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Craig

40k – ‘naut checks

Posted on November 13, 2017

I decided to try to paint checks on my naut, to give it a little bit of style. I looked up a couple examples and went to town with masking.

I started by masking out some squares.

And then I hand painted the squares:

Fuuuuuckkkkk.

I decided to re-optimize my airbrush process, since I have some space upstairs I could do it in. I re-masked, but this time doing all of the checks at once.

And then bust out the airbrush with some GW White Scar and Golden Airbrush Medium.

Here’s the bad side. I didn’t fix it up before I airbrushed, so the fact that it looks a little like crap is acceptable. I didn’t want to paint blue over the white, since I didn’t want to layer it over something that would just be white again. In hindsight, an argument could be made to just airbrush the dark blue and start over.

Here’s the front, which does not have an excuse for looking crappy. 🙁

And the other side, which was the only side that ended up looking good. 🙁

I went back in with PP Exile Blue, which looked dark enough and hand painted some cover-up.

The “bad” side looks a little bit like ass. I’m hoping that with the weathering I’m going to do, that it’ll look ok in the end, but I layered the blue paint to thick and now it’s just not good. 🙁

Pretty unhappy, but at least with orks “bad paint job” can be a style. 🙁

Tournaments

FoodBowl 2017

Posted on November 6, 2017

FoodBowl 2017! This is a great event for a great cause! 4 player Blood Bowl, 1,250 gold teams and it brings together the two disparate groups of Blood Bowl players in the Vancouver area, so we get to meet some new people. 🙂 Obviously, I brought Skaven which I thought were a good top pick — they have some great speed (since the current event rules nerf elves a bit, possibly the best speed) and great bashiness with the star players.

I sat down at a table with a gentleman I didn’t know, named Kristian, and then two others I did know followed suit – James and Pat. James has a hate on for me after he mercilessly killed my rat ogre in a previous season. You read that right, I don’t understand it either. 😛 Pat is good fellow to sit next to.

This game was characterized by Kristian scoring TD after TD with Skitter-skitter Stab-stab, a special character gutter runner. He scored 3 TDs, which is absolutely ridiculous in a game with 28 players and 3 other people dedicated to ensuring you don’t get to do what you want to do.

Near the end of the game, Pat had a choice between stopping me scoring or stopping Kristian scoring, and he chose to stop K because he knew that K would be vying for a top-TDs-scored prize with a start like his. Because of this I managed to get a TD, bringing me second place in this game! And then because of the final score calculation, I got 10 points (7 for second, 3 for 3 casualties) where Kristian also got 10 (10 for first). 🙂 This was a nice game. 🙂

We went for sushi after. Our game was about an hour over time, and sushi didn’t help.

Here are some photos.

Go forward my ratties!

Lined up again after a TD by SS-SS.

ECLIPSE!!! There was also a goblin fanatic on the table at this point which had been placed in James’ lines. James had maneuvered it away from him, but the fantatic got turned into a goblin as well, allowing the next person to simply move it 6 easy squares back to killing James.

I don’t know what’s going on this photo, but I like showing how crazy the center of the board gets in this game.

Game 2 I sat down at a table next to Rowland, Greg and Pat, all players I play regularly. In hindsight I should have sought out one of the 4 players I never played, but we were rushing a lot after sushi so it wasn’t a great moment of decision making. I also took fewer photos this game.

This was almost a no-score game. There was a sprinkler, making pick-up and throwing and catching harder. The ball was spiked, making pick-up dangerous. There was also a ball clone, meaning there were 3 balls on the table at one point. My valient gutter runner grabbed the ball, dodged tackle zones across the board…only to find he was holding the clone. It was here as well that Greg rolled quad-skulls, which is always something you can count on winning with.

My two ball and chain characters moved up and deftly avoided hitting an enemy who had set up in a perfect cage, and then one ball/chain hit the other. >.>

I spent most of the first half with only 3 players on the pitch, so it was a little boring, but I made do. When the half finally came around I tossed on another 4 and got to play again! I grabbed the ball again, ran it across the field and avoided getting hit a bunch…and found he was holding the wrong ball.

My injury pile.

Moments after the first photo was taken, another model got added to the pile.

