after seeing your clear bases "in action", so to speak, i'm wondering if i should just forego basing everything with GW black discs and go with the CAD's...no muss or fuss trying to come up with interesting bases! seeing as how the vast majority of my models aren't even painted yet, it would be a simple trick...how much were the CADs?

couple of things:
the junk pile looks great, but the straight lines cut into the tile look off to me...maybe you will be adding sand or something to the base, but i would like to see that straight line broken up.

awesome find on the aquarium display! (i love checking the clearance section for stuff--found all my textured plasticard on clearance at hobby lobby--nothing like paying $2.41 for somethign that retailed originally for $6.99!) you could always dremel the starfish off, green stuff it into an impact crater/scar (the shot that took the plane down), or cover it with plasticard 'scrap', if the alien plant thing doesn't work out.

Yeah, I really like the clear acrylics. The only thing I would suggest is watch out putting them on unpainted models as it would be pretty easy to mess them up But yeah, its super easy to put them on something, saving so much time over doing the custom scenic bases like I was doing before.

I got those from Litko, $15 for 100 25mmx1.5mm bases. The 40mms were more expensive but you usually don't need quite as many of those. The craftics #33 was $5 or less, and I got some epoxy for metal stuff and that was only 2 bucks. You might find some acrylics on eBay cheaper, possibly a company called back2base-ix or something like that. I know they're cheaper for non US buyers potentially, not as sure about us I already ordered the litko stuff.

Ooh speaking of which, Litko does have a 20% off black friday/cyber monday sale

I was trying to make it look like the machine has started sucking up the floor tiles and just a few were left in front of it, but it doesn't look 100% I agree. I was gonna add sand, I may still before its over.

I really like the crashed plane, its a good size to block LoS to anything that isn't huge, and could be used as an objective. I was figuring to paint the starfish and seaweeds as various alien plants... but I haven't even started working on it and I may end up doing as you say before its over

Miniature Market black friday?! I'm so happy I didn't know about any of that. Glad to see your excitement for Deadzone never weakens, only gets stronger. Can't wait to see what else you are gonna come up with for that game.

Keep up the awesome work

Oh some of the black friday sales go on till cyber monday you know

Yep, seeing some people get their stuff really has me pumped up to start working on mine. Gonna be a bit yet, supposed to start shipping courier orders on wednesday and I'm sure it'll still take awhile after that.

I've got some enforcers coming to get started on early though Just have to finish my junk pile first!


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Here's what I've got for progress tonight:



Sprayed the knight and part of the junk pile with Minitaire snow white. Then the junk pile got hit with some irradiated yellow, and a light spray of yellow ghost tint. The yellow ghost tint did virtually nothing to the yellow, but we could expect that given they're very very similar in tone. Ghost tint would be more for spraying over white to make yellow, not over yellow Or well something pre-shaded with white/grey/black. Will try that sometime.

Now I've gotta decide what to do with the junk pile next. All of that yellow is all but begging for black stripes... Not sure if I'm digging that or not though. And I've got to decide if I want to mask off the yellow and keep spraying, or just make a switch to the brush now instead of later.

Oh yeah, those marines that are out of focus are 7/10 of the last batch of marines. 3 to go and all I've got left are the zombies. Will have to figure something out for the 60mm base for the zombies. Maybe put the individuals on clear acrylics and set them on the old display base.. dunno.

More tomorrow if I get half a chance.

The junk portal cracked me up and I am undoubtedly going to use that idea for something. The entire concept is just so funny to me because a very long time ago I worked with the clowns that jammed it up. Spoiler so I don't 'junk' up your thread:

Heh, that's pretty priceless. So they had 2-3 floors worth of junk chute stuffed with junk? And you had to reattach your bits outside just to dismantle the thing? That is ridiculous

Got a little more work done, some basecoats on the junk bits. Gotta go do some more or I'm gonna fall behind and miss my deadline somehow.

Still waiting on Miniatures market order to arrive so I can at least work on some enforcers while I wait for deadzone. Supposedly it was one day shipping and I got a shipping notification on sunday sooo... tomorrow? Fingers crossed. Back to the painting station.

how's your junk pile coming along? i can't wait until Skalk posts people's projects on the contest thread so i don't have to try to hunt them down on each person's thread/s...

Hum, tbh that yellow looks like a "radiation" yellow, it looks pretty sickly and harm inducing, I wouldn't ruin the effect with some black hazzard stripes. You could try layering some green near the end of the yellow to increase the radiation look.

Thanks for the laught Skalk hilarious

@Sumbish I've got most of the base coats done, just didn't have the inclination to take WIP shots last night. I've gotta do a few more layers here and there to get things smoother, and then start weathering it. I don't think It's going to make me 100% happy before I'm done, but I've got a lot of hobby stuff going on soon and I need to push to get done.

@TDL yellow is staying, hazard stripes get done enough by other folk. There will be some black and metal showing from wear and damage, but no stripes.

I've also decided to omit the corpse/skeleton. I don't think it would have added much and I didn't want to have to work my idea around one.


In other news, my Deadzone package has had a shipping label made, although I'm not allowed to jump up and down giggling until the page actually says it's been shipped. I'm still thinking I'll have my stuff by sometime next week, but only if it ships this week. 2-3 more days for that to happen so its fairly possible

Since I was jealous of the other DZ backers who got in on the early test shipment, I ordered some enforcers from Miniatures Market during their black friday sale so I could get a head start too. I should be able to make 5/6 of my initial enforcers strike team out of the box, so I'll be able to get to work on the plague sooner. I also ordered some forge father metal kits, so now my boys will have access to heavy weapons and proper flamers. The shabby design of the "hush gun" hasn't been sitting well with me, and these guys were fairly cheap I've got a kickass corporation major general too. I'll be taking shots of all of this and "unboxing" it all as I usually do, for fun.

Hopefully Madame Babyington goes to be fairly early tonight and I can take another crack at my junk pile and get some more WIP shots.


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Bah, too tired to get much done tonight. Gonna drag my newest acquisitions downstairs to the hobby dungeon, and stare really hard at my junk pile and hope some kind of instinctive painting reflex kicks in =/

First impressions of my Miniatures Market Mantic haul... these enforcers look big. I think my poor space marines are gonna get bullied around. Will take some pictures as I get the chance. Both dwarf units seem to be all there at least somewhat, from a cursory examination. Drakkarim are all metal, stormrage are all uhh. I didn't look either plastic or restic. The only bummer so far is that my damn corporation major general appears to have gotten his tiny little cigar smashed. So I don't know if I should attempt to bend it in place... fear that's a lost cause... may have to carefully cut it away and then potentially fix that little tiny bit of the face. May not show up too much either.

Looking at the arm joints for these enforcers... it would almost be a crime not to magnetize them. I don't foresee the need for a lot of swaps... but its a small elite force, dynamic pose-ability seems important

Hopefully more tomorrow or at least over the weekend. We haven't gotten the full go-ahead, but may be able to move some furniture this weekend, so the moving thing will be happening sooner than later (and hopefully not disrupting the hobby action too much).

More later, happy hobbying!

Got out early a bit today due to some icky freezing rain. Managed to do a little more hobbying, but of course I forgot to snap anymore shots of the junk pile =/

So here's my latest non-deadzone hobby supply drop, or as I like to call it... my re-enforcerment:


10 metal forge fathers to mix in with my 10 assembled and 20 spare scifi-bits (ordered them when I got some extra warpath bases that I no longer need, and some corp arms etc..) that can make 20 more steel warriors out of my mantic dwarfs... which will give me 4 10 dwarf steel warrior sections with a heavy weapon and flame thrower. Aww curses! I've just *now* figured out that steel warriors can only has flamers and missile launchers =/ Ahh well, that's got potential to change before I ever end up using them anyway. Surely I can work something out. 30 steel warriors, 5 drakkarim, 5 storm rage veterans... Well... that's 35 forge fathers to make 4 units out of (to take advantage of 4 dragons breath flamers)... I guess I could do 3 units of 10, and one unit of 5 (can still take a flamer at that size). I'll have to do some thinking about missile launchers later, and the stormrage vets will just stay together and bolster my lines with some split firing anti infantry and anti tank heavy support. Good enough.

And of course I got the enforcers and those seem gravy. They are sooo tall, actually look like super humans in powered armor, space marines look too short and stocky now. I haven't taken a really close look, but I'm pretty sure the stogie for my warpath corporation major general is definitely trashed. Rest of him looks ok, but I'm not looking forward to sawing off his integrated base... metal... shudder.


Here's the enforcer kit unboxed. The two little baggies are the arms and heads. As I thought, this is the restic enforcer strike team kit with two metal missile launchers and arms, and one metal burst laser with arms (you already get one restic burst laser in the kit). The set also comes with a pistol and wrist blade arm set, 5 heads/torsos/legs (3 sculpts/poses for each of torso and legs, not sure about heads yet). There are 5 sets of left/right arms, the hands are attached to the rifles and burst laser. I'm assuming I've got either one or two rifle arm poses x2-4, and the one burst laser pose. Since I've got a burst laser enforcer or two coming in the second shipment, I probably won't need the metal BL arms right away (if ever).

The thing I've gotta decide now is how I want to divvy up the restic burst laser and heavy rifle arms. I want to make at least one into a fusion gun, and I need to snag a right arm to convert for the energy fist sergeant. I'll have 3 enforcers needing arms (metal missile launcher and assault arms count for two) and have to cannibalize one set to make the energy fist... so that leaves 4 sets of arms for 3 enforcers. Fusion gun, rifle, rifle, and.... Either make the burst laser now so I'll have one (not sure if I'd use one a lot though), or save it for another gun conversion (need to figure out whats up with the model for the thermal rifle).

The models do have mold lines, but they aren't terrible or poorly placed as far as I'm concerned. They do take awhile to clean, as I'm actually using a brand new blade to cut the lines away, rather than back drag or file. Plastic would clean up faster and easier, but I'm only going to be doing so many Deadzone minis at a time... should be fine. Also, I'll elaborate a bit for those who aren't following deadzone themselves. The enforcers are obviously a faction in both warpath and deadzone, and have had a kit in warpath for awhile. Some people complain of knobbly knees or weak ankles, but I don't really see it. These problems were supposedly fixed in the Deadzone iteration, but I can't really tell the difference at the moment. Anyway, getting sidetracked... After Deadzone funded, they decided they had enough money to work a few of the kits into hard plastic instead of restic, which is great. It will really help them out for warpath, and the models will quite likely be superior. However, the first results of the tooling process for these hard plastic enforcers (they were one of 3 kits to make it to hard plastic) were unacceptable and rejected. Mantic is hoping to have the hard plastic sorted out by second shipment etc... This leaves us all short of enforcers because over half of our guys were figured into the hard plastic kit. Some of the new deadzone sculpts for specialists and leaders were always going to be and stay restic, so we get those, but our basic troopers aren't coming. So we all get a bag of restic warpath enforcers instead. Its only 5 guys instead of 8 or something, but enforcers are super expensive and you only need a handful for a normal deadzone game. That's why I bought these guys, they're the same exact thing, but I could get ahold of them a wee bit earlier End rambling, more pictures to follow.

So I put one enforcer together instead of diligently working on my junk pile:


Here he is held together with blue tack, shown with a few models for scale. The space marine still wins out on bulk, but the enforcer is head and shoulders taller than him, these dudes are big.


As I was cleaning the bits, I noticed that the joins for the arms to the body were the perfect size for magnets! For such a small elite force, how could I resist? So yeah, these guys will be getting magnets, or at least some of them. Shown here with a corporation marine and an older metal dark angel (don't have many marines on flat bases).


And here he is with a slightly different pose menacing said space marine. I'm glad the neck worked out, it would be very easy to get the magnet in either the chest or neck off just a bit and have him staring at his feet or the air. As it is, he's looking up just a little bitty bit more than I would have chosen if I had glued him, but this is a worthy sacrifice to allow for cheeky poses! At least as far as I'm concerned


Speaking of silly poses, here the enforcer has 'borrowed' a space marine arm sans the bulky shoulder pad. The arms are actually pretty close in size and proportion. Obviously the marine armor is a bit smoother and less angular than the enforcer, but this could almost work.


The assault blade wasn't doing it for him, so he upgraded. Of course now we have a mostly truescale model with oversized weapons, but y'know, whatever

Will probably get back to painting when I get half a chance, and will work on some more enforcer action too!

I know it sounds a bit strange but with the angular armour plates he could pass for a krrot in power armour?

Wow, they are TALL. Almost too tall! I guess the armour would add a few inches all round, and the guys that can interface with the armour are carriers of a particular genotype that might also result in being abnormally tall, but they look a bit excessive next to the corporation trooper! Though he is also bigger than I expected, looks like he'd be pretty beefy even when sized up with a mantic marauder. Any comparison shots with Forgefathers? (Since I own a unit or two of them!)

I think the enforcers are supposed to be super human. Potentially grown, or at least modified, to be that big. That is how big a space marine should be compared to an imperial guardsman. Unfortunately the space marine is the same height as the corporation marine (and the same height as a guardsman), which is part of why I have trouble looking at my marines lately

I do have some forgefathers around, next time I'm down in the hobby dungeon I'll make it a priority Gotta hang out with Madam Babyington for awhile first though.


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Gasp and scandal! I've gotten nothing done! Baby was particularly difficult tonight so I'm too tired to be productive, instead I blew off some steam with FTL and even got the crystal cruiser finally

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to better work hobby time in, although Babyington and I are liable to drive eachother nuts. I wouldn't say we're snowed in exactly, but it looks to be icy enough that I won't want to risk driving sans emergency.

Till later, happy hobbying!

Holy crap! I've just about got snowed in today! Something like 9-12 inches. I know some people get way more, but we usually get pissy little 1-3 inch snows around here.

On a vaguely hobbyish note... Trying to decide if I want to glue the integrated mantic base to the nail instead of the foot. Then I could paint it all and cut the integrated base off later, and have a nice clean underfoot for mounting to the acrylic base. Gotta man handle the painted mini for this though... May be easier to clip it off during the build phase and glue the foot directly to the nail like I have been... Thoughts?

i say clip off the base now, before painting. the clear acrylics look slick, and if you decide to use the now-not-integrated bases for some future project, you may want them to be pristine and unpainted.

The little mini ones around the feet? They're impossible to salvage, at least for me. Best I could do is make them into rubble. Having said that, I do agree with the order. Would be rough mangling the base off of a painted mini.


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Here are some more images. Da Boss wanted a scale shot with forge fathers so here they are, be aware the dwarfs are on a 1.5 mm shorter base.



Even taller than that terminator! Maybe that brings some hope for the terminators being some kind of better scaled less advanced powered armor for my warpath universe stuff? Who knows.


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And now some shots of my junk pile. I'm actually kind of furious, I took a nice one of the side to show my progress on battle damage, and it didn't end up being in my phone's gallery. Scratching my head (in rage) about that one...


Wires need more work, two haven't been touched and the others aren't smooth yet. The boxes at the top and bottom I think I'll leave yellow, and I'll cover up the fact that I wasn't originally gonna paint them yellow (note how it isn't a solid coat), with battle damage and wear.


Just about Everything has had a basecoat. Some of them will need another layer or two before weathering/damage. I'm mad at my metallics right now...The regular vallejo model/game metals i have are too thick, but watering them down makes them ineffective, and the two brands of airbrush paint metallics I have are too runny as well.

I see a couple of things that are still just undercoated, and a few things (like that canister up top with the white) that will need a bit of work. I wanna either make it look like its got a fluid in it, or its cracked glass. May fail miserably given my timeframe

got some good looking junk, there...(someone had to say it) you are going to kick my a$$ in the contest. i just slapped together some stuff, whereas yours is obviously well thought out.

can't wait to see the weathering effects you use...do you use the airbrush for that as well? i read something once that you could use eye shadow to do weathering effects, so that's what i used on my junk pile (got a set with 12 colors for $1 at dollar tree)...some of the eye shadow i got was a bit metallic, it seemed, so i wasn't really pleased with all of the weathering (thought the frdige looked pretty awesome, though).

Well thought out? I think that's you, bub. You're the one who had a sketch drawn out ahead of time! I just mashed stuff together until I ran out of room But sshhhh, if the judges don't know that...

For this I just used the airbrush for the yellow. I'm pretty bad at using the gun for anything beyond basecoats, its a tough skill for me to advance. I intend to work on my airbrush skill this winter, but we'll see.

Gonna have to look into some dust/rust weathering, most of my experience is with the chipping/scratches like on my space marines. That's what the missing picture would have shown of the side of the portal thing.

OK baby is getting fussy better goooo-


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Boom! Finally managed to get the junk pile's current "good side". More weathering like that to come for anything that is painted. And a more recent painting escapade has me thinking down the road for some oil and rust stains/drips. Still got a ways to go and only a week to do it in.

Fortunately, I'm out of enforcers to paint until I get the other 4 assembled or I strip this next guy. What do you folks think?




He wouldn't be that shiny, I just didn't want to dust him with matte sealer unless I decided to keep him that way. I'm not sure, I need to sleep on it and search my feelings a bit. Some things like the blue bit on the chest, the assault blade, the eyes, even the metal power cord for the wrist blade, and the tiny bit of metal on the back where the jetpack outputs... Those were fairly last minute just to give it a sense of completion, and subject to change.

