Still Alive...

When I first started this blog the one thing I wanted to make sure I did was keep it up to date.  The best blogs are the blogs that update on a regular basis, in my opinion.   Real life however, as it frequently does, had a different plan in mind.

The main thing that happened was that I was involved in a car wreck.  Everyone is fine, which is the most important thing, but my car isn't.  I have a totalled car and live(d) 50 miles from where I work.  That was obviously a problem so I had to move with no advanced notice which was a real pain.  Now most of that stuff is getting straightened out but I had to put my gaming purchaces on hold due to the unexpected financial expense.  I did finally order my copy of Metamorphosis and it should be here by tomorrow or Friday.

I have mixed feelings about what I've been hearing.  It sounds as though the Skorne didn't get just a nudge in the right direction, but got shoved into Awesome Land. The new stuff looks really exciting and very powerful.  That's the problem though.  I've always been a fan of the underdog, that was one of the reasons I chose the Skorne to begin with.  Now, without having put in my time when they were weak, it looks like the Skorne are going to be very competitive.

I wanted to play an army that people didn't get to play often and now it seems like the Skorne could become very popular, at least for awhile as people try out the new stuff.  Since I'm apprehensive now I'm wondering if I should wait and see how things pan out for a bit.  If I'm going to bail for another army I'd rather do it when I'm only $40 in instead of spending more money that will end up being wasted.

On a positive note my girlfriend seems interested in playing.  She read the descriptions of the armies and the two that sounded interesting to her were the Cryx and the Circle Orboros; she's got good taste.  I think she's leaning more towards Circle at the moment.  Once she decides I'll order the warpack for her and we'll get some boxed games in.  I thinks she's going to try her hand at painting too, but I'll probably assemble them for her because for me that is the least fun and most frustrating thing to do and I don't want her getting turned off before she even gets to play a game. 

Simple Wet Pallet

My first attempts at painting didn't go so well and mostly it was because of the paint. I was using a plastic pallet at the time and when I would put the paint on the pallet I would only have about 10 or 15 minutes before it would start drying out. Then I heard about wet pallets. I found out how to make one and it's worked wonders.

I can work with the same paints for days at a time. The only issue is after a day of non-use the paint and water that I mix with it start to separate but after a little bit of re-mixing the paint is good to go again. The best part: You can make one for under $5.


This is what you'll be putting your paint on. You can find it in the grocery store for less than $2 a roll. Make sure you don't get wax paper; wax paper stops all moisture and it won't work for a wet pallet.


This is a cheap pencil/pen holder I got from the dollar store. You could use a lot of different things; those reusable Gladware containers would work good. Whatever you use make sure it doesn't leak and I would use something with a lid.


To use your wet pallet you need to take some paper towels and fold them to fit in the bottom of your container. For mine I use two paper towels folded in half which gives me four layers of paper towels at the bottom. After that just add water. You want to use enough to make sure the entire paper towel is soaked and then add just a little extra. Finally, cut a piece of parchment paper to fit in your container and put it on top of the paper towels. The paper will curl up at the edges; all you need to do is push them down a few times and they'll stay down. That's it. Happy painting!

Work in Progress - Titan Gladiator

I finally started painting my Titan Gladiator today. So far I've finished the skin areas and figured I would post some pics. All in all it took about and hour and a half to finish this much.












I started with a base coat of GW Shadow Grey. I really like this color because it's kind of bluish in color which looks really good. I did two coats of this using a 1:1 mixture of paint and water.



This is after the final highlights have been added. I stuck with the Shadow Grey but mixed in a single drop of GW Codex Grey for each successive highlight. I used three layers of highlights on the base coat.
















I found that working on the Gladiator was much easier than Morghoul. The large areas took time to cover but were easier to work with. On a large model like this it's easier to see the muscular definition which makes adding highlights much easier. I also left the shoulder armor and the tusks off to make painting easier.

I'll probably start on the armor tonight or tomorrow and I will post pictures as soon as I can.

Introducing Master Tormentor Vold....uh...Morghoul

I decided to go with a different paint scheme for this army. I know, I set my blog to match traditional Skorne colors, but I think that works better than trying to read a blog written in green, white, gold and silver.

One thing I learned from painting this model is that it's better to do multiple thin coats of paint if you have the patience; the detail comes out better and the colors look richer. I didn't take my own advice when applying the metal colors. When drybrushing you can't use thin paint, but if you see the miniature in person the metals on the mask and claws look thicker than the paint everywhere else. I use about a 1:1 mix of paint and water currently. The first layer hardly covers any of the black primer but the color starts to build up pretty quickly if you keep at it.


One thing I'm going to do differently in the future is use darker greens. On this model I used the greens I had at the house: snot green and goblin green. In the future I would like to start with Dark Angels green and transition to a snot green highlight to give the model a darker look overall. I also went with a dark gray skin color; I'm not sure if I like it. It looks fine, but I don't think it provides enough contrast to the rest of the model. I might change that in the future.

This is the base I created for Morghoul. It was really easy. I bought some craft sand from Michaels for less than $2 to use for the base. The rock is made from a piece of cork tile.






I started with a base coat of GW Tallarn Flesh. I went over that with a wash of GW Ogryn Flesh wash. My first highlight was a dry brushing of GW Tausept Ochre followed by a final highlight of GW Bleached Bone. I haven't tried any of the P3 paints but I've heard good things about them. If anyone has anything to say about them, good or bad, let me know.

Blogging inconsistencies

I'm learning that when you blog you share as much information as you think would be interesting with people. What that means is you're leaving certain things out; things that might lead to confusion down the road.