Gutter runner cage!

I’d like to say that this story ended with me scoring and winning the game, fans cheering for the Cheddar City Alchemists in their brilliant pink uniforms. Alas, I did not. My ball was across the field. Instead, Rowland dropped a bomb on his ball, knocking it loose and allowing Pat to pick it up and score with it. >.<

I hope I can make time to play this event again next year, because it’s just amazing!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Glart in progress

Posted on November 5, 2017

This model is so fucking rad.

Some of the FW Blood Bowl models are hit or miss, so I’m super stoked to be able to support their continued creation of Blood Bowl content by buying Glart, my little Fatty McRatty!

Since I received him on the Friday before the tournament, I basically had 2 days to finish him. Add that I had family obligations on Saturday, subtract that I was sick on Friday, and I basically had just 1 day.

My skaven are all the same basic recipe, so it was nice to apply that here and have it work quickly and effectively. A quick 3 layer highlight, a quick 3-4 layer wash and glaze and he’s done! Here’s a mid-stage photo — I don’t have any finished photos yet because I scrambled to get him done and out the door before the event! I’ll be writing about the event very shortly, have a few photos and stories from it!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – The Replacement

Posted on November 3, 2017

It got weird.

I’m playing in FoodBowl this weekend. It was a great event last year, with some great custom made boards and some fun rules for charity. This year the organizer got rid of the “only 2 Stars” rules, so the field was open for craziness. You’ve already seen my Fezglitch and my Kreek. I ordered Glart at the end of September, knowing he’d be here before the event on November 5th.

On October 27th, a mere 8 days before the event, I gave up hope that Glart would arrive before FoodBowl and started a Stormfiend conversion. I didn’t even have an idea of what rules to use with it, I just knew that if I had a Stormfiend, I’d have something. I quickly secured a model and scrounged my bitz box for something to use as hands, because I didn’t want to use the Stormfiend guns and it had to be a conversion, otherwise it was just a Stormfiend on a tiny little base.

Enter: ancient Old One Eye claws.

When I worked at Park Royal GW I got part of a Tyranid army and I think it included an Old One Eye. I didn’t want to do the special character, so I put scything talons on the model and bitzed the claws. Here we are, like 15 years later and the claws are getting used. This is why we hoard bitz! And my wife keeps calling me a hoarder…

My team has a little bit of size creep…my three rat ogre models.

I took a bunch of photos, because I was thinking about it. First off, the shaded basecoat. It’s a pretty standard recipe for me at this point — Zamesi Desert mixed up with Dheneb Stone, Runefang Steel, Emperors Children mixed up with White, Steel Legion mixed up with Dheneb Stone. This is a super fast 3 layers, all that’s important is to stay within the lines and get a quick highlight up. If If go outside the lines in a big way, it’s hard to fix with just washes/glazes, but some messiness can be fixed.

The next layer is also pretty quick. Sepia in most of the recesses of the skin and claws, and the “leather” items. Drakenhof Blue shade over the metal.

Some changes of lighting can be attributed to a different time of day I was taking the photo, but I think this layer included Nuln Oil over the metal to darken it down in places. I mixed red glaze and blue wash to make a purple and painted that onto the lower sections of all of the skin tones, and under things. I like the purple as an “under” shadow colour.

This is the start of the glazing of the claws. They are going red, and you can see the start of that here! I also did another layer of the purple over the skin to darken that more. The purple wash went over the pink cloth as well.

Two more layers of red over the claws.

He’s pretty close to done at this point (November 3rd) which is great so I can have another model to play with in the tournament.

And then Glart shows up in the mail. 2 days before the event. >.>

You’ll see photos of him here shortly, because I am absolutely going to paint him before Sunday!!

Work-in-progress

40k – Orks – just orks

Posted on October 21, 2017

One of the goals of this blog was to help me keep track of how I painted my models over the years. I’m no good at colour matching the way Wappel does, and I do rely on a recipe even if it’s a little haphazard sometimes. I went back a long ways through my ork entries to find that I hadn’t logged how I painted orks, just orks. I remember it was something wacky and crazy like a dark green highlighted up with a brown to make them more foresty and less bright green.