The real question is... Do the orange and dark purple work with eachother? Even if they do, is that ok for the model they're on? Looks almost like a dirty version of some 40k Eldar craftworld. I wanted my enforcers to look like not-goodguys, because they are definitely NOT there to save the day by any means... But I think I may have stepped past not-good and gone to super villain! Thoughts people? I hate stripping mostly finished models (don't put too much thought into that, keep it clean!), but I don't want to base my entire enforcer faction on a lark!

Originally the orange was going to be paired with the same dark grey/black that my corporation marines use on their armor. As it stands... I'm thinking that maybe one of those colors is fine, either one. But he seems almost too colorful for a hard scifi setting. Also, I think I did the colors backwards. Should I invert the orange and purple? Or perhaps... I should invert the orange, but replace the purple with grey/black. That would more closely mirror the current enforcer scheme in terms of color placement.

How about the orange? Is it too bright for eebil enforcers? Should it perhaps be a darker red tone? As in, darker red armor plates and grey/black recessed armor bits?

Guess I'll have to put another one together soon so I can figure things out

Got some more work done on the Junk Pile. Still need to finish the wires on back, do some highlighting, probably some more washes here and there as I work my way around. Probably need to figure something out with the red clay dirt area where the tiles got ripped up. Not sure what. Either switch it to another color or do... something with it. Anyways, pictures:


Can't see a lot from this angle really. The chips and scratches are meant to imply damage revealing some form of coating or undercoat, and then bare metal. Definitely helps to break up the yellow, I think.


Still might be the best side. The yellow got a black wash or two, left thick in places to help give a dirtier feel. Well, everything got a black wash or two, really. The larger rectangular panels now show metal through in some places, guess that means they were painted sheet metal, maybe from the walls. The dark blue/purple down the sides of a couple of pieces and on the base is meant to be an oil/lubricant/fluid that has since leaked out of the crushed pipes. Must be think and or resilient as it has left something of an impression behind even after some time has passed. This was a new one for me, does it work?


Still need to finish the wires. The back got a nasty black wash to help make it look dirty and less flat/plain. I think the discoloration of the yellow on the boxes looks good for this, I wish I had spotted it earlier and gone a little easier with the airbrush on the main metal part now as well.


First thing I see to fix here is that bit of yellow at the base of the yellow part (yellow blob between it and the base), it's hot glue meant to hold the heavy metal part down, but it needs hit with a different color. Still deciding. More scratches and chips over here. I used a sponge/foam to apply the damage, almost wish I had gone in a little more by hand instead. The canister top left needs more paint. I was gonna paint it like glass but I don't foresee having enough time to play with learning such a thing before I run out of time. So just a darker bit of silver.


Here's the money shot, or at least the junk shot. I tried to get a natural look to the flow out of the broken pipes onto the junk below them and finally to the ground. Dunno if it's obvious or not, the oil/discharge drip in the front is partially from the exposed wires.

I think I basically need to do what I've said, and then try to come up with some rust. The silver parts really need something to help them look like junk. Just noticed a part of that bit in the top left of the last shot that also needs a little work, it isn't meant to be all silver. I think within another couple three hours I should definitely be done here. Some highlights probably, and then research+execution of a basic rust technique.

Then it's Enforcer time baby. Happy hobbying!

The junkpile is looking great. I reckon some oily wash would work really well on it - and of course some dirt and grime in and around where the floor has been ripped up.

The enforcer is looking very nice as well. The photo on my end looks a bit more blue/dirty yellow than purple/orange, and he still looks like an Iron Man variant, but having said that, I like it!

Funny to see how tall they are, and in some funny ways the terminator actually looks more realistic in a lot of ways due to the bulk of the armour(!)

Thanks!

I'm not one to be crazy over scale or anything generally. I think the potential issue with terminators is fitting a human into the suit. The enforcer is tall, basketball player or better tall, and with a lanky build. I just think the terminator may be too wide. Actually like both, just not sure about normal mariness anymore.

The blue/purple is minitaire ghost tint oil discharge, it may be blue honestly, I'm just red/green colorblind enough to fail the dot test so sometimes I argue with people on borderline colors. And its yellow orange at best. Its orange tint but over white its almost yellow, kind of how red wash would make pink.

It does look a bit like ironman with the almost yellow. Gonna work on red/black once the junk is done.

Absolutely - a terminator needs their anatomy rearranged to fit in, the Enforcers have the same problem, but in a different way - their body parts (and heads!) need to be unnaturally thin to fit inside that armour even if it were made of hard-edged spandex, let alone an articulated, armoured suit - it's the same problem Iron Man has.

Like this, but with a shorter neck!

Yeah, seems like 28mm is hard and doesn't get done properly very often. I just appreciate the fact that enforcers are head and shoulders taller than corporation marines, the super soldiers are way bigger than the average joe war fighter. Looking at space marines and guardsmen next to each other makes me sad! And I don't have time to cut out all of the legs and add bits to the torsos of marines to "tall scale" them so I'll be throwing my weight towards Mantic's scifi humans and potentially finding new homes for my GW stuff.

It's a bit unfortunate mantic gave a couple of enforcers faces TBH, until the recon and deadzone captain, you could technically suggest that they were aliens, genetically engineered to fit, or even robots! I guess the engineered to fit may still work. Hell, maybe they're more like robo cop. Actually... I prefer to think they're just like robocop! I mean probably more meat or something but who knows.

I thought about commandeering the vehicles to give to my forge fathers, but they'll probably get really spiffy hard plastics in the kickstarter eventually.


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Alright got a bit done. I was painting but while waiting for stuff to dry I got the last of the corporation marines onto their clear acrylic bases. Here are some shots (including my almost completed junk pile)






Soooo, pretty much just more of the same. I've got 26 zombies left to base, and that'll be it for my warpath stuff.


Boom! I didn't believe them when they said the mantic white boxes made great carrying cases, but they really do. The foam keeps things from geting scratched, and the clips hold the sides together closely enough to keep models from sliding around. Glad I have a few of these, will be nice moving a small amount of models around. Theoretically, you could buy all of your mantic models by the case and stuff them all in a bag... but their best deals are cardboard army boxen

Aaaand.... I think I may have sorted out my enforcer scheme. Bear in mind this isn't done, I've been typing this as I wait for it to dry so I can apply more layers but:


Boom! Imagine the grey as almost black., just like I do for my corporation marines. Thanks to Azazelx for pointing out the fact that the armor is actually blue. I can see it now, and am glad of that.

Dark blue/ black is probably just as cool as dark red/black. Not *quite* as sinister, but y'know, it'll do. Gonna go see about finishing this guy and getting a couple more put together. The rest will obviously be lacking the tacky residual yellow peeking through on this guy, I just wanted to try out the new scheme asap.


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Got some more black wash on the grey, its more or less black now. Modified the assault blade, and picked out a couple of small things here or there. He's dusted, drying/curing a bit and then onto the clear base. Got a rocket launcher dude assembled (forgot how much I dislike doing metal gun arms!) and ready for paint.

Trying to decide if it's wiser to get all 4 ready to go and batch paint since most of the painting process is waiting for washes to dry... or just get stuck in and progress the force in a quicker-slower fashion. Get models done in a progress queue, get individuals finished sooner, but probably take longer on the squad as a whole (just a bit though probably).

I couldn't find a good set of arms for the missile launcher either. One obviously went to the burst laser but almost fit the ML better, and the ML arm was nearly a centimeter off =/ I just put it in place and pivoted it until the hand/wrist was correct, and filled in the back with copious amounts of stuff, then glue over that so its hard for painting. I don't think it looks amazing. When I get the deadzone ML guy(s), I may snap these arms off and get him a rifle or something else.

For the next 3 guys I'll be doing two standard rifle carrying enforcers, and a fusion gun if I can figure one out. Now that I know there's an actual model for it in the assault kit... kind of torn. I don't think I'm going to bother magnetizing anything else either. Just the assault/sgt guy, and I'll have to make that energy fist arm soon too.

Should be another quick update with finished pics of this guy, as I'm going down to do the base now-ish.


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Ok, the following is the final form of my test enforcer. I'm 85% certain this will be how I paint the rest of my enforcers. At least a strike teams worth. I may not paint every single enforcer from Deadzone this way, it just depends. I may do another group with red plates like I talked about. Anyway here we go, with a couple of scale shots as well:






And here's that missile launcher enforcer:

Not my favorite build ever, but he'll do for now.

Hopefully I'll get the missile guy started tomorrow and some more mold line trimming. Or finish my junk pile, that needs to happen too.

 GrimDork wrote:
Looking at space marines and guardsmen next to each other makes me sad! And I don't have time to cut out all of the legs and add bits to the torsos of marines to "tall scale" them so I'll be throwing my weight towards Mantic's scifi humans and potentially finding new homes for my GW stuff.

Awww.... that makes me sad. The way I see it with Marines and Guardsmen is that the fluff has changed around the marines more and more over the years, with their fluff-size increasing over the years like Spider-Man's strength did through the 1980s and 1990s - while at the same time the figures for both marines and guard have remained pretty much the same as they ever was - in proportion to one another at least.

It's a bit unfortunate mantic gave a couple of enforcers faces TBH, until the recon and deadzone captain, you could technically suggest that they were aliens, genetically engineered to fit, or even robots! I guess the engineered to fit may still work. Hell, maybe they're more like robo cop. Actually... I prefer to think they're just like robocop! I mean probably more meat or something but who knows.

I think... like Space Marine height, and which Alien and Highlander movies are considered "canon", the best thing is to choose the bits of fluff that you like and ignore the rest. If your enforcers are all cloned heads and spinal columns of ex-cops called "Murphy", then so be it!

I thought about commandeering the vehicles to give to my forge fathers, but they'll probably get really spiffy hard plastics in the kickstarter eventually.

Ah, keep 'em around. There's always a use for Marines and their toys!

I quite like the new Enforcer scheme. A bit more "serious" and a lot less "comic book" than the blue-yellow, with some subtle overtones of "Police/Peacekeepers/Paramilitary" I was going to suggest maybe trialling a Sillitoe Tartan band as well, but I've just read that it's not really a US thing outside of Chicago.

That junk pile still cracks me up.

I've grown kind of fond of it. Just got done sealing it, so you'll be getting pictures soon (tomorrow if I can get a moment). I may still need to add some paint to one troublesome area, and I'm about 50/50 on adding some static grass slash clump foliage to really drive that "been there forever" look home. For my first attempt at a rust effect, I'm happy with it, though I think that the rust is probably the weakest point of the various techniques employed. I also put my pigment to work to make some mud/dirt/dust and gave everything low a good dusting. I'll decide on greenery (ooh how cool would it be for some of it to be growing out of the pipes ) tomorrow, though its a bit late in the game and everything else is done and sealed.. so its just a thought at this point. Then I'll try and fix those two wee problem areas, and get some good photos. Perhaps daylight if it's nice and sunny.

In other hobby news, still no Deadzone shipment notification. Still possible I could get it this week, but I wonder. I think they've already started shipping packages that were not paid courier (courier was meant to go out first, but then royal mail failed and they had to send everything courier, although they still implied that they'd be going with the original order) so I'm a bit miffed mine has not been shipped yet. Perhaps coming out later in the queue will help reduce the number of mispicks/packs, but I have a feeling I'll be getting a few with the size of my shipment. Oh well, it'll come soon and I've still got 4 enforcers on which to work!

Speaking of enforcers, I got the missile guy primed. I don't anticipate this scheme taking more than an hour per model, and potentially less, its really mostly drying time. Once I get dug in on the MLE, I'll start trimming and building the two rifle guys and planning the special weapon conversions.

I also got two more zombies switched to clear bases, felt like moving them along a bit.

I'll get some pictures up later, tomorrow that is, because the hour is late and the baby will likely be getting up earlier than I would like as it is. Gonna wait to post up the junk pile till the contest is over, just cause

Till then, happy hobbying folks!

Thanks for the comparison shot! (Would have commented sooner but I've been a bit floored lately)

The blue/grey scheme is really nice on the enforcer. I wonder if it isn't very dark though- maybe he could do with a slight edge highlight of a lighter blue or something?

The washes kind of leave a subtle one, camera doesn't show it particularly well. That said, I may look into it for certain bits.

Grim, if it makes you feel any better, my dead zone shipment hasn't gone out either. So I'm right there with ya. Nice job on the enforcers, can't wait to get to work on mine.

Shipping is wonky this time of year, I suspect that we'll all have it by christmas, which is what they said originally, and that's good enough. Hell if it doesn't come until late next week I'll survive, we're moving and we can't switch the utilities over and take possession until then anyway, and I'd hate to lose precious deadzone during a move!

Don't knock what you have, it looks good and the effort is noticeable. Rust is a deceptively simple technique that takes more practice that you might think. It took me a while to accomplish what I'm capable of right now, and I still need more practice to get to the results that Bruticis and monkeytroll achieve.

Yeah rust is like starcraft kind of, easy to play and have fun, but with a high skill cap. I guess panting in general really is like that, can make a really dynamic table top quality mini in an hourwith the right techniques, and be perfectly happy. Can also sspend over 20 hours on a tiny infinity figure and basically make a piece of art.

I'm happy with the junk pile, the rust chipping and stains on it will be used as a template for what I do with my DZ terrain.

In other hobby news, missile enforcer is feeling s bit blue. Needs another wash and I can start the grey. I've also got an acceptable energy fist to use for a Sgt. Now I want to think about making a defender or two after I read up on how their shotguns work. I think I can use either all or part of a space marine scout shotgun so that part should be easy. Not sure about the riot shield, probably scratch build.

Will probably flood the blerg soon with photos of me packing my hobby dungeon and redeploying it to a much more mature (eye roll) office/study (that just happens to be covered in hobby goodness!). So painted minis and deadzone massive unboxing will be a bit delayed but soon, soon!

Happy hobbying!

So, like I said, this is part of my getting stuff moved phase. We can assume possession or whatever this coming wednesday, so I've got to get on the ball moving stuff, at least furniture. Much of the hobby dungeon has been altered, several shelves have already been moved but there is much work to do in order to have my desk cleared off and transportable.

I'll probably take some pictures of the chaos and the new room as I get the chance.

I managed to half-trip and flip a small bin of enforcer parts onto the floor today. I managed to track down all 3 heads (amazing) and legs, and all 9 arms.. but only 2 torsos. I really need to find the last torso or I'm out a functional model, but I've already looked for a good 30-45 minutes with no luck. Gonna keep moving and hope to find it before I go into cleaning mode... shopvac is quite capable of friendly fire whilst engaging dust bunnies.

Still no deadzone =/, unless I'm one of the 1% they haven't supposedly got shipped out yet, I think I'll be able to at least take a shot of the box within the first couple of days next week. May wait to open it properly until I'm more moved.

Happy hobbies!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Meep, I guess I'll dump my Junk Pile contest entry photos here. Fair warning, there are 13 or so of them.













Ehh, the rest of the angles are in a spoiler:


And that's all she wrote, at least as far as me and updates are concerned for this evening.

Ufff, now that's a lot of progress since my last visit! Great work on the junk portal, it really looks something went seriously wrong

Love the enforcer's paint scheme and the models! Them thing are tall!

And best of luck with your move!

Thanks, it's getting to be a headache with this whole moving thing and all. Still gotta pack up my hobby room and then come up with a layout for the new digs.

Enforcers are *really* tall, they're almost too tall. Not quite, I like them, but really close

Hopefully a Deadzone will be declared in these environs tomorrow, or in the next few days anyway. I'm not going to be able to get started properly for a bit yet, but I'll be unable to crack the box open and have a peek Pictures of that forthcoming.

Oh, and there are lots of fancy junk piles to view on Skalk's contest post: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/563097.page

Voting is open to the public via PM to Mr. Skalk, I'll be doing some perusing later to see who gets me vote.

You did an great job on your piece and if there was a 'Make Skalk Laugh" category you'd win without a doubt. The entire concept really cracks me up (yes, still... it hasn't gotten old yet) because I can totally see the 'fluff' of two disgruntled dreg workers on an Imperial ship or in a Manufactorium or Hab-Unit just jamming it full even after it is obvious it isn't working correctly anymore and when they can't fit another thing into it they call some other dregs that are responsible for fixing it and complain how it isn't working.

I'm starting to buy that description now too. Maybe it's a waste-portal but it got jammed or full and they kept cramming more in and then they cranked it up to full power to try to get it to clear the opening which explains the floor a bit

I saw that as well. Full power = sucked the tiles right off the floor.

Idiots.


Hey, I had another idea! How about Orks w/ a Looted Waste Portal?

If they could get it switched on backwards... might serve as one of those big gunz or what cha call em.

That is brilliant!

I saw someone comment on your contest page about the junk portal, they seemed to think it was puking stuff outwards instead of sucking it up, and the floor was all torn up because of the junk coming through. I have to say I kind of like that idea It got shut down mid-process and started to rust up.


I'd post some moving picks but not having deadzone has me in a bit of a slump. I've been anticipating it's arrival with far too much enthusiasm to get it this late and not be a bit frazzled. Put in a message to mantic and briefly did some phone calling on the fedex end. Will try fedex again tomorrow. I have to stress that nothing is *technically* late yet, however it seems a lot later than it should compared to how many people already seem to have it.

I'd trim some models out of boredom/apathy but due to finicky packing, they're one of the last things left at my old house =/

Sorry you're still waiting GrimDork, you seemed really pumped for this release. I hope it's all worth it when it arrives!

