary.  Anyways, onto the update...

As I mentioned here I acquired some Khador models.  This was during a bi-annual auction at one of my local game stores.  No, I'm not going to stop doing Legion but I did want to have a Warmachine faction as well so this is my first update on their progress as well.  Plus, there's a legion model right now slowing me waaaayyyyy down on updates.  I'll cover that sometime this week and it may be a project that I put on pause so that I don't slow down my progress so much.

Any-who, as with anything beggars can't be choosers and here's me working on a unit of Pikemen who came sort of "primed" in white.  I say sort off because it was a light coat, although it was kind of rough kind of like sand paper, however it was easily removable by brass brush and Dremel (technique also demonstrated at Spacejunky's Gaming and Hobby Blog a friend of mine on a prime job gone wrong).   This guy below actually still has the light coat on but it's probably hard to see from this crappy pic.

There! The picture below probably shows the "spraying" previously done to the fig a little better specially on the base.  Not a big deal, so now I set on to just make the dudes whole.  Their arms and such were all mixed up so it took me a tiny bit between pictures and such to organize who's stuff went where.

I then went onto clean up some of the paint that I thought would maybe cause me trouble when I went to prime it.  On the image below you can see the brass brush actually works quite well!

While doing some of the cleaning I ran into some mould lines.  This arm in particular was quite nasty.  I believe this is the "unit leader"... holy crud that's a big line of moulding.

Ah!  This picture shows off better the huge line of moulding that needed to be cleaned up.  Again, I actually used a Dremel for this with a diamond bit.  Not sure exactly what they are called since I threw away the packaging (I'll do a more in depth post on the technique later, which I actually learned from a buddy of mine who likes modeling as well) but it's basically a file.  They have two types one of them is just rounder than the other.  After "filing" with the Dremel I usually go over it with the brash brush attachment to smooth out the surface.

I did forget to take an "after" picture of the clean up before I glued it onto the mini but here's a closeup that hopefully shows the mould line virtually gone.

Another thing that I've decided is to keep their shields off.  I was going to glue them on there when I realized that painting them would be a lot more difficult with the shield covering quite a bit of the figure.  What I have done to keep them straight is simply put a number under the base of the figure and putting the same number on a blister pack containing the remaining portions of the model.  This way I don't have to figure out who's stuff who's more than once.

I have a little bit more work, some cleaning left here and there.  After that some basing probably which will be mainly simple flock since these guys take up a bit of room on their own base. 

Not too shabby for about 6 bucks at an auction eh?  So, there be a minimum Iron Fang Pikeman unit w/UA (Yes I know the standard is missing the star on the top... it's around here somewhere! Ah!  The numbered blister...  I hope... More to come...

Warmachine: Khador

It was indeed always my intention to play a warmachine army as well as a Hordes army. This summer there was an auction at one of my LFGS. I've been hearing about these for quite some time and decided I would go.

I was able to acquire quite a bit.  I've had it for a while and like the army.  I'll start posting about these guys soon.

After Action Report: Warmachine/Hordes

My gaming group has been getting together to play on Thursdays these days.  I will have battle reports from that at times and at others I'll just have some After Action Reports (AAR).  Which one it is will just depend on whether there was time for pictures and what the goal was for the evening.  Ideally for me I'll be doing them about a week after they happened so that I can have the time to gather up any pictures/videos/inputs from others if there are any.

No pictures this time around sadly.  Our goal for last Thursday was to practice for a Steamroller event I was attending (a post on that later) and also get some of our "new/returning" guys playing to get back into the swing of the rules and such.  With that said there was 3 Battle Box games (Mangled Metal Tooth and Claw) played and 1 Steamroller Killbox 35 point game played.

I'll be using aliases until I know for sure whether my friends want their real names on posts or not.  First Battle Box game was Menoth vs. Legion.  Like I said before the main goal of this was to get some of the guys back into the swing...  This battle went about 5 turns before Menoth took it with a battle group kill.  Tons of rules were discussed all in all was a great game.

Next was a 35 point Steamroller Kill box game.  Legion vs Circle.
My Legion army was:


Vayl, Disciple of Everblight
* Scythean
* Seraph
* Shredder
* Typhon

Annyssa Ryvaall, Talon of Everblight
Strider Deathstalker
2x The Forsaken

Pretty standard Vayl, Seraph for slipstream+leash shenanigans, Shredder for Tenacity and Rabid charges + incite, Typhon generally for clearing units / Dark Sentinel, Annyssa usually my chiller rest to taste.