At the same time, even if I had found it, my technique has changed wildly over the years and I’m not sure it’s a good idea to go back.

So I present to you, my “first time painting orks”. 😛

GW Warboss Green highlighted up with a shitty drying Ushapti Bone. The nice thing about the semi-solid Ushapti is that I put a brick into the green, and then broke down a little more of the brick for each layer.

This is the shaded basecoat step, as I’ve been doing.

I’ve been putting off starting these two because I’ve been waiting for Glart to come in the mail and I didn’t want to start something and not finish it. Glart had been get his act in gear because I need him in 15 days and I want him painted! By the numbers, he should have been here sometime last week. This week he’d better be here!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Skaven – Kreek progress

Posted on October 17, 2017

Here’s a nice side-by-side to show you how my interpretation of Wappel’s shaded basecoat goes:

The top photo is much to light, on purpose. It’s the same recipe as for this other Skaveny article I did a while back.

Skin is GW Zamesi Desert, mixed and highlighted up with GW Dheneb Stone
Base is Steel Legion Drab, mixed and highlighted up with GW Dheneb Stone
Chains are just Runefang Steel.

Then I let him sit on my desk for a while, because…well, just because the timing didn’t work out well.

In the second photo:

The base is GW Seraphim Sepia, pulled from the edges to the center, and deeper into the cracks of the cork layers. Then GW Drakenhof Nightshade in a thin layer underneath the model (as a shadow) and within the deepest cracks of the cork.
The chain I did a lazy wash of the Drakenhof and Nuln and some drybrushing with Runefang, but not in the order and I want to go back in with the Runefang.
The wraps are Sepia’d, then drybrushed up with Dheneb Stone
The loincloth is PP Cygnus Yellow, Sepia’d. I painted over the Steel Legion Drab I had here, as I want my Star Players to have the yellow compared to the pink on the regular team.

The skin is more complicated. I started with a layer of Sepia, wiping away the excess with a finger from the highest points on the model. Then I mixed GW Bloodletter (glaze) and Drakenhof 2:1 to make a semi-purple wash. I painted this in thin layers along the bottom of each “semi circle” in his muscles, and in the areas of shadow in his armpits and on his left side where the arm and his side are close to each other. I did this twice, and then finished with a thin layer of just the Drakenhof in the very deepest recesses. I did a quick drybrush with Dheneb Stone over the tips of the fur.

This is still just a work-in-progress post because I got pulled away by a baby, but he’s pretty close!

Featured Images

40k – Orks – Gorkamorkanaut, just the arm

Posted on October 14, 2017

I finished the arm, because I wanted to be inspired enough to finish the whole model, and the whole model is rather intimidating in it’s largeness, given that I’ve barely been able to find time to paint single models for a bit. The arm turned out amazing!

The airbrush is magic, because everything else on this thing is super simple once I got it right.

The cables are GW Blazing Orange. Then they are GW Troll-slayer Orange, which is very similar, but has the property of being available where the latter does not (I ran out). A little sepia, a little highlighting up and I have nice neon cables.
The metal is just GW Mithril Silver (and again, GW Runefang Steel because I ran out…), Sepia’d all over, then Nuln’d in the recesses and then Nuln’d again where I wanted more contrast.
The blue is, obviously, airbrushed, and then a little Nuln in the recesses to deepen those, and I sponged on Runefang along a few edges and then…

WABAM, all done. Awesome looking arm. So easy!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Skaven – Kreek the Verminator

Posted on October 11, 2017

Again, with Foodbowl coming up, I need more Skaven Star Players. I set out to find a conversion for Kreek, the Verminator. There are an awful lot of Rat Ogre models in the world, and 90% of them are not my cup of tea. Most of them look like they were sculpted in the 80s, which is not an aesthetic I like.

The good ones are: the 2 Island of Blood models, the Screaming Bell model, and the Stormfiend models. I’m already using one of the IoB models, the one that would be most appropriate for Kreek since his concept art in the book looks a little cybernetic. I didn’t want to use the other IoB ogre, just because I’m stubborn that way. I set out to find either the Bell ogre or 1 Stormfiend, because I didn’t want to buy a $80 box just for this model. A friend ended up selling me the Bell ogre, which is great because it’s a great model, but part of me think the Stormfiend would have been a better conversion (despite initially thinking the Bell ogre was better).