Hah! That's not the best part, the best part is that I'm one of around 10/4400 folks who's shipment got "lost" for want of a better term. Somehow my number/order got overlooked or whatever, nothing ever got sent, and now they're out =/ Gonna be a while yet. There have been promises of more goodies as compensation, and 10/4400 is a pretty good rate of success I guess. Little bummed, but I understand. I figure when they get their restocks I'll be seeing my goodies. Baby crying bbl


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So hopefully in January or something. Dunno for sure, hoping they let me know a bit ahead of time so I can make room.

For now I'll be trying to finish my enforcer team (maybe just 4 if I can't find that torso when I clean the hobby dungeon) and maybe some forge fathers. Possibly that fantasy gw/mantic undead army, who knows.

Finished Junk Portal is looking good. I'd be a lot less calm and pleasant than you're being if they'd messed up my DeadZone order in the way they have yours.

I think you should take it as a sign to paint more of and keep your Space Marines. You don't need to buy more of them of course, but they've served you with loyalty for <however long>, and they deserve to be able to continue doing so!

Yeah they messed up my order too mate. Sent it to the wrong address despite me informing them of the change of address months ago. Said they would get it sorted 2 weeks ago but since then haven't replied to any of my emails.

Hope you get yours soon as possibly mate. Exicted to see what you do with it.

@Carlos, hope you get yours sorted out quickly as well!

@Azazelx Thanks, I'm pretty happy with the junk portal, and fairly enthusiastic about applying some of the rust/weathering techniques I've pioneered there on my Deadzone tiles (when they eventually do show up!).

I dunno, I'm just hemorrhaging enthusiasm for space marines and space fantasy in general these days. It comes and it goes, but I like the (admittedly under-represented) feel I get from the Warpath universe. Things probably aren't really that different...oppressive religious order and inquisitors VS oppressive council/corporations and marines/enforcers... but I'm digging the wrapper that Warpath has for it right now. Some times you want your Jedi space wizards, and sometimes you don't. I'm somewhat leaning towards the don't side right now.

It's kind of a matter of scale as well. The enforcers are a bit wonky, to be sure, but they fit well with the mantic marines and actually look like super soldiers compared with them. Given that my incoming deadzone and likely mars attacks shipments will be similarly "true-scaled" the space marines are going to be the odd ducks out.

However, I got most of my marines at a good bargain (except some things I just randomly bought in store... Chibi-Talon, I'm looking at you!), and I'm in no hurry to liquidate what fits well within a 2 foot cube of space. Probably a lot less than that, I'm counting storage/travel containers too.

If I could find an excuse to use my marines within the warpath universe, I'd probably be fairly eager to paint some up I'm working on not being too fussed about playing (because it almost never happens!), but I still have a mental connection to the two, and like to at least be able to say to myself that I *could* play with these models... if I wanted to. If I can shake that, there are plenty of paint schemes I wouldn't mind trying out on some marines. Maybe even just do a series of 5-10 man squads from various random non-existent chapters, or *gasp* maybe even known codex chapters. For fun. If it comes up

I kind of want to steal my space marine vehicles for the Forge Fathers... but I know the warpath kickstarter is coming and it will probably include much more fitting vehicles for them. My guard project in terms of GW models is dead. I have enough bits and bobs to make a squad or two of cadians, but I can't put guardsmen next to marines, no way. That's sort of what the corporation marines were for anyway. So the IG Valkyrie is probably going to get painted up in corporation colors some day, the chimera and leman russ I'm not so sure. Potentially terrainificated, potentially not. I kind of want to use the Chibi-talon as an objective/terrain for Deadzone too... but it doesn't have to match any specific faction to do that so it's fairly safe to paint it any which way.

I hope to be well compensated for the extra wait time with extra goodies and/or a less error prone box (won't be quite as much craziness going on when they get their restocks, or I should think not anyhow), and as long as I get my stuff in time to make an informed decision about the second survey, I'll live.


Thanks for popping by guys, I don't get much time to do things these days, but I still like *talking* about the hobby

Tbh I am not to concerned with them being late. I am a little annoyed that they haven't got back to me in two weeks though.

Thanks for sharing mate. I know what you mean about not getting enough time to work on it. Now my problem is different I have all the time in the world but rarely enough time where I feel physically or mentally up to doing that. So blogs like this help me enjoy the hobby when I cant take part.

 GrimDork wrote:


If I could find an excuse to use my marines within the warpath universe, I'd probably be fairly eager to paint some up I'm working on not being too fussed about playing (because it almost never happens!), but I still have a mental connection to the two, and like to at least be able to say to myself that I *could* play with these models... if I wanted to. If I can shake that, there are plenty of paint schemes I wouldn't mind trying out on some marines. Maybe even just do a series of 5-10 man squads from various random non-existent chapters, or *gasp* maybe even known codex chapters. For fun. If it comes up

I kind of want to steal my space marine vehicles for the Forge Fathers... but I know the warpath kickstarter is coming and it will probably include much more fitting vehicles for them. My guard project in terms of GW models is dead. I have enough bits and bobs to make a squad or two of cadians, but I can't put guardsmen next to marines, no way. That's sort of what the corporation marines were for anyway. So the IG Valkyrie is probably going to get painted up in corporation colors some day, the chimera and leman russ I'm not so sure. Potentially terrainificated, potentially not. I kind of want to use the Chibi-talon as an objective/terrain for Deadzone too... but it doesn't have to match any specific faction to do that so it's fairly safe to paint it any which way.

An excuse to use them? - That's easy. Enforcers from a rival corporation. Just like you could easily use, say, Sedition Wars or Hasslefree or Imperial Guard or Vic Minis figures as Corporation troopers from a different corporation. More than one corporation makes more sense than one monolithic one, and internecine conflict between different corporations from the same planet (presumably, Earth?) makes perfect sense - especially in a rush for resources and rare alien artefacts and archeotech (or whatever Mantic calls it) - for a competitive edge! Sony vs Microsoft vs Apple.

Too true Azazelx, I swear I thought I had already replied to this. Must have closed it out or gotten interrupted, happens alot these days

I actually got the notion to try out a nice dark green scheme and just bang out some Dark Angels 'cause they're nifty' to get some marines done and what not. I dunno though.

I have a real hard time looking at normal marines after visiting Veteran Sergeant's blog: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/437416.page , his marines are what is apparently called "Tall Scale". The appearance they have greatly alleviates my dislike for the proportions of your typical space marine, better poses and they stack up much better next to other GW figures.

I've already made my own rough attempt:


I think I've got a long way to go before I even come close to VS's awesome posing and the dynamism of his marines, but I feel like this is the way I would have to do marines moving forward. They just look so much bigger with a more upright pose and a bit of extension to the thighs and waist. I also like VS's use of loads of ammo and grenades to assert that these marines are equipped to be out in the field for more than a single firefight. Those bits also help to hide the waist lengthening, but they really increase the overall aesthetic in my eyes. I know some people don't like busy models, but I think it makes sense.

It's a lot of work to make marines like that though! However, I am getting away from playing somewhat, and having a bunch of kickass tall-scaled dynamic marines may be just the ticket.

I thought of incorporating skaven heads and tails for a minute, but so far I've backed down from that. Though... I may still see about combining my skaven and dark eldar. Dark Skaveermdar, they would be, designed to represent Dark Eldar and Warpath Veer'myn. Skaven have massive and ridiculous hands though, the only way that plan will survive is if I can manage the skaven heads and tails onto dark eldar bodies and get it to not look stupid. A project for... eventually...


As I get time, I've gotten the itch to do more junk piles and barricades, preferably deadzone-friendly, and I kind of want to do some more scavenged terrain too. I've got a box just full of stuff and a couple of old computers that still have components, so while that project is heavily back-burnered, it certainly still exists in my mind.

Still gotta finish the move by cleaning the other place out once and for all, then I hope to finish my enforcers. Gonna clean some now with some TV on in the background, Dr. Who isn't half bad sometimes. My next trick will be a custom Enforcer Defender, we won't be getting these until well into next year (think their bits will come with the plastic kit), and I think they'll add a lot to gameplay and thusly want one sooner Going to try using a space marine scout shotgun, and maybe the hand+shield from the dark angel combat shield arm. Will have to add a lot to the shield, and it's possible I won't waste the arm, just nab a hand from one of the enforcer rifles or my marine bits box. We shall see.

Happy holiday hobbying folks!

P.S. Pictures to be coming back again soon!

Look out! It is now time for GrimDork to brag about his enviable Christmas swag!

Ahem. Swag is still a word I can say right? It still means stuff? I swear I saw it getting used in some other unsavory fashion. Oh well, you know what I meant.

Right. I mostly photo dump of my excellent miniatures haul this X-mas because they will all be things to (hopefully) grace the blog (eventually). Thanks to a couple of mantic's christmas crazy boxen, I'll finally be able to give my honest first hand opinion on their love-it-or-leave-it take on elves as well as the new and much maligned men at arms. I also managed to get a few Deadzone minis ahead of my delayed shipment in the form of double Yndij/Sorak baggies that all of those boxes get. I also managed to pick up TWO dreadball mechs. I'm pleased as punch, as they say. Now, apparently the striders are going to be larger, but I think I can get these guys to look proper for use in deadzone either way.

Christmas Crazy Box (x2)
The only difference between the two boxen was the LOKA chess piece, one was the earth king, other was the earth knight. Both are pretty nice and almost make me regret not backing loka, but I've too many models coming as it is. Also, if this is the material they're making the MA stuff out of, I think it'll be a good set.

I think at this late point in the sale, they were running out of variety and more or less packing the boxen all the same so a lot of people probably got the same as this:


Loka Chess piece (these still varied, I believe)


The infamous Man at Arms! Got both of these sprues, twice per box, ten guys. You can pick a sword or spear, shield mandatory. I think the main gripes are the over-long arms (and they do look pretty lengthy), and soft details on the faces. I'm not sure if those are the only complaints or not. I can definitely see both things. I'd have to assemble a couple of paint them to know if it would bother me though. If it did, I've got some spare fantasy arms from old GW stuff laying around I could try. I had no need of these, but they're easily considered free plastic given how much of the box I did want, and I'm not saying I won't get around to using them.


These guys are extremely skinny. I think that's just dandy though. The picture is a bit fuzzier than I'd like, but the details are sharp and plentiful. You get lots of extras like the sabertoothed kitty cat, arrows stuck in the ground, the slain elf, and a quiver or two. Also includes options for the standard and musician. You can give your guys bows or swords. I think there's another sprue that has a similar number of elves but with spears (and maybe no/different extras, but I'm not thinking the stuck arrows, cat, or slain/wounded elf). I really like these elves, they're lithe, lean mean and deadly looking. And they don't look human at all, much like stocky dwarfs are easily distinguishable across the field, so too are the weedy mantic elves. I like them, I just hope I don't like them enough that I paint these up and go crazy for want of more! Surely a couple of troops of 10 will do for me (or maybe 3 troops of 7,7, and 6 [with kitty?]), gotta love stretching models via dynamic multibasing in kings of war


Boom, big old restic ogres! I'm quite excited to get some of these guys While they have quite a bit of the "top heavy situation" that tends to characterize a lot of mantic's monstrous models, I still like them. They should serve equally well in the fairly intelligent mercenary ogre and 'big bad at the end of the kiddie dungeon' roles. I think the sword/board arm combos are a little easier to get nicer poses with, but I could be jumping the gun as I only did a little dry fitting.


Finally something big enough to menace enforcer-zilla. You know you're a super soldier when the ogre is *only* a head taller than you


So I got a couple of Anne-Marie-Helder, I think that's her name. She's a bit short, and her head is pretty small (its not bad until you realize that's a futuristic-space-murder-football helmet, so her real head is probably teeny tiny). I think she'd look awesome with a pair of those assault wrist blades coming out of her dreadball guard bracer things, but she's wa'aay too short to be an enforcer. Maybe some kind of corporation specialist. Perhaps either a medic, or perhaps she'll be grabbing up one of my spare corporation guns and striking a mean pose... it would look good either held up in her right hand, or relaxed down in the left. Got two of her, so need to figure something out for variance as well.


Finally ended up with the analog to my steel warriors (as in, half fantasy model half scifi modification bits). I wasn't looking for any of these on purpose as I tend to prefer the deadzone marauder commandos, but I'll not complain. Surely they can be made to fit in and help bulk out the commando ranks. Maybe for campaigns when you get fresh recruits that literally have a FNG equivalent handicap, these can represent the fresh n00bs. Maybe. Maybe I can cobble together a warpath marauder warlord. Doubt it though, he's a pretty beastly sculpt and these guys are a lot scrawnier than him. I haven't determined yet if you have to use that big gun or not, would kind of prefer not to if possible. At a glance it looks possible, 4 total arms 2+ each of left and right hands. Oooh, maybe I can configure one into a replacement for the commando sergeant, not a huge fan of that model. These guys aren't bad, but I'd wait till warpath to get any more non-DZ marauders.


Speaking of forge fathers... After my misinformed purchase of a pack of these stormrage veterans from miniature market's black friday sale (I was thinking steel warriors could take the heavies 1/unit, but they only have access to missile launchers, whoops), I've now got 3 sets of them! That's ok though, I think you can take a squad of 10 to unlock more heroes/vehicles, and even if you can't... who can say no to having multiple heavy weapon teams on the table These models will need some cleaning on the pegs for the arms (some don't go all the way in) and possibly some hot water treatment, but that's just a fact of restic really. I like them, they're an improvement upon the fantasy/scifi hybrid steel warriors, and I look forward to further refinement of the aesthetic from the warpath kickstarter.


But hey Grimdork, I thought you said you didn't have any deadzone stuff yet!? Well, until today, that is correct. And my box still isn't here, probably won't be for a bit yet. However, you get this lovely little 2 pack in each crazy box, so now I've got a couple of spare running Yndij, and two more of the coveted Soraks. And the Sorak is one of my favorite DZ minis. The huge forearms used for locomotion while his lower limbs, not sure you can call them feet, handle the blaster.. that's just awesome. Not to mention the big dragon looking head, it's almost a shock when you realize that the smaller Yndij is actually a better fighter in melee (just a bit, but he is). I think the sorak is gonna need some hot water to get his gun to line up properly with both connectors, but again that's a fact of restic.


BOOM! I was crossing my fingers big time hoping for one of these, and now I've got two I'll be doing a lot of dry fitting to see what weapons bits I can convincingly attach to this awesome model. Though the DZ mechs are supposed to be something like 15-20% larger, I still plan to weaponize these DB giants into deadzone walkers. I don't think you could fit the guy on the left into one of those any way you slice it (unless you actually sliced him, maybe even robo cop style), but the warpath universe has lots of robots. I see no reason all striders couldn't just be robots. Regardless, I love this model, and I'm thrilled to have two. Now to rummage the bits box for suitable weapon systems

Well this post has been pretty Mantic heavy, but there will be more than that gracing the blog shortly!


It's a very Infinity Christmas

I'm not sure it would make a solid 300 pt list or anything, but there's enough Bakunin Nomads there to make for a really excellent start I'll go over the individual Infinity models as I get around to working on them, I'd rather not unbox the lot and lose/mismatch parts if I can help it. My rough plan is to paint one of these guys after every milestone I hit with deadzone as a kind of break/reward... a Brewardk? Anyway, a bit of a pallet cleanse, and something to try spending a little more time on.

And of course, what is my blog coming to if I don't post something at least a little bit silly or random.


My enforcer just got promoted to Sgt and issued his as-yet-unpainted energy gauntlet, his first assignment? Guard my lunch! This beauty was slathered in Arby's signature sauce as well as their horsey sauce. It was delicious. Gotta keep the body fueled if you're gonna hobby amirite!?


Ok guys, happy holidays again, and happy hobbying

Looks like you got a neat haul there GD, and I'm glad you got some DZ stuff at last. Should keep you busy for a while, and in the game, the Yndij and Soark are both very helpful, so having spares is a good advantage.

The Mech looks neat too, you're very lucky for getting that, it'll fit DZ nicely. I'm sure you'll find a use for the Marauders, I like the idea of using them as new recruits for a DZ team. The FF should be pretty easy to fit in with the DZ squad, and in Warpath.

I have no idea what that infinity stuff is, but it does look cool. Looking forward to seeing all this painted.

Infinity is a SciFi skirmish game. Much of the aesthetic seems to be drawn from anime. You could think of it as bigger cousin to dead zone. Played on a 4x4 board, it has much more complicated rules than dz including predator style thermo optic camo, speculative shots, impersonating assassins, a hacking system that works kind of like SciFi magic... lots of stuff. Even with the complicated rules games can still be quick because of how brutal firefights can be.

One of the most defining features is the re/active turn system. Even when its your opponents turn this means that its your reactive turn. Only the active player can issue orders, but the reactive player can activate his units when the other player triggers a reaction.. kind of like playing DZ if the entire enemy team set overwatch after they activated. Shooting is an opposed roll like in dz but its shoot v shoot and active models get higher burst- more dice, so being good at shooting is defensive too.

There's a lot more to it but you technically didnt even ask so I'll stop now. If you do Google it go with infinity the game or you will hit a lot of stuff, common word, Infinity.

The dz terrain is almost perfect for infinity so there's a lot of synergy, a quicker simpler game and a larger more elaborate game to scratch that particular itch.


I like the extra soraks and yndij , I think they complement each other well and there may be something to taking a horde of yndij...

Hoping that things calm down now the move is mostly complete and I'm temporarily unemployed. Maybe get some painted stuff up here.