I was reading through my blog finding some mistakes that I didn't catch earlier and realized that in my Jan 25th post I said I was done with Morghoul. Then in a post today I said I am going to try and finish Morghoul tomorrow. Huh?

What actually happened is I finished Morghoul but I wasn't quite satisfied with some of the choices I made so I started to re-paint parts of him. At this time this re-painting is still in progress and I'd still like to go back and work on some more details.

Pictures coming tomorrow

I took some pictures of my mostly finished Morghoul tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to install the requisite software, upload the pictures and get them hosted. I don't own a good digital camera so I used my friend's digital camcorder to take some pictures; I hope they turn out all right.

I'm going to finish Morghoul tomorrow while I'm at it since I'll probably have time to get some painting done. I'd like to start on my Titan Gladiator too.

Speaking of photo hosting; does anyone have anything to suggest? I used to use Village Photo to host old pictures for forum avatars not too long ago, but I haven't tried any other websites so there may be something better. Where do you host your photos?

Cyclops Savages: 1 - Me: 1

Well, these Cyclops Savages are proving to be a real pain. I've finally got one assembled, after a little gap filling it will be ready to prime.

The second Savage however is just completely messed up. I have the right arm and the hands/weapon piece assembled but the left arm piece isn't going to fit. It's so far off that I can't just get it close and then fill in some gaps with greenstuff and do some minor sculpting to make it look right. This fix is going to have to involve cutting the arm apart and using wire and greenstuff to completely reshape the angle of the arm.

I was considering dropping one of the Savages for a Krea on the way to 500 points and this is probably going to make the decision for me.

I did finish painting Morghoul. I've finished a base for him too but the slot isn't big enough so I'll need to file Morghoul's tab to get him to fit. I'm not going with the normal red/black/gold color scheme that is normal for Skorne. I've decided to go with a green/white/silver/gold scheme instead. I'll try to get some pictures posted soon to show my progress.

Getting Small

I had the idea of this blog for a couple of months but I wasn't sure I wanted to do it. Then I was listening to the Iron Agenda podcast and they mentioned a blog called Getting Small. I checked it out and saw that is was pretty much the same idea I had but it's been around since October.

I really like reading this blog, it's well written and, most importantly, updated frequently. The blog follows Cereal John's adventures with the Protectorate of Menoth. It's a good read and I would suggest reading it even if you have no interest in the Protectorate.

http://newtowarmachine.blogspot.com/

Gearing up

I'm finally getting some paint on my models. I'm about 80% done with Morghoul, I would have been finished but one of the paints I was going to use dried out since the last time I used it so I'll have to get some more. I wanted to try glaze medium for the first time but I bought the wrong kind so I need to return it to Michaels and get the right stuff.

I still haven't finished assembling the Cyclops Savages. They're taunting me....

I hope to have them assembled by next weekend, if not painted, so that I can drive to Tampa to play my first game.

Skorne are the Jack Bauer of Hordes

So maybe they're not the Jack Bauer of Hordes, but they sure are into torture. I'm starting to learn this as I try to assemble my models.

Currently I'm working on the warpack which contains Morghoul, a Titan Gladiator and two Cyclops Savages. Morghoul was easy. The Titan wasn't too bad but he did require a lot of gap filling. There was a gap about a quarter of an inch on his front torso that I had to fill and I had to sculpt some new ropes to hold up his gut armor.

The real torture are the Savages. Getting the arms lined up so they all fit correctly has proven to be a huge pain. I'm trying not to glue them onto the body since it would make painting hard, I'll probably end up having to pin all of the pieces together. I hate pinning.

And the answer is...

Ok, so it wasn't a huge surprise, I chose the Skorne. Why play Skorne you ask?

I spent a lot of time looking at all of the factions. I read the books, looked at forums, read everything I could at the Battle College and listened to every episode of Fell Calls. There's a ton of information to sift through when choosing an army.

I took my time because I'm notorious for changing my mind when it comes to choosing an army/race/class in games that give me options. Don't get me wrong, I love options, but they cause a lot of indecision on my part. After weeks of reading, listening and thinking about what I wanted to play I had it narrowed down to three possible factions: Cryx, Circle Orboros or Skorne.

There was a lot in each of those factions that appealed to me. What ended up being the deciding factor though was the fact that Skorne seems very underplayed. From the many posts that I've read and a poll on the Dakka Dakka forums Skorne is the least popular army among the main factions. This appealed to me because I thought it would be nice to fill a niche and give my opponents the opportunity to play against something they might not get to play often.

Then again I might just show up at the local friendly gaming store only to find out Skorne isn't so unpopular in this area.

Introductions

Seeing as how this is my first blog post I'll start with some pertinent information.

First of all I am new to Warmachine/Hordes. I've been interested in them for quite some time. In fact, I bought the Hordes book when it first came out, but until now, due to real life situations and other hobbies, I haven't taken the plunge.

If you're looking for great tactical insight this isn't going to be the blog for you, at least not for a long time. If, however, you're interested in following my journey in this game from the beginning I hope you stick around.

So I'm new, and I have a passing knowledge of the rules, but as someone who prefers to learn games by playing them I've got a lot to look forward to. That's all before I even start thinking about trying to win a game.

I have to wrap my head around the rules which I'll do mostly by playing the game. I also have to buy, assemble and paint an army before I can even play a game. Well, I have to do the first two at least, I'm not going to rush a paint job just to field a painted army, but I'm also not going to get stuck in the habit of playing a primed army forever.

But first, I have to choose what army to play. What will I choose? Hmmm.....