I turned his head forward so he’s looking at his target, and put a ball on the end of the chain, and put the cork into his hand where the full model is gripping the Screaming Bell cart. This rat ogre has a Ball and Chain on the field, so he’s going to join my power lineup to beat the crap out of my opponents in Foodbowl!

Featured Images

Blood Bowl – Skaven – Fezglitch

Posted on October 8, 2017

When I was last playing Skaven, I decided I wanted to make the Star Player Fezglitch in case I got enough inducements. He’s a Plaguemonk with Ball and Chain and Festering Prescence and just seems awesome. With Foodbowl coming up next month, and the Commissioner dropping the restriction of only allowing 2 Star Players, Fezglitch is one of 3 who will be joining my Skaven team this year!

He was pretty simple —

Zamesi Desert skin, mixed up with Dheneb Stone. Sepia a couple times to bring it down, then Zamesi up again
The cloak was P3 Cygnus Yellow, mixed with GW White Scar up and then Sepia’d done and wiped away in places. I used GW Waywatcher Green in the folds and along certain lines to make it look a little more gross.
Warpstone Green and the Waywatcher Green in the crystal and fire for a plaguey fire thing. Not my finest work.

I wanted yellow rats to look different from my regular pink team, but I think the yellow doesn’t look great. The skin is yellow enough, so it’s not a big contrast from the skin, despite me trying to make it more contrasty. And my fire regularly sucks, so my plague fire sucks more.

Work-in-progress

Orks – Gorkamorkanaut

Posted on October 5, 2017

I went from 0 painting projects to 5 on my desk, within the span of a week. I played a game of 40k, which inspired me to work on some killa kans I found in my bitz box. I also assembled 10 grots to fill the 3-Troop minimum I needed for the army.

But then I realized I should finish what I started — the gorkamorknaut has been looming in my ork case for a year and a half. After last we saw this model, I painted it a watered down silver, blue and orange and then had a game with it and realized it was shit, and looked like shit and left it alone for a long time. With 8th ed out, Orks are in a great place and this guy is looking awesome and feeling awesome and deserves some more love. Here’s a photo of where I left it.

I sent that photo to Clayton, who suggested I pull out my airbrush and do it in similar colours to the rest of my ork army, which meant a lot less silver. And since I moved, airbrushing is a lot easier — I have a deck I can do it on, instead of needing to pull everything down into the apartment parking lot and being super awkward and cold. I promptly masked a bunch of stuff, pulled out my blues and went to town!

After I was done, I was feeling pretty good about the whole process. Airbrushing isn’t as difficult as I think it is! I can do this!

…why the fuck is this piece highlighted upside down?!?!! 🙁 🙁 🙁 With the masking tape on, I had mistaken bottom for top and this is where I got. I pulled all the airbrush stuff out again after work and tried to fix it. Unfortunately, because it was a little cold and because I only had the one piece to paint, the paint wasn’t drying as quickly as my patience needed it to, and so I ended up with this strange speckled pattern from paint being blown around. I thought it looked kind of cool…and then I tried to put another layer over it which gave the arm almost a complete sharp edge where I’d previously had a speckled gradient. God damnit. I put the piece down, hoping it wasn’t as bad as it looked, and put my stuff away and went to bed.

Woke up early this morning, looked at the arm and no, it looked like shit. Baby was still sleeping, which was odd, but fortunate so I pulled all the airbrush stuff out again and repainted the arm a third time. I started to worry that it was getting to thick in layers, but I think I’d rather to thick than shittily highlighted!

Here’s a photo of all of the pieces all done, with the masking tape still on the arm, and it is properly highlighted.

I did a quick sepia wash on the klaw arm and edge highlighted the head to see how I liked it, then put it all together to check it out. Looking good!

Funny story about the kustom force field — somewhere inside the naut is a magnet that the KFF sticks to. I can’t find or figure out where I glued that magnet so that the KFF would stand on the outside! (just realized my old photos from a year ago show where it goes :P)

Looking forward to finishing this guy! (but a couple other projects have priority, for reasons you’ll see)

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