Thanks for the run-down on Infinity. I've seen the game around before and am familiar with the basic premise of it being a very in-depth skirmish, I just had no idea about the specific models (I'm not familiar with the various factions). I may look into it, as I've developed rather an interest in Skirmish games recently, with ITEN and DZ.

Having a bunch of Yndij should be very helpful, I often, find myself wishing I had more than 2. With Agile, they are very fast, and great of scavenge missions, of which Rebs have quite a few.

Oh those are nomads specific to Bakunin. The faction is half religious fanatics half quasi-human degenerates. My favorite infinity models almost all fall into this category.

I think a yndij swarm may be fun/viable.

YES! INFINITY!

Nothing against the other goodies, oh no, this was a massive haul of excellent qual- *looks at the Men-at-Arms* hum, of good quality! Those ogres look fantastic tho, massive, big and mean looking.

And that mech, wow, I had no idea that thing existed, but wow, that is one very cool looking model.

Oh, but what takes the cake are those Infinity boxes. Hmm, hmm, hmmmm, sweet Infinity Nomads, I love that Reverend Custodiers model and I hope to see that one eventually painted by you!

Great show, have fun mate! Lots of stuff to assemble!

Been awhile since I did metal models, gonna take it slow and start with the single piece moderator. He's ready for an undercoat. Got a Yndij in my table ready for cleaning too.

Gonna pace the infinity guys out, do one after I do a batch or group of other models. Or after I do a batch of dz tiles once those exist. Will try to take a little longer on them since you only need s few. Could do that with dz too... but I'll want all 4 factions with many options.

Sweet infinity stash. Enjoy em! Reading through the rules now before I get me some models. I'm either going nomads or pan. I'll be watching to see how this paint up!

I won't be doing anything as nice as the studio set. I'm indecisive on the matter of doing my best to match the stock colors or try something different. Maybe mix up how they use black white and grey with some different accent colors.

What's dangerous is I like corregedor almost as much as Bakunin.

I haven't looked too close at pan o but they do seem to excel at shooting and have a nice mix of heavies and tags to boot.

So, still getting things figured out between new and old locations, gonna remain slow here a bit. I did get a bit of a curiosity piece for you all though. My brother-in-law... there has to be a friendlier way to say that... Wife's brother seems too aloof too though... anyway... had expressed an interest in some of my older empire models a ways back and I figured to myself "hey, easy christmas present!". So, as I dug out some empire archers and crossbow troops (and some other miscellanea... wow that's a fun word!) and popped them into a box along with 5 of my 20 new men at arms. While I do admit the lack of quality in certain aspects of those models, their inclusion was more in line with the fact that I just don't really need or want more human troops... Wait.

Did you hear that?

BRAINSTORM

Whoo boy! I'm gonna have to go investigate this one, it might just be a great idea! Filing it away for later though (like 5 minutes from now, don't want to forget it!).

AHEM!

So yeah, as I was digging out those old empire troops, I discovered they were imprisoned in the same foam as an old IG counts-as Idea I'd had. This was just before I ordered the 46 model corporation army set on a whim (and never looked back). It's interesting (to me at least), because fine-tuning these guys is actually why I had any interest in corporation marines in the first place. I had been browsing bits on ebay looking for cheap lasguns and guardsman arms to attach to older edition fantasy empire state troops and militia. The idea was that they were guardsmen drafted from a planet that had a strong military tradition, and possibly a near-by ork problem, that had been battling out of the sight of the Imperium for some time. So this new guard force kept it's current uniforms and traded up to better guns and equipment. This is where the idea kind of gets unrefined and, alas, things never got fully resolved. I couldn't decide between about 3 options.
I say they had low tech, and basically hot-wired lasgun power packs into really low-end lasgun equivalent handguns..
I use proper guardsman parts (probably cadian) for all of them, guns AND arms...
Or I find a third party solution, enter Corporation Marine arms.

Below you'll see some attempts at making the handguns (and even crossbows, cut them down and added a barrel) work. I don't think this was the best option by far, in retrospect. I think to do this properly, I'd either have to order guardsman arms, or get some more marine arms. I managed to come up with a really easy, and decent looking imo, color scheme before the end... but then I got my marines and just never got back to the project. So anyway, pictures!


I think these guys were both squad leaders or sgts or whatever guardsmen have. Note the cable running up to the powered sword, it's run from a spare lasgun power pack. The other gun has a proper laspistol and a shortened chain sword, about 1/3 length, kind of like that ripper thing from fallout3.


Here you see some different attempts at giving them suitable arms. --> Cadian grenade launcher, empire arms with lasgun, handgun with power cable running to his handgunner pouch (suspend disbelief and assume it's got a power source instead of lead balls and gunpowder ).


Here's a weapon team, hunkering down behind a spare cities of death wall, these two are using a missile launcher. I think this team actually looks pretty neat.


Here's the color scheme. Grey uniforms with black off color encompassing leather metal and other stuff. The cannon chassis in the back would have eventually had a lascannon or similar mounted to it. Oh, there's a blue line on each left shoulder, it would have varied from squad to squad.

This could have been a pretty neat little project, I'm not 100% abandoning it unless I manage to sell off a large chunk of fantasy stuff and throw it in.

Anyway, I'll be back with more. I almost feel better. Almost. If I didn't get up and do too much today to invite the sickness to hang out for a bit longer... I may get some stuff painted before terribly much longer. Of course I've said similar before right?

Happy hobbying and goodnight




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So maybe it wasn't a brilliant stroke of genius, but I think it just turned my remaining 15 mantic MaA models into another block of undead for my eventual undead army

Like the look you have going on here.

I really like the mantic ogres. Would pick some up if they fit into the theme of my kow army.

Seems you have a decent haul there.

Yeah, it was more than I was expecting, I think more people hopped onto the infinity order than originally thought.

After "successfully" deaditizing that man at arms... Wondering if I could deaditize those ogres... Use them in place of werewolves...

I was going to say ogres fit ANY army but that's right they may clash with samurai. Unless you get ogres from GW, that one maneater lol has a katana or something.

But yeah hmmm... Ogre sized ghouls or Oghrouls.... Oooooo. Just have to figure out a way to make that happen now.

Tbh I really want to acquire some of the old confrontation ogres. But price is a factor as is finding some.

I really like Infinity stuff it's always great to see painted.

 GrimDork wrote:
I was going to say ogres fit ANY army but that's right they may clash with samurai. Unless you get ogres from GW, that one maneater lol has a katana or something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogre_mage :-)

Yeah, I knew there was another ogre with a katana *somewhere* thanks for that Oni or something, right? Those would almost have to run around independently, I think they're too stacked and powerful to form them into units.

Like the MaA zombies. The problems with the model seem mostly to be the arms and you've dealt with that problem. Might as well get some use out of them, plus it will add variety to your undead army.

Indeed. They'll probably serve as Revenants which I think are just more heavily armed skeletons. They aren't vicious enough to be any of the scarier units, but beefy skeleton infantry seems like something that's good to have around anyway.

Starting to eye the rest of my not-undead fantasy models and wondering just how much more useful they'd be if they were... well more undead.

The more the merrier. If there is one problem I have with Mantic's undead line its that there isn't quite enough variety. I've had to mix some GW stuff in there to make it that way. That being said, I use Mantic's stuff for my VC army.

Anyways, keep up the blogging. Hope you get your Deadzone stuff soon!

Thanks, as little hobbying as I get to do lately, its nice to at least talk about it sometimes

No word on the deadzone stuff but that's to be expected as they're all on break at the moment. I reckon that unless I get some kind of extra lucky, it'll be at least a fair way into January before anything arrives. We'll see though. As long as I get at least a month of lay-off in which to play with my new DZ goodies, I'll have no sore feelings. I guess.

I almost feel good enough to paint tonight but I'm kind of having a nostalgia fit with BG2:EE... Been playing it in 10-20 minute bursts trying to get through the initial dungeon (its hard 'cause I've done it dozens of times, and I don't think I'm much exaggerating... I played this game a lot when I was a kid). I'm the better part of halfway out (it really doesn't take long, it's just sooo tedious still!), if I manage to actually clear it... I'll probably be in trouble for getting anything else done as I'll have so much I want to do.


We'll see though, that airbrush has been calling my name.

The problem with BG2 is that I rerolled so many characters that I completed that first dungeon more than I did anything else when I was a kid.

Yeah same boat Here. Got past that but its definitely still far from shiny and new. Still will be worth the investment over time.

I've had these in my gallery for a day or two... Lack of time to update. Funny how I'm out of work (for a couple of months) yet I have more trouble painting and even updating the blog now. Tally it up to not having much of a schedule and the toddler preferring that I do other stuff. So anyway:


Got the second enforcer done. I realize he looks a little bland... Kind of an evil of the scheme though I guess. I did paint the eyes, but they don't show up too well (in the picture or otherwise). Now I need to assemble a third, still kind of puzzling over my shotgun conversion so that's been holding me back. Been looking at other models too.


I did manage to get the airbrush up and running. I really need to get a vacuum spray booth though. Undercoating and sealing a couple of models is one thing, but if I want to spray a bunch of deadzone tiles in this small room.... The yndij has some red on him now too, but not even a full first coat. I don't think I picked a proper shade to fit my thoughts of 'borrowing' the looks of Red XIII from FF7, but I'm going to stick with it and see where things go. I probably won't paint all of my Yndij the same color anyway.


That's all for now. Kind of pitiful, I know. Will add more as it gets done. Did I mention converting my new ogres into Ogrhouls? Maybe do something to their weapons... Maybe scythes or something... not sure yet. And festoon them with parts and bags of parts... maybe half a zombie here or there. I would use them in KoW as Werewolves, and thematically they'd be ogre sized ghouls, or well really just ogres that were also ghouls... soo... Ogrhouls. Working for whoever will give them a pound of flesh (per hour?), could still use them as ogres for other forces, but I think the werewolves are pretty solid. Gaming stuff is basically semantics at this point given how never I play

Happy Hobbying!

 GrimDork wrote:
Gaming stuff is basically semantics at this point given how never I play

Yeah but its nice to paint stuff up as if they are going to be used right?

Who is the guy on the left in your second picture? Is it a deadzone reb?

Yep, I can paint just for the sake of it, but I like to pretend I may play. Who knows it might happen.

Guy on the Left is a moderator from Bakunin, basically a low end grunt for Infinity.

Ahh cool. Didn't recognise the model.

I am the same. I paint and purchase stuff for games I have never played and am not even sure if I would enjoy playing. But its nice to paint for a game you may one day play.

Infinity is the same. Lots of models I like and I like the sound of the game. So I will collect it eventually. Not until I work on what I already have though.

Yeah except for the infinity stuff I'm on a buying freeze. And that was a gift. Doesn't help that I backed 3 minis kickstarter last year...

For awhile I was only buying 'good' 40k units and buying in multiple cause that's how 40k works. Awful and no fun to paint like that though, unless you actually get to play with them.

Yeah I know what you mean.

I am getting rid of most of my 40k stuff except a few character models that I like. I figure I will never play the game and I am not going to pay the amount it costs not only for the models but for the rules, codex ect.

I am on a buying freeze as well. Only going to get stuff through trades or through money earned through trades.

The only exception being if there are models I already want or will go well with the projects I am already working on that is cheap or on offer.

I only backed Deadzone last year miniatures wise.

I did dz as well as mars attacks on blind faith (but not as heavily), and reaper bones to have misc minis to try stuff out on.

I just found out sedition wars can be had for just over $40 on Amazon and I'm sorely tempted... maybe for my birthday lol...

I'm looking to convert my plastic shame into something a little cleaner burning too... I need to get rid of my tyranids and dark elder as they occasionally mangle my hobby time by tempting me. I've got way too many marines ATM and they're starting to look silly. Wanna tall scale them but its a lot of effort.

My fantasy stuff needs sold too. As much as I love skaven they probably need to go. Everything else can get undeaded and sucked into my eventual undead mega army.

Of course.. selling armies takes time I don't have.

I almost went for bones. Then I looked in the cupboard to see how many miniatures I already had that I wont get around too and decided to give it a miss. While bones was a great deal per miniature I figured I was unlikely to touch many of them so will just pick up a few of them in the future at retail prices (Which are not unreasonable.)

I skipped mars attacks. Didnt have the cash and not really interested in franchise either.

Yeah selling armies does. I just keep a trade thread on a few different forums and update them every now and then.

I have quite a lot of free time atm. Just not a great deal where I feel up to doing anything. Which is a shame, but If I felt ok I wouldn't have the free time.

Ahh yeah. I run into that too, if I get time off I usually fail to use it "productively".

I figured by the time I get bones my daughter will be "almost" old enough to kind of sort of understand how painting works... Then I can let her play with the bones minis that I don't want, hopefully buying me time to paint what projects I do want to work on

I am a middle/high school teacher, so I quite often have a week or two off here or there (bar the bloody marking, which I should be doing right now :( ). And I always find I am generally way LESS productive in those times than normal. And I also tend to get sick as soon as I have a holiday! Dunno how that works at all.

On the back end of 3 weeks off here and no hobbying done at all beyond buying new stuff!

Yeah, that's about what I've been doing. Spending money on people for xmas and moving. Fortunately, i'm about out of money so I can't devolve any further into a hoarder till I make some more!

Looking forward to seeing your rebs painted!

I should be on a buying freeze as well, but heck if I didn't end up getting some more stuff this weekend. Oh well, I'll get to it all eventually.

Haha, I saw that. I may end up reselling some of my DZ stuff before it's over. I'm talking long-run, but still. Given how few models you need to play, unless I actually end up trying to run tournaments out of my garage... I'm gonna have stuff I'll never get to.

Seeing how cheaply Sedition wars can be got... I kind of want that now too. And maybe zombicide... but that one wouldn't necessarily *have* to be painted.

I'm on a funding mandated freeze, anything past glue and it has to wait. I usually buy things opportunistically, whether I need or want them now, if I want it eventually and it's cheap now I'll get it for later. Of course I ended up with something like 4500 points of space marines that way with the help of eBay and I'm not even sure I want any of them so it's definitely a sharp object to be handling for sure

Thanks to ghost tint: fresh blood, I think I've managed to salvage the red color I was trying on my Yndij, now I just need to do the tufts of fur/mane/tail, and then his equipment. I think my rebs are going to get shiny black. Glossy black with just simple edge highlights, it looks pretty scifi usually, and it's generally quick.

May go work on that stuff now actually, we'll see.

Happy hobbying folks!

I bought myself a copy of sedition wars pretty cheap, and was very surprised at how TINY the models are. They do not scale well with other games, so just be aware of that.

If you want it just for the game itself though, its not awful. Not great, and has some balancing issues that are pretty well documented, but you can have fun with it.

Oh yeah? So having your Deadzone stuff, these guys are significantly smaller? I always heard people call Infinity small and now that I've got some I'm scratching my head going "huh"... but I'll take your word for it since you have both.

May be smarter to bump up a few bucks and get the first iteration of zombicide instead, which boasts much fun in the gameplay department, and a bit more of the beer and pretzels variety to boot.

They are smaller than infinity models. Infinity models are slender, and I think thats what people mean by that. Sedition Wars models are slender AND short. They just don't look good with other ranges IMHO. I will post a comparison pic here for you tomorrow beside some marines and deadzone models and let you see for yourself.

Ahh kickass, thanks. You can look around online, but sometimes what you find is less than helpful. If they're way tiny, I'll just write it of as saving some money

Off to the painting station!

 GrimDork wrote:

That's all for now. Kind of pitiful, I know. Will add more as it gets done. Did I mention converting my new ogres into Ogrhouls? Maybe do something to their weapons... Maybe scythes or something... not sure yet. And festoon them with parts and bags of parts... maybe half a zombie here or there. I would use them in KoW as Werewolves, and thematically they'd be ogre sized ghouls, or well really just ogres that were also ghouls... soo... Ogrhouls. Working for whoever will give them a pound of flesh (per hour?), could still use them as ogres for other forces, but I think the werewolves are pretty solid. Gaming stuff is basically semantics at this point given how never I play

That can be fixed. You and a bunch of the other guys from Dakka should all up and move to my suburb here in lovely Melbourne. Then we can all go to one anothers' houses and have regular games, gaming nights, painting nights and LAN nights. Problem solved!


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 GrimDork wrote:

My fantasy stuff needs sold too. As much as I love skaven they probably need to go. Everything else can get undeaded and sucked into my eventual undead mega army.

nonono!

Turn the skaven into a KoW army, then with them and the undead, you have both sides and can host games. Your toddler is going to need to learn to play when she gets a bit older as well, and what little girl doesn't love cute little mouselings?

Well... they are more painted than not painted.... perhaps they can stay.

I'd take you up on the whole Australia thing... but I fear I'd succumb to your ferocious local wildlife. Cane toads and scorpions and weird looking plants oh my!

But what race in kow would skaven be?

Skaven in KOW? Perhaps gobbos, if you've got a pretty hordey collection, or dwarves if you've got a lot of the techy stuff? They might end up fitting in with the Nature faction when that comes out.

Considering they have veer men in warpath I think they will create a list for the, eventually. Until then maybe goblins?

Hey Grim, here are the comparison pics of my Sedition Wars model vs my Enforcer models. I threw in a BA just because. I feel they are both too slender and short to fit in with Deadzone, but YMMV.





Hope that helps make your decision one way or another.