Circle Army was:


Kaya the Moonhunter
* Laris
* Gnarlhorn Satyr
* Pureblood Warpwolf
* Warpwolf Stalker

Druids of Orboros
* Druid of Orboros Overseer
3 Warpborn Skinwalkers

Tier 4 Circle list.  I believe I lost the roll and was allowed to go first.  I setup pretty centrally left to right would be Scythean, Vayl, Typhon, with Seraph behind Vayl, Annyssa behind that and forsaken on the sides of the formation and later in AD DS would deploy to engage druids.

Circle deployed central with Kaya and Warpwolves / laris and Druids where on one flank Skin walkers in another flank.

Legion first turn was pretty standard first turn Hoarfrost shenanigans.  Seraph slipstreams, and charges a model he can see to go straight 9 out.  Slipstream catches scythean who moves closer to the druids.  Scythean Runs towards druids.  Vayl leashes Typhon, Chiller Annyssa, Moves towards Scythean, Oraculus Arcnode via Scythean Hoarfrost to druids... yields 1 in direction and 4"... Perfect.. Kill about half the unit with that move.. leash moves typhon 3" towards vayl, Annyssa moves to the left flank about 9" away from scythean to be able to run 18" to chiller if he charges something, DS and forsaken get into conservative positions.

Can't remember this circle turn but I believe Scythean took some heavy damage and got muzzled, druids moved centrally to support and vortexed / countermagic.  At this point there was a warbeast in front of Kaya and Kaya with no Fury.  Slipstreamed Typhon... Typhon Charges Gnarled Horned Satyr and starts gunslignging sprays that happen to reach Kaya... Kaya dies with some boosting.  Quick game.  Partner made some mistakes 1 let me go first 2nd deploy druids that close to a stray hoarfrost, 3 not muzzling either both or at least just Typhon.  It won't be that easy next time!

Next another Legion vs Menoth Battle Box.  This seems my buddies getting the rules down a bit more and a Legion win over Menoth 1:1 is good!  After that I used my Khador for a Battle Box which was fun but got totally owned by circle, Sorscha went in for a kill and failed... transfers just killed me and great positioning of the doggies by my opponent had me at a disadvantage.

Well, that's it for this AAR.  I hope to have some pics next time of this Thursday!

League: Warmachine/Hordes Journeyman Leage

Quote below from the Forum here.

Store Information:

Location:
5730 N. Academy Blvd
Colorado Springs, CO, 80918
Phone:
719-531-9863

Let's try this again...

Journeyman League Rules are here:
http://privateerpress.com/files/CompleteJourneyman.pdf

Go read and come back. If you can't read em for some reason, post and I'll do a text copy over.

You can see the patches here:
http://privateerpress.com/organized-...n-league-rules

We'll run this at Gamer's Haven, starting October 1st through Thanksgiving. With some minor changes. I still have to clear these with the Quartermistress, but here's my proposed mods for the local realities:

1) Limit of three games per week for Battle Points.
2) Cap of 10pts per week on Hobby Points
3) Myself or a store employee MUST see your models before being painted, and after, in order to gain Hobby Points. We'll initial the League Sheet accordingly.

I'll set up follow-on Leagues and Tourneys based on response to this simple approach. 

For experienced players, remember this is aimed at new folks trying and LIKING the game, not you curbstomping n00bs. If I see or have reliable reports of any untoward behavior, there will be... repercussions. And I suggest we of experience use the opportunity to try new stuff. I'll probably start a list with either Kreoss or Magnus.

If you're a new player, and would like some advice, please contact me. The Demo Day on Sept 17th still holds as well. (But no League Meeting.)

If you can't decide what to start at all, I present THE WHEEL OF FACTIONS:

http://losthemisphere.com/wheelie.swf

Tournament: Warmachine/Hordes

At Gamer's Haven in Colorado Springs:

Location:

5730 N. Academy Blvd

Colorado Springs, CO, 80918

Phone:

719-531-9863

September 24, 2011 @ 11AM, $5, 35pts, Tiers Allowed, Bring it!

10 min turns with a single 5 min extension. 80 min + Variable rounds. 

Steamroller rules are here:

http://privateerpress.com/files/Offi...11%20Rules.pdf

If you can, arrive with your list sheet already filled out.

If you're new and/or have ANY questions, please post here for clarifications.