Thanks for that pic, squall, I was thinking about picking a set up myself to fit with my corporation/plague, but seeing that, I think I'll pass. Nice enforcer scheme, by the way.

Wait wait wait! You guys are missing the fact that enforcers are supposed to be like 8 feet tall! And the plague too, they have at leas an extra foot of height in their super torsos alone.

Enforcers are head and shoulders taller than corporation marines too! That space marine is what gives it away, corporation marines are almost exactly the same height as a space marine, and so is the SW guy. That means that sedition war human guy (no idea what you call him) is *exactly* the same size as a corporation marine. And that puts them really close to Infinity models too.

THanks for that photo, it definitely helps, now I just need to find someone who wants to buy me a birthday present early



Thanks for the thoughts on Skaven in KoW guys. Maybe goblins is the way to go, I'll have a look at the list. Perhaps will need some allies to represent specific characters or units too.

I still think the SW model is just a little too short, as corp marines are around 1 head below enforcers, that model looks to be 2 heads shorter.

I think a pic with a WP/DZ human model would settle it, don't suppose you have any squall?

I guess he could be a tad short, but I dunno... Not everyone has to be the same height. Like you say, next to a rebs human or a corporation marine... we'd know for sure.

Not everyone is the same height, but I think it would look a little odd to have an entire unit that was a head shorter than the rest of the army.

It is an awesome model, though, and so are the Strain (like a more alien version of the Plague) so I may grab it anyway if it's cheap enough.

You know you have too much stuff when you can produce comparison shots on demand. This corp marine is from the Project Pandora box, but its the same as the regular marines. They actually look pretty good side by side... made me rethink me stance on Sed Wars models in Deadzone perhaps. He is still just a TAD shorter than the marine though, even though he is in full body armor. I guess that doesn't matter too much, as people are different heights, just saying.

Thanks alot I think that they're close enough to work. How often are they *really* going to be standing side by side anyway? If they're that close one of them will surely have mauled the other in brutal close combat and gotten things over with

Alas, I stand corrected, that height should easily work. My poor wallet... Now I just have to think of an actual use for that. I have a full corp army, IG coming out of my ears and enough rebs for DZ, but damn I want Sedition Wars now. Maybe as a substitute for Corp veterans or even Enforcer Recon units?

Cheers for the pics.

I was debating between Corp. Rangers (thanks to you Grimdork) and Sedition Wars Vanguard (the pictured dude) for my IG. I'm still torn - maybe 4 squads, 2 of each to show a slight difference in the world(s) they're from.

Only problem is now I need more futuristic vehicles =x.

Yeah, finding sci-fi vehicles to match the Mantic/SW style is difficult, especially for a reasonable price. Then again, Mantic will have fixed that with the WP Kickstarter in a year or so...

Seems like even recon enforcers would be half-giants like the regular ones. Maybe private security? I realize that the corp marines are probably like private security as it is what with being owned by various corporations.. but y'know. Space rent-a-cops but better?

Maybe use the vanguard as veterans or something?

How many vanguard do you get in the sed wars boxed set? I haven't had the chance to look for a parts breakdown yet and amazon was not very descriptive.

Hopefully they hit a home run with the warpath kickstarter, and have you checked out the future tanks thread on the mantic subforum? I think the Merkava is pretty sexy, doesn't scream scifi to me, but its a lot more modern than some.

I got extra and I think I have 20 - so 10 in the default box?
I haven't looked at Mantic's to-be-released stuff. If you guys think it's good I'll check it out. Thanks!

Fair point on the enforcers, it was one of those thoughts where the brain says 'oh, shiny!' and then comes out with an excuse that makes no sense. Thinking about it more, Enforcers wouldn't work.

But you said rent-a-cops, and I see a full face visor. I think it's gotta be...

ROBOCOP! I know the chin doesn't stick out, but looking at the SW models, black armour and red visor would look beyond badass. And I'm still no closer to a use, but want them even more.

I could use them as Corp vets, but for IG, I'm already using Corp marines as vets and Enforcers as Stormtroopers, so there's not really another slot going there and I'd like them to have some dual utility. No idea what I'll do, but I'll think of something.

I've looked at the tanks thread, and the Merkava is nice, but looking at the concept art, Corp have hover tanks, so I think I'll just wait for those. In the mean time I'll have a lot of deadzone and 40k to be painting, and a year or so to convince my group to try Warpath.

I've been looking for a SW contents list of days and can't find anything. Everywhere just says 50 models, but no actual pics of them all. It like it's a secret as to what you actually get.

Yeah lol... wonder if the ks page is still up. May get confusing though... freebie for backers and all.


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Oh and new RoboCop looks cool .

I've checked the KS page, couldn't find anywhere what was actually in the retail box.

Ahh lame. Well, if I beat you to it I'll let you know!

I actually went looking when you said that and you are correct, it is surprisingly hard to find whats in the retail box. I'm no help, as I got the KS version. I need to pull out some of the strain and see how they would look subbing as plague. I haven't built a single strain yet. That may be put on the docket for today.

From the KS page:

Vanguard miniatures

Kara
Morgan
Akosha
Drone Tank (50mm base)
Male Samaritan with Laser Rifles x 12
Female Grenadier x 2
Male Reaver Heavy x 2
Female Lancer special x 2

Strain miniatures

Phase 1 - 1 Big arm x 7
Phase 1 - 2 Claw hand x 7
Phase 2 - 1 Stalker x 4
Phase 2 - 2 Quasimodo x 4
Phase 3 - 1 Scythe Witch x 2
Phase 3 - 1 Brimstone (50 mm base) x 2
Phase 4 Grendlr (50mm base)
Phase 5 Cthonian (50mm base)

And then rigeld2 finds it almost instantly and makes me feel dumb.

Bwahhaha isn't it just silly how that tends to happen

Sounds like a pretty nice haul for what they're asking on amazon...

I assume the Samaritan is the model we've seen above and the named guys are characters? So a whole unit and a bunch of characters and specialists... sounds like both forces could just get their own Deadzone faction made up (since I hear the rules for that game have some sketchy bits maybe?)...

Or it's in a spaceship right? Enter battle systems card terrain and DZ rules with custom SW factions... Boom.

Hmm, that isn't bad at all for the £42 amazon have it for. I've heard that the rules themselves are a bit dodgy, but as DZ/WP subs they'll be nice.

Cheers for the list, rigeld.

Finally found the same list while scrolling down to see pictures of the models. There was a lot of neat stuff in the KS, too bad it sounds like there was a lot of trouble for backers of some sort or another.

Definitely putting the boxed game on my wishlist, and if it's still around when I'm working again... may just snap it up anyway.

 GrimDork wrote:
Finally found the same list while scrolling down to see pictures of the models. There was a lot of neat stuff in the KS, too bad it sounds like there was a lot of trouble for backers of some sort or another.

I was mostly in it for the homage characters (the not-Serenity crew). And while the detail on those is okay they came out far too small to be useful to me at all. A shame because I was going to pay to get them painted professionally and then give them to a friend (who is a die hard browncoat). With the quality I got though I would've been embarrassed to do so.

The game piece minis are decently done - like I said I'm thinking of painting them up as IG, including some of the characters as platoon leaders or something.

No idea what to do with the Strain though.

Yeah those are... hmm. Best I could say is either machine cult gone wrong, or nurgle/iron hands chaos cultists Or is it iron something else. Iron warriors that's it, hands is loyalist. I guess. Who cares.


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Almost got my Rebs Yndij done. Needs highlights and maybe another wash or two. Not sure if the kid will let me get to those things any time soon though

What colours have you painted the Yndij?

I'll try to put a shot up later whether he's done or not. Red, black armor, grey pouches. Baby crying I'll bbl with more lol.


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Kind of a medium red, I started with red and went in with red-orange a lot heavier than a drybrush, and then ghost tint fresh blood to handle the shading. Trying out some of the other minitaire colors. A bit frustrated, the grey I chose is really dark, almost too dark to stand out from black, and the black they have is almost more of a really dark coal color (just a hint of grey, and really matte). For the futuristic look I wanted the black is almost too dull and the hint of grey makes it kind of too close to the grey leather/straps. May have to get a lighter grey and or a darker black. I need to edge highlight the armor and do something to make the straps and pouches pop a little better. Then I gotta see if I can paint me some cat eyes.


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Needs highlights and maybe a color revision.

You get far more done than me and I dont even have a screaming child to look after.

I agree it needs highlights. Cant really make out much detail at the moment. Though that could be the model itself.

The straps almost look green.

It was a really shoddy set up. Also miniature is all satin/ gloss so it really needs a matte sealer before it'll look 'right' just wanted to deploy a general idea.

That makes sense. I think the red may be a little to bright atm depending on what you are going for.

I know what you mean about the grey being too dark.

I tried painting some Ashigaru the other day with dark blue clothes and black armour. The whole thing just looked black until you got close.

My enforcers are kinda like that. I will either fix it in highlights or change some colors. I think I like the red and it should look better after its flattened out.

You didn't put any pants on your Yndig!

Do they have pants? The detail is s little shaky down there. I'll have to see what others have done. Were there lines for bicycle shorts I missed?

 GrimDork wrote:
Do they have pants? The detail is s little shaky down there. I'll have to see what others have done. Were there lines for bicycle shorts I missed?

I was thinking that myself; do they even have pants?

If there's a good studio shot its hurried in updates....

He does have brown pants in the official pic on mantic's site.

Which pic? The one on the rebs faction starter page? I think the whole Yndij is brown, are you sure those are pants? They seem to match awful close to the rest of his fur.

Yeah, the one running looks like he has pants... The crouching one is too hard to tell. This is kind of a ludicrous conversation one way or the other.

Hey man, toy soldiers is serious business! I'm still not sure I can agree, even on the running guy. Let's just put it this way, I'm no kind of pervert, but my Yndij apparently won't be wearing any pants

In the studio shots it appears he is wearing pants that go down to the kneepads.

 Paradigm wrote:
Skaven in KOW? Perhaps gobbos, if you've got a pretty hordey collection, or dwarves if you've got a lot of the techy stuff? They might end up fitting in with the Nature faction when that comes out.

I asked about it awhile back in the Mantic subforum and the most likely suggestions were:
this well-playtested .net list
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?297863-Ratmen-list

 judgedoug wrote:
Honestly just use the Goblin list. Rat Ogres work well as Trolls, normal skaven as Goblin Rabble, stormvermin as Goblin Sharpsticks (extra attacks), giant rats and handlers as Mawbeast packs, and there's plenty of weird Goblin machines that could analog over to Skaven stuff - War-trombones, Sharpstick Throwers, Mincer, Sharpstick Slashers, etc.

The ratman list doesn't look too bad overall. Honestly it's not a huge issue until I actually have occasion to play. Thanks for the link and quote, it's good food for thought.

Mostly, I just need to stick the things into 20 and 40 rat sized blocks when I go about multibasing them. I could leave them single based, but I just don't see picking WHFB back up. Cool beans.

The studio were fools for giving him brown pants AND brown fur! I'll have another look, but we'll see.

 Paradigm wrote:
Yeah, finding sci-fi vehicles to match the Mantic/SW style is difficult, especially for a reasonable price. Then again, Mantic will have fixed that with the WP Kickstarter in a year or so...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281144555442?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Such a kickass tank. It's actually not drastically different from the tank they had in that sketch for the corporation. It doesn't hover, but it's an earlier model, one that could be passed on to the rebs when and IF the corporation did get sleek hovertanks.

Is that how the kit looks without modification? Those Israelis have some impressive military technology!

How does it scale up with 28mm models?

Bah and alas, I've no stomach for detail work tonight. Yndij will have to wait for tomorrow unless something changes my mind in the next hour or so. Oh well, he will get done, too much on deck to dawdle for too long.

Not sure if that's the actual kit - I just googled Merkava to get a good look at the tanks so it's probably not the same kit. I only just got mine in the mail a few days ago. 1/48 push-fit kits, so pretty well scaled to 28mm. Here's a picture I've just taken while writing this post. Note the pic lacks wheels and tracks, so it'll be a bit taller once properly built.

I think it's a pretty smart match, considering people are seated in tanks and marines are pretty bulky. I can't get over how sleep and futury it looks. I may have to get one just to check it out.

I wonder how well it would look with some of Bitspudlo's hover tank bits bashed onto it? I suppose if nothing else, there's always the Antenociti hover tanks.

Took a look. You might be able to swing it, but you may need more than one kit per tank to fit the length and shape of the bottom (thats meant for tracks and their wheels).

And while all the time Baldur's Gate did he play, his workload grew two sizes that day:


That Sorak was a bear. Had to do the hot water trick big time to get his lower arms and gun (one piece btw) to fit. Had to fill the ensuing gap too. Oh well, he's an elite quantity model. It would be annoying on basic troops, but it's tolerable on something you might only have 2-3 of ever. The Reverend Moira (other newly undercoated model in the front row) wasn't too bad to assemble. I didn't pin anything, so I'll probably drop her and have to reattach arms someday... but oh well. I opted for a *slightly* different pose than the studio, with the sword held down to the side a bit more kind of like she's sneaking. The stock photo has it raised a bit more but I just didn't like that pose quite as much.

Still need to paint the Yndij and Moderator, just getting stuff into the queue for when I do get something finished.


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Looks like the sorak may have a big fat mold line across his face/muzzle thing. I must have thought it was part of his smile or something =/

Trimmed that nasty mold line. Today I'm trying something a little different, I'm working on cleaning up two of my mantic skeleton sprues while watching and playing with Madame Toddlerington. So far I've got both sprues clipped out and nearly 4-5 skeletons cleaned. It's slow going, but when you compare it to what I usually get done (nothing?) when she's not napping... it's not bad.

Can I say again how much those sprues rule? There's a lot of character and the models are just really nice. I wish they'd drop their china contract or whatever they've got going on and go back to Renedra... these sprues are definitely on par with GW. I also discovered that there's a troop sprue and a command sprue. It makes sense, I just hadn't noticed!

I think I'm gonna mix these guys up with some of my old GW skeletons. They don't look as nice to me, but then doesn't that making it a good idea to spice them into other units instead of having uglier blobs next to the spiffy ones?

Hey while I'm at it, what do you guys suggest for filling in around the integrated bases when I make multibases for these guys? Some kind of casting plaster? Or is there something better? I thought I may just leave out the square bases altogether and glue the round integrated to the tray, and then use something to cover them over. I'll do some trial and error, but if anyone's done it and or has suggestions, I'd be much obliged

More later, I may at least get some of the skeletons assembled today. If there is a nap, I may switch gears and try to finish my Yndij, we'll see.

Happy hobbying!

I have seen some people just glue a bunch of the square bases together as a movement tray they stuck in the models.

You are right though the rendara sprues are great especially the undead.

I probably have plenty of bases to do that...

Hrm.

I kind of want just a bare rectangle though, for doing the multibase, so I can arrange the skeletons and any additional filler (giant skeleton, skeleton leader on a horse, small cave spewing bats, extra headstones...etc) a bit more free form than in the rows the squares allow.

Definitely something to consider though, so thanks

Are you planning on taking them off the base later?

The multibase thing? Nah, I'm probably not worried about cross compatibility with WHFB and since you can multibase for Kings of War I'm just going to secure everyone down to the right sized base/tray for the unit. I like playing with formations and unit filler so there will probably only be 14-16 skeletons on a base representing 20, but there will be lots of extras like graves and those skeletal dog/rats and so on. Might even do some of the rising out of the ground guys.

Acrylic artists's putty. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than our usual hobby putties. Or to go cheaper again, polyfilla.

Ah ha. I knew there had to be something a little lighter on the wallet.

So basically spackling paste of whatever variety. I could see that cracking eventually but it would be cheap and easy, and has texture by default. Excellent, thanks Now I've just gotta get some things done and ready.

Hrm... That brings me to another question... Paint the models individually (mount their mini base on a nail, or similar) and probably drill-dip them first? Stick them on the base and try to paint around? Nah shudder that sounds like a pain in the ass. I guess I would just have to be careful with the spackle stuff so I don't obscure too much of the painted skeleton legs, and then be careful again while I go around with the paint. A little wouldn't hurt as it would help tie them into their environment, but still a bit of care required...

Seems like the best/only way though.

May have to go paint on that Yndij now, the nappening and all of that.

This may be of use.

http://forum.manticblog.com/entry.php?1214-Zombie-Endless-Swarm-on-a-budget%21

http://forum.manticblog.com/entry.php?1221-Zombie-Endless-Swarm-on-a-budget%21-part-2

See if you can get something like polyfilla though - it doesn't shrink and cracks less readily - and it still a million times cheaper than "hobby" products. Still, if you can get it all onto a decent unit base that won't warp you'll be fine.

You'll have to paint them individually. Just be extra slow and careful with the application of the putty/filler and you'll be fine.


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From Carlos' link - this fixes most of your problems. Try this, but without actually gluing the models onto the regiment base until complete. you'll then need to do a small bit of basing on each model, but it'll be an easy way to set the multibase up.

Ah ha! I totally forgot about that article I'd actually read it before a while back.

Cool beans. I'll keep the polyfilla/equivalent thing in mind then.

I see what you're saying Azazelx, and it makes for a sound plan. I could set the models into it just like the picture, but without gluing the actual mini bases, polyfilla, (maybe take a picture or make a queue so I can remember the general disposition of my guys), pop the skeletons out and paint them, paint the multibase, resocket the paint parts and touch up around the seams.

Excellent

Maybe I'll even whip up some cheaper-than-gw-custom-textured-paint via craft paint and fine sand/ballast, use it on the base and then go back over the gap in the bases.

This would even allow me to leave a few skeletons loose yet concealed, if I ever wanted to snag a few for D&D or the like. Maybe just a small handful on a single multibase, not on all of them.

Cool, thanks guys, this puts things in perspective and gives me a definite game plan for getting those skeletons set up once they're assembled

Let's see that Yndij!

Alright fine, Madame Toddlerington is finally asleep so I guess I can go get onto that.

I'm more inclined to see what you do with those Nomads.

Excited to see what you do with your skellies! I've gone the no-multibase route because I want to keep maximum flexibility, but I'm still eager to see what a creative player can do with them!

Apparently I was more inclined to rescue Imoen from Irenicus... forgot how llong that dungeon was... and now there has been no painting =\

Maybe later today.

For now is more skeleton trimming.


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Gonna be trimming more skelies and maybe looking for that polyfilla today.

I got some filler/putty stuff. I couldn't find polyfilla, but I did verify that this isn't supposed to shrink or crack, something in the mid-range of features/prices. I've also managed to finally get all of the skeletons from the two sprues trimmed. I'll probably only need 10 or so mantic skeletons per 20 body regiment, so I made more than I needed for the moment, but meh it was something to do. The GW skeletons are sooo chunky compared... I think I'll explain them away as orc skeletons or something... just don't mind the missing tusks (do mantic orcs even have tusks to worry about?). How does the following look in terms of density for a multibase?


Things will need moved around, this is mostly a study of volume.

I notice now that I read that article over again, he used about 24ish models to fill up the space of 60. That's only about 40%, I think I wanna aim for 70%+ where possible, though if some of it is gravestones or integrated terrain features I won't sweat it. The thing that's getting tricky is managing an edge for my multibase without making it overlarge, but still allowing enough skeletons to fit within using the mantic square bases as I'd settled upon. I think the utility of being able to prep the base and plug the painted skeletons back down into the squares is too good to pass out, though it becomes difficult to fit a lot of bases in with a border. I'll have to do some experimenting to see what works best. I may just have to do what I did back in my WHFB days and make the trays just a tiny bit larger to accommodate the edging, nobody seemed to mind then.

I've still got to assemble the mantic skeletons and do a little trimming on the GW skeles before I need to worry about it.

I'm getting a bit paranoid that my DZ stuff is going to be even more delayed than I had thought, and having that in the back of my mind has kind of killed my enthusiasm. That and edge highlighting black. For some reason I dislike doing that even more than painting white =/ We'll see if I can't get to work on that Yndij, but for now I think I'm gonna build some undead and get a bit of old school gaming in.

Till next time, happy hobbying!

Honestly, at this point I'd give them a phone call. When they were sitting on my KoW missing stuff for weeks, I finally got them off their arses by ringing them. It took a couple of calls (one to get them to wake up and pick my stuff, another to get them to send it) but if I were you I'd be on the phone pretty much daily to them till it actually happens...

Well its not so much that they just forgot to send it, they're also out of stuff now. If they start acting like they have stock again and I don't have a shipping notice you can bet I'll be on them. Might do it sooner too like you say.


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Bit of progress, nothing done, but some steps:


I like the standard bearer and unit leader personally.


Still needs to be mat-sealed and put on his base. Way too shiney, and that nail doesn't balance too well


need to get better at eyes too =/

More later if I get to anything, happy hobbying!

And there he is with the flat coat and on his base. I usually notice things I forgot in these, and I do. Missed his toe claws and any similar attention to his fingers.

It isn't the most flattering photo, but it isn't a super amazeballs paintjob either. I do what I can, and I didn't spend forever on him either. I'll get the claws soon, fixing the eyes will have to wait till I magically get better at it. Should have a few more angles soon, I took them but too tired to upload now.

I think the highlighting you did on the black was worth the time- it adds a lot to the paint job,. I reckon a stronger contrast with his hair, or whatever that is around his head, would have improved the miniature. But I reckon he's looking grand.

Its some kind of hair. Let me take some more pictures it isn't quite so flat in person.

More angles on the yndij and completed skeletons to follow. I have a bit of time to work with today and I've got to do several things, so I'm keeping this short. May need more/better angles for the yndij, still need a proper camera and light box. Maybe if I overpaid enough on the old taxes... We'll see.





I'll get better pictures sometime. These are a tad blurry and don't show half of the depth of color this guy has. Not that he has a lot, but even less is showing.


I like the way these turned out. There isn't a whole lot of variability in the poses, and you use over 90% of the bits (mostly just extra spears and swords, a couple of heads). I'll probably incorporate the spears into the multibase, set for cavalry charges, but not to the point that the unit appears to have the upgrade. The first unit or two will be more basic in deployment, once I get comfortable I intend to break out the greenstuff/putty/creativity. I have a necromancer raising the rear ranks in mind, and maybe even some kind of bone-monsters instead of basic skeletons... we'll see.

Yeah so I'm weak and a bit addicted to buying toy soldiers... Amazon came down slightly on the price of sedition wars and I picked it up for $39.99 which seemed ridiculous at the time. I'm curious to see if the game holds up as fun and replayable, but I mostly bought it for the models. At less than $1 a pop, even some quality issues won't be too troubling. Thanks to prime, I'll hopefully be getting that tomorrow, though I don't yet know when the UPS truck is liable to come 'round the new address. I'll obviously unbox it as I tend to do. Hrm just realizing I didn't do that for any of my Infinity figures, I just started cleaning them up. I'll have to get back to those the next time I prepare a model, it's just a bit of file work and sawing them off the base, but I've done it for everything else

I tried 2-3 different approaches including hot glue and superglue before settling on craftics #33 to attach trimmed bits of sprue to thin plasticard for regiment trays. My prototype is finished and will show up below. I ranked up the skeletons and left a little space for unit fillers like the rising skeleton with grave, and dead skeleton bit, then I pulled the bases out one at a time and popped them back into place with more craftics #33 to secure them. The tray is drying now. When it's done, and if I get time, I'll apply the spackle to fill in the gaps and help hold the bases in. Then I've just got to paint the tray and the skeletons, have a family renunion, and do some touch-ups.





Going to fill in the gaps and in between the bases. Basically everything that isn't the slot for the mantic base. Once everything is painted and fit back in, I'll just have to use some more spackle to tie the integrated bases back in. I could almost leave them removable, but I don't really see why.


No promises, as I do not know how much I may have overpaid on the old taxes yet, but if I do well enough I may have to bite the bullet on a cannon rebel or something, getting tired of taking crappy pictures with my poor old phone camera.

Hopefully more hobbying later. I'm not sure I'll be able to get to the Sedition Wars stuff tomorrow, it depends on when the box arrives. But soon.

Happy Hobbying!

So yeah, sedition wars came in and I should have time to go over it. Pictures done, so I just have to do this part. A couple of quick things first:


Skeletons up on nails and ready to be painted. The base is.. done enough.. at this point. I think I'll just cover it with some kind of textured substance, paint, and static grass or clump foliage etc..


I had to take a picture. I've got a single drawer out of all of my hobby stuff to which I grant Madame Toddlerington access. It's got about 10 marines, 5 scouts, a few bikes, and a land speeder in it. Plus some bits (which we don't play with!), this was probably my favorite eBay success story, got all of that for maybe $15 shipped and the extra bits were pretty good too. Anyway, they aren't nicely painted, but they're glued together well enough to not easily fall apart. So, I let the kid play with these when she visits my hobby office, and for the most part she leaves the rest of my stuff alone. I usually restrict the marines to the office, but I thought they might need to show the rest of her toys who's boss. The train bit happened randomly, but I thought it was hilarious to see the wee marines lazily choo-chooing across the kitchen floor in search of their next conquest

I'll update with the Sedition Wars shots as they come in. I've read through the book lightly, but I've only looked at the rest of the box contents long enough to unpack it all and take pictures. As I work on the minis I'll do my usual commentary on quality and so on. I will say to start though, that for $40, I am already ridiculously pleased with what's in the box. Even for the MSRP of ~$90 or whatever, this seems like a pretty good offering. I've heard some things about imbalance with the game itself, but supposedly there's a FAQ to take care of that. I'm not too fussed about it, honestly, I'm not sure how much play this box will see. I'm definitely going to give it a try though, and my initial work will be directed towards getting two playable forces completed.

More soon!

Alright here's the first photo dump of 10, will be 10 more and then whatever I come up with once I start working on them.

So here's the book, the box art is the same... though now that I think of it I will go back and take some shots of it. It's a good box, nice and solid, and the design shows off what's inside pretty well. The only thing I'd say about the box is that I don't see it written anywhere obviously that nothing is assembled or painted. Given that things like Heroclix exist, it isn't entirely unrealistic to assume something is painted/colored if the box shows it, could ruin somebody's day is all I'm saying. Deadzone may well be the same, we'll see.


My rulebook had a slight tear in it, but that's no big deal really. Everything inside looks great, there's a lot of concept art and good shots of all of the minis. At the first glace the diagrams and so on look pretty sharp, the rules don't seem terribly worded or anything, more later as I get through it a few more times perhaps. I hope there's a PDF somewhere, I may even scan it myself for a personal copy... 'cause this thing is going to disintegrate. For as nice as the printing is, even the outside is just glossy paper. Some of the nicer/expensive magazines have this thing beat for durability, it's a folded stapled spine, and those tend to lose coherency pretty easily. I'm pleased with the presentation quality, but I have a feeling durability will be an issue.


First thing to greet you when you open the box (the rulebook was actually sandwiched between these sheets. You get two counter sheets. They share a lot in common, but some things vary to give different or additional tokens for the forces presumably as necessary. These aren't bad counters at all. I guess you'd call them card, or maybe even chipboard, layers of brown paper substance with a glossy quasi-plastic (or perhaps vinyl?) layer on the top and bottom. Once I got it in my head to turn the sheet over and use my thumb to punch the tokens out and down, the process went really quick and I ended up with only a couple of slightly damaged tokens (and that was on the bottom). They aren't plastic, but they should hold up well. Another thing I noticed was that the art on some (a lot of them really) of the tokens is not centered, and I'm not sure that's on purpose. It isn't a big deal, all of the tokens seem to have proper art (nothing cut in half) but a lot of the smaller round icons are definitely off-center. Still, pretty pleased with the quality of the tokens, these will present and weather so much better than simple thin card tokens (like cereal box thick, had some D&D tokens from the rulebook like that.. rubbish).


Here are the tokens punched out, seem pretty solid. You can tell I realized the better way to punch them (upside down) about halfway through =/


Here we have all of the dice, tokens, clips, and such dumped into the handy little alcove they designed for them. The cards aren't there, and I'm not sure how many finished models you could fit in there (or would want to, honestly, liable to be a little rough!), but it's a decent storage area.


A couple of the play... mats? I guess they're mats. These are the same material that the tokens are made of, but solid. There's a grid on each, I think it's 12x12, and each square is an inch so the whole sheet is something like 14x14". The sheets are double sided, and I think you are meant to use 2-4 of them in a game. At least as far as I can tell from my skimming. Printed on the sheets are various interiors, including color coding for things that can be used as cover, doors, and windows. Some of the maps have special rules in the book, like falling of of the gantries or getting irradiated by the reactor. There were also two train cars that came with the token sheets, and which pull onto and off of a couple of the play mats. These are all very slightly bowed in a gentle curve. I don't think it would be an issue to play on them even with two flipped such that the bow was opposite, but a heavy book overnight will probably sort it out too. Pretty happy with these, definitely a solid upgrade to a fold-out paper mat.


Here's what the inside of the box looks like under the mats. Everything is packed away nice and neat, and bagged separately. I think this is going to be a point on which SW scores over DZ as I've heard the later comes just thrown in the box. The dice and cards are separate. Everything else, including both factions and additional plastic/acrylic tokens and counters, are in the main uber-bag. I've got that bag gutted on the next shot, so we'll leave it at that.


I'll be going over these individually, but the top three bags are models, as is the right-most bag in the second row. The center bag is bases, the other two bags hold counters/tokens.


Here are a couple of the cards. I think you get 54 of them. They feel a bit thinner than MtG or standard playing cards. In terms of overall quality of the supplemental (non-minatures AFAIC) items in the box, the cards vie with the rulebook for the weakest link. I think the cards hedge out a little better due to my gut instinct that the rulebook will simply disintegrate over time whether you try to save it or not. The cards are double sided, and it looks like there is one card for each mini included in the set. So if you have 5 male Samaritan troopers, you get 5 like cards. The cards are double sided and both sides are functional. There seems to be no need to shuffle, draw or deal the cards, you simply use them to reference the stats on your models. You can also use the cards to keep track of wounds on your models, although that would make it hard to flip the card over. Perhaps a tiny design hiccup, blue tack on the wound counter token or flipping another unwounded card fix it pretty easily. Overall the cards seem like a boon over stuffy old reference tables, although it would have been nice for them to include such tables in the book just in case I think Deadzone is the same way, maybe. My pdf Is at least.


Woah! Unexpected bonus. I did not realize when I bought this that the bases included were scenic. These aren't *quite* as nice as the resin scenic bases made by some of the bigger names, but they are very nice for something that just showed up in the box without my knowing about it. You get bases for everything, 5 50mm, 40something 25mm. I'm not sure if the various patterns are like this in every box or if, for instance, other boxen may have more of the grates at the bottom I only got 4 of. I was kind of getting into clear plastic bases, and using these may make integrating Samaritans and Strain into deadzone a little wierd... but they're definitely neat and I'll be using them because...


One of the extra token types actually clips into the bottom of the bases. I think they're used to show stuff like force fields and something strain related. They stack into themselves too so you can show stronger/stacked effects. Might make them pack away pretty nicely too These are pretty basic and simple, I don't see myself doing any cleaning up, so that's nice. Definitely novel, and nothing to complain about.


These clear tokens are used by the strain for something. I think as some kind of resource maybe. The counters are neat enough, and these will likely hold up indefinitely. No complaints, little wow-factor, solid component.


I decided to slice and dump the largest of the 4 miniature bags first. This pile is most of the basic infantry for both sides, as well some specialists. Since there was so much, I went ahead and broke this one down. A note on the general quality at a glance... I'm assuming this stuff is restic from the looks of it. It doesn't seem to quite match either the earlier lightly colored mantic restic, or the newer stuff they're using for the most recent DB and DZ releases. I can't say much more about it as I haven't cut it yet, can just tell its kin to restic by the look of the tabs and appearance where it's torn. Obviously there are mold lines, but from what I can tell, they are fairly reasonable in size. I'll let you know as I clean the models if I find any in bad or poorly chosen locations.

Next half coming soon! Tonight if the tiny master allows it...

Thanks for the pictures so far. When you get around to it do you mind doing a sedition wars - deadzone size comparison of some of the basic infantry.

Alright by the grace of Madame Toddlerington, here comes wave two of my Sedition Wars unboxing.

So... on to the contents of that first and largest bag:



These guys are the grunts of the strain. Phase 1 Necro-form Revenants. I guess these guys get made from corpses so any injured, dead, or dying person can become one. The other dudes have to be made from living targets. The job of these lowly necro-forms is to swarm around and make more, and probably to herd survivors into positions such that they can be "upgraded". You get three hideous sculpts, and it looks like 14 in total. The 4 in the middle are two parts, the rest are single pieces. I *may* be inclined to try some conversion work, to break up the monotony, maybe just repose some arms and add some extra techno-horror at additional angles to spice things up.


I think this guy is nicknamed a Quasimodo, go figure, you get 4 of him. All one piece, but honestly I'm not going to complain, and for the boardgamers that is probably a plus! In addition to his terrifying belly-mouth (and when aren't those terrifying!), he's got a nasty looking bio-tech weapon that I think sprays acid or slime or acid slime.. something like that. I think this guy would be considered a specialist, not a grunt, but not quite in the upper tier. I think he's made from a living host, combined with a heavy weapon in the process. These guys can be upgraded in-game to something called a Brimstone. The slouching puts his head level with that of the human trooper, but if he was stretched out this guy would be roughly ogre sized (mantic ogre, I think the GW guys are a bit taller still).


This is the other phase 2 strain, it's called a stalker. You get 4, all the same pose. Made from a living host infected with the strain, these guys are faster and claw-ier than the phase 1s. With enough resources, these can be upgraded to the phase 3 Scythe-Witch in game.


Hey there they are, I was wondering if we were going to see any good guys this time around. You get 3 poses, 5 of each. Male, female no helmet, female with helmet. You also get 5 saber rifles that fit the males on the top row. The other guns come in another box, and some of these get specialist weapons like the lancer or grenade launcher. These are called Vanguard Samaritans, they form the backbone of the vanguard force. Some of them get special weapons, but even the standard Saber seems pretty solid. These folks are right about the same height as a Mantic Corporation Marine, I'll get some comparison shots when I have some assembled. Definite potential here for deadzone, not-guardsmen, and the like.


I took a slightly smaller bag next, this one contained all of the Vanguard heroes. Left-right top-bottom we have Akosha Nama (sniper of doom), Captain Kara Black (the boss), Hurley (floaty tank/supercomputer extraordinaire), Corpsman Morgan Vade (medic), and Specialist Barker Zosa (for when your heavies just aren't heavy enough). I like them all, although the Hurley is probably my favorite. All four of the humans would probably look at home in a DZ rebs force as well. Zosa gets a choice of weaponry, I think the bigger gun is like a killier lancer, the other looks like a flamer. Not sure if I'll be able to magnetize those, will just pick whichever looks coolest


Not sure if switching the background was beneficial... This bag contained the Grendlr and Cthonian. The Grendlr eats people up and either consumes them, or spits them back out turbo-infected. This one is pretty damn terrifying, and its a kickass model to boot The Cthonian is a bit smaller (though I think he's even more powerful!) and shows up as the final form/big bad in the rulebook campaign. Both of these guys look like a boatload of fun, but they show up late in the campaign and are individually expensive in points, so I'll probably be doing them a bit later on (if I can persevere!).


The last bag contained the phase 3 exo-forms and the rest of the Samaritans. You get two of those Brimstones, and that massive chest gun looks brutal. The scythe-witches are pretty awesome too, they're quite a bit taller standing up than they look laid out like that. I'll take pictures later. Those scythe-witches look like they'd do a good turn as a slaanesh conversion, though I'll be leaving them as is Looks like you get 6 more guns for a total of 11, reaching the appropriate number of 15 once you count the two lancers and grenade launchers. The two Samaritans are the reavers, and use the larger guns on the sprues.


And here's everything in two large trays, you can tell there's a lot more meat on the strain side, but their grunts are preeety grunty.

Tomorrow I hope to go through the book and make a couple of lists for the free-form game type, or possibly for the first mission or two of the campaign, so I can see which and how many models I'm looking at for entry level play. Once that's done, I'll dump the selected lot into a tub and get to cleaning whenever the kid lets me.

Still no word on Deadzone, so I'm going to try to cram as much of this randomly purchased project in between now and DZ's arrival as I can. I'll also work the skeletons in the background, and if I get enough SW stuff trimmed or I need a break... I've got zombies on deck too. The sorak is plodding along slowly, almost got his skin basecoated, then I'll figure out if I'm gonna add any patterns or just highlight-wash. The armor and other details should go pretty quickly. And don't forget, I've got a couple of primed Infinity models on deck as well, just in case I get inspired while paint is drying, or I need a break.

Stay tuned GDHT viewers, I hope to keep you entertained Happy hobbying!

@Carlos, I will definitely be comparing DZ to SW (and not just in size, this seems like a solid product and one that you can directly compare with DZ, so damn right I'm gonna ). I only have two rebs models from the christmas box right now, and they aren't human sized. Once I get some Samaritans assembled I'll put them up next to the enforcers, sorak, yndij, corporation marine, and probably a space marine for good measure. I have a feeling the Samaritans might be a bit bulkier than a rebs human, but they do have a lot of armor on too.


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Alright I picked 5 Samaritans to fill 30 points (smallest game size in the campaign), including 4 troopers (2 guys, 1 each of the helmet/no helmet ladies) and a reaver --big gun guy--.

I also nabbed 8 strain, a stalker and Quasimodo, then 2 each of the 3 revenant sculpts.

I'm gonna work on trimming and cleaning these like I have been for the skeletons and zombies, then I'll see about undercoating them. Not sure how I want to paint everything, I may stick with the studio scheme, or I may pick something pretty simple. Base colors, dip, seal. These are fairly nice models but they're also meant as game pieces and I'm not sure I have forever until DZ hits. I would like to get a decent number done. Of course, I don't want them looking like crap either, so we'll see.

I really need to do more with my sedition wars stuff. I kind of got bogged down in all the negativity surrounding it and left most of it just sitting around. Perhaps I will do some work with it, as seeing all the cool stuff it came with again has gotten me inspired. Also, the bases are some of the coolest things in the box, right?

Thanks for the very good and detailed SW unboxing, seeing how much you get in the box as well as the quality of it makes it seem a good deal.

Just to clarify, there are 17 samaritans including the specialists and not the characters? And you get enough guns for all of them?

Looking forward to assembled pics.

@Squall the bases were indeed an unexpected and rather nice surprise. I never looked into SW heavily, but whaat little I'd heard was usually negative. Just grabbing it retail, and heavily discounted at that, it seems like a massive steal. I'll have to look into the supposed gameplay issues, but the physical stuff in in the box is stellar.

@paradigm You are correct. 17 Samaritans including 5 dudes with sabers, 2 dudes with reaver support weapons, and 10 ladies with 6 sabers, two lancers, and two grenade launchers. And of course you get the 4 heroes and hover robot/tank.

I've got about 3 cleaned up this morning. The strain mold lines are a bit of a pain due to the organic nature of the models, and the restic, but they aren't super terrible or anything.

Thanks for commenting, now, back to work!

That looks awesome. Me want. Nice breakdown thanks.

Indeed! The price drop, while admittedly minor, was all the incentive I needed to pull the trigger. Amazon could really do with a shot of the back of the box... it does a good job of showing off the minis and selling itself.

How much is sedition wars now days.

I remembe there being an issue with the kickstarter because the second wave of models were very out of scale with the first.

Yeah, I've heard less-than-enthusiastic reports about the not-firefly crew as well. I got my box from amazon, not sure exactly who, but it was fulfilled by amazon so I got my nifty prime 2-day shipping. I paid $39.99 which is ridiculous. Several other sellers on amazon have it for similarly low prices, it seems. I think miniature market has it for more like $70, though as long as I've seen it for $40 on amazon, I'd be willing to bet the lower price is reasonably stable.

Got the Quasimodo cleaned up, I may spray the 4-5 I have done now to keep things moving ahead, it's hard to trim too many of these at a time


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Sheesh, I'm charging up quite the to-do list. Gonna take a break for a bit and give the superglue time to cure, if daughter sleeps long enough I'll prime the SW guys, and maybe some skeletons.

Btw what are you using to attach them?

To the nails? Tiny blob of blue tack and regular super glue.

Whoops where did I go for almost a week? Uhh no where =/ Just uhh... y'know. Lame and unproductive mostly. It is high treason to be caught sitting in my office typing on dakka under the tyrannical regime of Highlord Toddlerington. Uh ahem, anyways:


Got one of my Big Mechs mostly cleaned and assembled. Pretty neat model, looking forward to giving the second one a different pose. Big Steve here probably works independently, either for the rebs or just as a merc. He's like the DB Big Mech, no pilot. I still need to get some small weapon for his right arm, either some kind of shotgun or simple close combat weapon. Going to make the left arm interchangeable with the original punchy fist. Suggestions?


Skeletons and Sedition Wars stuff all primed up. Yay!


I think he looks pretty good for the little bit of work I put into him. After I decided I was going to be using these guys on my battle systems scenery whether I play actual sedition wars with them or not... I had to go clear acrylic and special base-clipping tokens be damned.

More pictures in a minute, the taskmaster has returned!

You have a painted sedition wars model.
That's farther than I've gotten - and I backed the KS.

Haha. I will probably go mad if I got all of this is stuff and never get around to it... so a lot of it is gonna be simple jobs like Mr necromorph. I'd rather have a lot painted than a couple of nice models and a pile if frustration.

 Azazelx wrote:
Not sure if that's the actual kit - I just googled Merkava to get a good look at the tanks so it's probably not the same kit. I only just got mine in the mail a few days ago. 1/48 push-fit kits, so pretty well scaled to 28mm. Here's a picture I've just taken while writing this post. Note the pic lacks wheels and tracks, so it'll be a bit taller once properly built.

I used about 8 of those for my stand-in chimeras, plus an extra with the turret as my Manticore. Let me know if you want scale pics.

Ooh, if it's not too much bother, please do


And while I'm at it...




Considering doing the intestines and tongue (if that even still is a tongue) in a lighter pink color, and adding a little of the red over the top of that... we'll try it out on the next dude.


Pretty standard 28mm mini height and proportions. Maybe this guy is just a hair higher than average, if he weren't slouching.


Still think my phone is doing weird things with the reds, especially notable on the marine and yndij.


Additional clippy things be damned, I really like the way the clear acrylics show off detailed floors on mats and gameboards

If I don't have any second thoughts about how I'm doing the strain, they should go really quick. Maybe the vanguard too, still have to do a test scheme for those first. I'm trying an expansion of my "do minimal hobby stuff while Toddlerington is awake and not actively sitting on me" approach; I've got an impromptu painting station set up in the kitchen on an extra floating island (cooler than it sounds ) that she can't reach, when she isn't actively requiring my attention I can sit down and paint a layer. Or sometimes just a leg. But, hell, that's still a leg I'd not have gotten done if I just left things in my hobby chamber.

More later, as always let me know what you think Happy Hobbying!

That Zombie thingy is deliciously gross. I love the model and your paint really brings it to life.

I had never really thought of clear bases, but for small games like Infinity and the like it could be an interesting option. I may need to explore it myself.

I like how they keep your soldiers in context... no grass bases in the city fight etc.

The Strain are pretty neat. Bit of a different take on zombies, perfect for SciFi . Some of the bigger beasties are really cool too. And the paint scheme I really simple. I'm not quite as ambitious as your army project but I do want to get a lot done so sedition wars is gonna be all base coats and dipping.

Hoping to get a bit more done tonight, if I can sit down to paint without getting sucked in by the siren call of bg2...

Please tell me you don't mean Baldur's Gate..... my wife had a bit of a go recently that between BG, Models and my tinkering in the Shed she was coming a distant 4th.

Ah life and all that, you can't win can you.

 GrimDork wrote:
Whoops where did I go for almost a week? Uhh no where =/ Just uhh... y'know. Lame and unproductive mostly. It is high treason to be caught sitting in my office typing on dakka under the tyrannical regime of Highlord Toddlerington. Uh ahem, anyways:


Got one of my Big Mechs mostly cleaned and assembled. Pretty neat model, looking forward to giving the second one a different pose. Big Steve here probably works independently, either for the rebs or just as a merc. He's like the DB Big Mech, no pilot. I still need to get some small weapon for his right arm, either some kind of shotgun or simple close combat weapon. Going to make the left arm interchangeable with the original punchy fist. Suggestions?

Looks good, except for the tank-track shoulderpads, which look like ....tank tracks. On the arm itself, I'd go with rare earth magnets to give you full future-proof arm-swappability. Any number of Contemptor arms, for example would look fine indeed on that chassis.


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 Mathieu Raymond wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:

I used about 8 of those for my stand-in chimeras, plus an extra with the turret as my Manticore. Let me know if you want scale pics.

Do it, hermano!


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 GrimDork wrote:

And while I'm at it...

Spoiler:

Considering doing the intestines and tongue (if that even still is a tongue) in a lighter pink color, and adding a little of the red over the top of that... we'll try it out on the next dude.

More later, as always let me know what you think Happy Hobbying!

Hey, Mr.Zombie there has come up great. I'm starting to seriously consider painting up some of those things from my SW kits now. After doing the DUST Zombies, I've dug out and restarted on my WarZone zombies that I started about 8 months ago and ended up forgetting about..

@Azazelx
I'm looking to have quite the horde of zombies before it is over. Already have 20 and some change corporation marine zombies, add to that 15-20 human sized nano-zombies with another 8-12 bigger monsters. I could just go whole hog and get the 80 mutant zombies for $45 from the DZ kickstarter... If they work out. I think I'm also going to cannibalize some of my MA pledge to get some more wonderful mantic zombies. Something like 20 of them for $15 which is definitely lower than their store price, and even pretty good compared to discount retailers. I'll need some arms and heads if I want to fix all of my MaAs and still have enough to field some zombies in my KoW army.. If you do continue your zombies, make sure you put them up on the blog, love to see what you come up with

"Big Steve" is very much a work in progress. You don't like the 'field repair' tank track shoulder pad then? His right arm was standard, I was going to do a bit more to give him more of a ramshackle 'in the field' look, but if you think that bit is a little too much... I may reconsider. It is a pretty nice model to go and junk him up. Left arm is getting a magnet for sure, probably the rockets too. Do they look too big? I may have a launcher that is more of a square box and a bit longer instead of that wide (drop pod deathwind launcher).

@Archer, yes Baludr's Gate, specifically BG2:EE because while I know you can run the old game with a nifty mod and play bg1-2-tob through consecutively in the same set up, it's got a few new characters and I'm just too lazy and short of time to bother with it The game is the devil though, I've already got in mind another party to run through from BG1, and I'm not even quite to the ToB with the current group yet =\

Worse yet, there's apparently a mod for NWN2 that supposedly faithfully replicates BG+TotSC in all of NWN2's 3.5 ruleset glory. That one's on the list for another day



Honestly, I'm not sure why I even paint things other than base coats into dip... That zombie is arguably as good or better than some of the other stuff I've done recently, and I don't think it will take half an hour per mini. Maybe less on the smaller ones and if I paint in batches... I'm pretty sure even if I want to do some highlighting or layers that it doesn't preclude dipping as well, just an extra blackwash (or brown!) and hard coat over the top is all it is. I realize that the white of his pants is a lot less shiny and clean than my marines (not that my marines have a clean paint job, never that from me!)... but it was so much faster. Oh well something to ponder.

It's hard to tell if the rocket pod is too big - maybe a front-on pic? Or perhaps the mount might need to be offset back a little from the cockpit a little more. And yeah - to me at least - the tank-track shoulder detract from what is looking nice a nicely modelled figure. They're a bit ...jarring. If I can think of a better shoulder for him, I'll let you know. Did the actual figure come with one? I've already forgotten...

Yeah its a rounded bit that goes in roughly the same place. Next time I work on him I'll get more angles.

I'll get your pictures today, crappy camera batteries died on me, replacements are charging now.

No rush, and thanks for the effort.

The Strain are looking good, should fit in nicely with the plague if/when you go down that route. Looking forward to more.

I may paint my plague the same way, maybe with some variation in the colors for the clothes. May paint the armor plates the same way which would be rather different from most plague I've seen. Wouldn't match my corp zombies as well but trying in plague and strain would lead to a pretty epic horde of SciFi mutant techno zomboids.

In other news... I found what looks to be an almost perfect container for my minitaire paints. Picture to follow.


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Easily fits all 84 with room for some of my favorite Vallejo and or GW paints. Each bin is a general color group like red, flesh tones, metallics and so on. Gonna label them later. The doors lock closed and there's a bit of a handle so its easy to move 'round too. This will hopefully cut down on search time and desk clutter.

Nice find. I'm probably a contender for world's messiest desk, so I can see how something like that would come in handy.

Link to device?

Do what?

Link to the product you stored your paint in? Or was it a random find somehwere..

Oh I found it Lowes. I'll get you a upc.


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Stack-on brand 12 bin storage organizer
0 85529 00040 3


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http://m.lowes.com/product?langId=-1&storeId=10702&catalogId=10051&productId=3028605&store=595&view=detail&nValue=SEARCH

Haha. I had the kids tablet out, easier to look stuff up and link than on this phone. Now if I can just get to painting instead of BG...

http://www.lowes.com/pd_255940-941-CB-12_0__?Ntt=stack+on+resin+storage&UserSearch=stack+on+resin+storage&productId=3028605&rpp=32

the non-mobile link.

Heh, didn't even notice the m.

Here you go, not the best camera, unfortunately, that was left at the store yesterday night.




This is an early attempt to make Chimera analogs. The newer batch has a more finished top plate.

Hmm interesting. Thanks for sharing

Interesting as in "oh look at the amateur" or as in "food for thought"?

Oh yeah sorry... internet... food for thought definitely. They look nice. The one has a *lot * of missiles, which is cool. The not-chimera version is interesting because of how low profile it is, although what represents the multi laser turret? Definitely something to consider at any rate so thanks for sharing

Good Lord-Emperor above, I don't look at the P&M section for a while and when I return it's pages and pages of activity. You've been hella busy Grim

I have no idea how long it took you to paint that "Zombie", but wow, whateva it was keep it up. I was really impressed with the final result and if you can add some more gore-details, he'd be perfect.

I may have to try out gw's blood technical paint stuff. The zombie thing took maybe half an hour. Maybe? I'll time the next one, its just white under coat and a base coat of each color. The flesh is almost a wash, didn't even bother with getting it solid. Then you hit it with minwax polyshades tudor. But I agree it looks as good or better than my other zombies IMO.

If I can tear myself away from baldurs gate I can get s truckload of these done in a few hours.

Baldur's Gate? I don't think we'll be seeing you for a while.

 Barzam wrote:
Baldur's Gate? I don't think we'll be seeing you ever again.

Fixed that mate.

Yeah... probably. Been nice knowing you guys.










Naah. It *is* really distracting though.

I did manage to get the remaining two strain painted up last night, and I'm pretty sure I know how I'm gonna do the vanguard. So there's something.


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And now I've got those two strain (plus vanguard and skeleton tests) dipped as well. All I've got to do is seal the lot of them, though I need to give the dip until tomorrow to cure probably. No worries, not like I play games ever

Still really cold and I haven't gotten an airbrush hood yet... Might not be priming anything for a bit of a while. Guess I'll have to work on my skeletons or possibly sorak as I'm out of almost everything else.

I've got one more vanguard but I want to use her as a trial for airbrushed base grey over white undercoat, to compare to a base grey undercoat. I *really* like the way the vanguard test came out, so if I have to dust them with white before grey to keep that tone, I'll damn well do it.

I'm fairly happy with how my skeleton came out as well. The grey cloth and white bone get a little closer to eachother than I'd really like after being exposed to the Tudor... but I'm pretty sure you can tell the difference from a distance so I'm not too concerned.

Pictures tomorrow maybe. Sealer takes time to cure as well... but usually after an hour or two I can safely handle it enough to get the guys down on their bases.

Speaking of that Sorak... I think I'm gonna adjust the scheme I used on that Yndij and try to prep the Sorak for dipping. It's making basically everything else look better for less time... kind of hard to not do it. I'm half tempted to paint up my Infinity figures all nice like, and dip them anyway, if it makes plain models look good, kind of wondering if it won't step up the game of my stronger attempts...

Keep on Hobbyin folks


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Was gonna wait till they were sealed but here's what I'm working with at the moment. I'm pleased with the "black" on the Quasimodo. I like the way the vanguard came out, I may even steal the scheme for my enforcers. Might do them a bit different in the future, a different grey to highlight the black parts and set them apart from the armor a bit. Maybe just a dash of color somewhere. The skeleton looks solid too.

Working out the skeletons assembly line style, got grey and at least half of the black (for metals) done. Finish that, then leather, wood, eyes (ebil red eyes, scary!), and probably ready for the dunk tank. Should go quickly. I think once the dip is dry, I'll apply the purple/red shield stickers that came in the box. I'll have to trim them down to fit on the damaged shields. Then I'll seal which will hopefully flatten out the glossy stickers. I'll do a test first. I need to get the rest of my strain and vanguard primed.

Nice progress! Liking the bright look on your skellies. I went for red eyes too, reckon it suits the slightly cheesy old school look of them.

Damn though man, you really waiting til February for your DZ stuff? That's pretty lame, after your countdown! Glad to see you turning it into a positive with the KoW progress and the cool Sedition Wars paint jobs.

Will be a lot more progress too if I take the time to get the rest of my assembled SW minis undercoated.

Working on a portable/lap painting station though its just in idea form. I did get a mini rechargeable lamp for it today though, and used up my amazon points ordering an airbrush cleanout station and a wet palette. Excited for both.

Not sure if I wanna make it out of wood or maybe extra lightweight out of insulation foam. More later.

If you come up with something good PLEASE share it.
I've been trying to figure out a good way to do that for a while now.

When I cant spray prime I prime with black gesso if thats any good to you.

I've heard of this Gesso stuff, does it come in a good chalky white? I could airbrush in my office, but it's a small room and I don't have a hood yet to suck up the fumes.

@Rigeld2 My creation will probably be fairly dinky and minimal, all function over form, but I will definitely share

I know gesso comes in white but I only have experience with the black. Not sure if the white will work as well.

From my experience the white isn't as good as the black. Which makes me sad because I like to prime white.

And form over function is fine. I'm just too lazy to build my own without inspiration.

Ahh I'll stick to the airbrush then as I've been preferring white.

I'll be looking into the painting station soon, won't get much done without it.

My painting station is a fold up desk. If I cant paint at that desk or want to paint elsewhere I just use a dinner tray.

I like the simplicity! I need something my tools and supplies will socket down into though or stuff might spill when the kid assaults me or etc.

Thats fair. I dont have the pleasure of kids attacking me. Though the girlfriends cats did do their best to try to knock over the dinner tray at christmas.

Haha ouch! Kids are z bit more predictable in their angles of attack... cats are ninja...

Got a little work on the skeletons, mostly down to metal and leather with a bit of rotten wood as well. OK they're closer to started than done but there's not a lot.

I got distracted collecting a regiment of lizardmen saurus and dumping them into a vat of LATA for stripping. I've dubbed it the spawning pool. The wife said she might want to try painting then again and, while I have my doubts, spending an hour or so on them with a toothbrush isn't a big deal. Maybe I'll even get her to try KoW sometime. Orcs make good lizardmen in the rules?

I also dug out my smurfs for shiggles... got more than I thought... especially if I space them out on multi bases. I'll do some pictures here later.


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Here we go spawning pit. Sizzle.


Smurfs! If I spread out and multi base I can do 5-6 regiments of goblins and 2 troops/ 1 regiment of fleabag riders. Hmm I've got some boars too I could make 4 more riders. Not sure what the chariot should be. Got a couple of giants around too. 4 heroes incl fighter standard and two wiz's.

Those are the old metal snotlings with custom hats. Not sure you can get them anymore. Used to come nearly 20 to a blister... probably now they do 5 in fine cast for $30

Wanna get the big KOW book but I kinda want to hold off for the enhanced digital version assuming that's a thing that happens.

I knew you had smurfs, but that many?!

Oh man, I would love to see that army kicking the ass out of some serious business armies that's such a "troll" army, haha, well done!

If the mistress paints them lizardmen, be sure to post those things. The hobby runs in that family, I see!

Hopefully it does.

That's like 600 pts of kow goblins though I can hit 1k by incorporating my two giants. Also have 4 boars that could become Fleabags too. I think these will be my only other fantasy army beyond the massive pile of undead. And the wife's lizardmans if she does them.

Trying to decide if I wanna zombifiy the majority of my empire or simply eBay them to buy more undead directly. Kind of a decision between getting a boatload of zombies, or a smaller selection of NiB mantic undead.


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Oh yeah I got the other addition wars mjnis sealed along with that skeleton. Will base and upload tonight if I can. Need to prime the last 8 for my first batch. Maybe tomorrow. Should get my airbrush cleanout and wet palette tomorrow to so a review of those will be forthcoming.

I love the smurfs, such an awesome idea. Would love to face them on the table, nothing like having your brains dashed out by a friendly, smiling, little blue man.

On the Wife painting front I was dubious when my wife said she wanted to try her hand at painting, she has never been the artsy type, but I can't stop her now. I love it. Although I don't think I will ever get her to play the actual war game.

They have a lot a lot of character too, those old snotlings. I had a lot of things figured out for WFB that no longer concern me regarding KoW (like netters and armor and spears etc), oh and the fanatics. There are actually quite a few with large heavy balls on the end of chains

Wonder if you can still get those blisters online somewhere... Oh GW website still sells the blister for like $20. With 17 models in the pack give or take... still one of the better PPM offers they have IMO And I found an auction on eBay. If it stays low I may have to snipe it just for kicks, I bet these guys would still be a lot of fun to paint

I'll see about taking some more photos of my favorites, some of those sculpts are just hilarious I was gonna make one of the giants Gargamel... but I'd need a patched up robe and I'm just not that good at greenstuff. Plus he'd be unlikely to march into battle on the same side

As for the wife painting... we'll see. I bought her what amounted to a hobby starter set when we were still in highscool nigh unto a decade ago. Wait.. add a couple three years.. sheesh. Anyway... lizardman rulebook, box of saurus, think I got her a hobby knife and a can of primer. Just let her use my paints. She got the primer on too thick all of those years ago and had a lot else going on, it was kind of a poor gift Idea at the time. Now though.. we'll see. I also plan to let my daughter paint with me as soon as she's old and responsible enough to not eat the paint off the brush I'm thinking late 2, or 3 or 4. I'll have a big pile o reaper bones then for that

Now I'm gonna go base those sedition wars guys woohoo.

Ah, I see, that was the real reason for hoarding all those miniatures: practice for the future master painter!

(Gee, when you have kids you have the most convenient excuse for anything )

You sure do. I dont like that pony show like a lot of people seem to (daughter watches it too much, hard to like anything with that much repetition), but I'd have a good excuse.

Sometimes she's a good excuse to cut visits short too. Whoops babys getting tired see ya!

Gotta watch out though they have mile long arms and put cats to shame for getting into stuff

If you guys are interested in the old style gw snotlings check out foundrys packs of Kev Adams' self-portrait mini with a bunch of snorklings . Which are of course non-GW snotlings sculpted by Kev , who did the originals anyway..

Also all of the money goes to help support Kev after his injuries.

@Azazelx I will have to check those out. I had seen the goblin thing that was going on but usually I stay away from greenskins and and somewhat tight on the hobby budget atm. However... for snotlings...

Alright time for a photo dump. I didn't accomplish much today, but I did get those four dipped models sealed. The skeleton is off elsewhere, inspiring his fellows or something. His cruel and merciless overseer did decide to drop by for a visit though:


Scary isn't he? I forget which game this guy goes to. Something... french? Or uhh, from somewhere. He came in a blister and had a card, drawing a blank past that. He used to have a sword but a space marine terminator conversion stole and squandered the otherwise very cool weapon. Meh, super necromancers don't need stinking swords!

As per usual, here are some shots of the new scifi models to scale with some of the stuff you've already seen. That little rechargeable lamp can get some helpful angles though I put it too close/bright in a few of these:


You can see here that the Vanguard are almost exactly the same size as corporation marines. Hell these two even have almost identical poses.


Not quite a mirror match.. but damn close.


I love this model. Such a cool sculpt. I kept having urges to spend more time on it, but I've got 4 of them and a bunch more sedition wars to get done if I want to have a playable collection.


The quasimodo has an interesting shape, it's bigger than the enforcer, but is really hunched over. I think he would make a neat stand in for a plague mortar team for Deadzone.


Somewhat necessary close up of the back of that vanguard. He's dangerously close to being a single color. I mean there's a subtle variety of tone from the dip, but even the flexible parts of the armor that are meant to be black with an edge highlight are almost too similar. I may pick a lighter grey or white to do those with next time, and go on a little lighter with them.


Obligatory "can't focus on everything at once" action pose. At least the zombie marine looks good in this shot

Finally, I picked up some Blood for the Blood God after I kept hearing about it. I've got to say it is pretty neat. Put it on lightly and it's similar to a thick wash or glaze. I guess glaze is the better term. You can get it onto a surface but still show the surface underneath. Or you can slop it on nice and thick, multiple coats if you like, for a stronger effect. It allows you to do blood stains, smears, pools, etc... all in one step more or less. Check out the updated NecroMorph below and let me know if you think I should apply the same blood effects to the quasimodo and other necromorph. I'm leaning towards yes, but I haven't done it yet either.


I think the gory look is appropriate for the equivalent of a freshly made zombie.

That's enough out of me for one night. I'm either gonna look into putting leather on those skeletons or maybe fall back into the bg1... I'd airbrush but its so cold in my little office room... first power bill was ridiculous, I've spent the last week weather stripping the windows, putting gap things in the doors, covering the AC, you name it. Oh and installing curtains. Hopefully it helps, none of this was even a consideration at the last place lol. Oh well, otherwise this place is great Time to go hang out with Wifey, if I get back and remember my house shoes I'll airbrush. Otherwise it'll happen eventually.

Keep on Hobbyin

Nice work on those, also the BFTBG paint is awesome. Your plague will love it when they arrive, and in the mean time, the Strain are making good use of it.

Any chance of some more pics of that whatever-it-is infront of the Enforcer in the first group shot. I've no idea what it is, and it's kind of hard to tell. Looks cool and freaky, though.

Oh that's another sculpt for the necromorph or whatever theyre called. Next time I get in the hobby room I'll try to get some more angles.

Not gonna get pictures of anything tonight, but I did manage to get the 9 remaining sedition wars models (from my initial minimum to play set) primed to the correct color. I tried the grey from my test model over white and as an undercoat. Can't tell the difference really, so yay for saving a step I'll probably switch gears from the skeletons to work on these guys from tomorrow on, but they shouldn't take long.

My wet palette and airbrush cleaning station came in. I set up the palette, but I chose to airbrush instead so I can't say if it works. Surely though, and I'll let you know tomorrow probably.

The airbrush cleanout station is awesome though. It doesn't fit my SOTAR very well, the cradle that would normally support the brush is in the way. I think it's the little plastic grip. I may experiment with taking that off, though I can use the station as is. It's just a glass jar with a fancy plastic lid with a hole. The hole has a rubber gasket and there's another hole on the other side of the lid. You spray into the gasket and overspray hits a shield that deflects it down, any gasses in need of escape will have to do so through the filter. Basically you get to clean your brush by blowing water (or alcohol or 'official' brand name cleaner) through it, rather than disconnecting and running off to the sink. Saves time, saves fumes, good buy.

I'm starting to consider applying the Tudor to my Infinity minis. I'll still be trying to paint them better, but after seeing what Barzam's models look like (and he dips them), I think it must be just as beneficial to better paint jobs as it is to basecoat only projects. I'm sure that there's a point when it would be either moot or damaging, but I don't think such a level is within my current ability.

More from me later, happy hobbying

If you are able to, please do give the Quasimodo a few extra touches. The miniature looks brutal; it looks big, mean and scary, as it should, and really like a necromorph. Damn, it's really cool.

What about painting one of the Vanguard's Shoulder plate in a different color? You now have a spot color and a little extra touch, like "Red Team", "Blue Team", that sort of thing.

He will definitely be getting a hit from the BftBG to gore him up a bit, not only where it makes sense. I'm not sure what else to do at the moment, the skin could have all kinds of things done with it but I reluctant to try anything and potentially mess him up and want to start over. The pipes could probably use another wash too, maybe some diluted oil stain.

I'm working to get a playable force done before deadzone (which could be as little as two weeks now!) so I'm not going to spend too terribly long at a time per model. Having said that, it never hurt anything to go back over a matte seal as long as you seal THAT back up too

I like the shoulder pad thing. Probably "just enough" to keep them from being too dull.


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Some progress, but nothing shiny enough for pictures really. Got the black done for all 9 SW minis, and the skin done for the strain models before that. Strain just need metal, teeth/nails/eyes, and some pink bits for any exposed muscle or entrails and they'll be ready to dip. Wait.. a couple of them will have the dark grey-black too. I'll have to do that on the vanguard as well, for the guns. Then highlight the black flexible parts of the armor, do the visors, and devise an easy and effective skin tone for them. Plus hair. Should still go pretty quick.

I still need to trim all of the bits, but I've made progress on my Enforcer Defender as well. I used the hobby saw to clear away most of the heavy laser rifle and then crudely grafted a similarly sawn spacemarine scout shotgun squarely in it's place. ALLITERATION!

*Ahem. Still gotta fix the rest of the parts and assemble the model. I'm thinking of either adding additional armor plates or something crazy like a force field drone or something to represent the shield since he's holding the gun two-handed. maybe even an attachment to the gun itself to cover his chest and thighs...

There, update shiny enough for progress. I need to let the minwax cure, then seal them, and base them. should take an hour or so.

The only thing with the above is that I may need to try out a new kind of sealer. I let my spectra tex stuff get cold during the move and it's been goopy and sluggish ever since, more so than I remember it, and barely comes out of the airbrush. The Minitaire line comes with it's own matte/semi/gloss sealers, so I'll try the matte from that set and see what happens.

Currently this leaves me with only the skeletons, sorak, and a couple of Infinity minis primed and paint ready. I'll probably stick to the skeletons as they really don't need a whole lot of work, and only a bit of that is detailed. Gonna do the metal next, followed by really easy shield work and the bases which will take a few seconds per. Then the eyes for any I missed and done. I may go in after the sealer and try to do a skull pattern with the BftBG since the stickers don't act like they're gonna work.

Once all of that is done... I'm seriously considering doing another team or two of forge fathers. It took a not inconsiderable amount of willpower to avoid buying any of the FF sets from mantic during their new year sale that just ended today. I may try to bust out that sorak too though. I'm regretting my choice for his base skin color as I'm thinking that I want to shift all of my deadzone schemes into something that's conducive to dipping, and he's a bit dark to get the full benefit.

Not positive what they meant when they told me my deadzone would be shipping, either could be interpreted as the first of the second week of frebruary (at the same time as they would probably have to send it to their stockists), or actually after the second week so no sooner than the 15th technically after their retail release. We'll see.

More to say.. but doing 9 models with wood stain has left this room a bit hazardous now that I've taken my mask off! TTYL!

Happy Hobbying!


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Nice and sealed now. The Minitaire Flat Coat or whatever it's called (name already wore off after one session of agitating the contents..) seems to pass the test. Models are flatter now, none of that sparkly frosting stuff you can sometimes get... and it's a lot more fluid than the last one got to be. Now I just need to let that dry/cure and I can base these suckers.

The real trick is to determine if I'm working on the skeletons, sorak, or some dwarfs?

Ahem, got a lot done today! Baby decided to hang out with my mom all day, and with the wife at work... Actually got some painting/hobby done. Well... really that isn't fair, I got most of the painting done while watching the baby earlier in the week, but I was able to close some deals so to speak with longer gaps of time in which to peruse the airbrush. I do want to go on about a couple of the newest additions to my hobby arsenal as well.


I kept saying I would get a wet palette, I kept thinking it would be cheaper to make one. Got this from amazon for ~$13, comes with 5 pieces of the paper.

I dunno, I mean keeping paints workable for nights or days or weeks at a time.. not sure I ever deploy enough paint for it to live that long, usually the last little bits of it just soak into the paper. What it does do though, is vastly Improve the work time of any paint I've put on it so far. They all eventually get tacky and need some more water, but it takes a lot longer. Even my pissy gw boltgun lasts a few minutes longer (usually I just dip it out of the pot cause it dries out so fast). So this was definitely worth getting. I may just get some parchment paper to replace the sheets once I run out, though they are supposedly washable and therefore long lasting. The bottom tub has a bit of a warping issue, but that doesn't seem like a big deal.


About my painting tray, I've commandeered our seldom used kitchen island and parked all of my stuff on it. I just grab a chair and sit in front of it when it's time to paint and the baby is about. Been working so far..



Airbrush cleanout station, whoo... I love this thing. I didn't know I needed one when I was airbrushing in that nasty basement, I could just dump the airbrush cup out and spray out into the open, not so in my little office/study/hobby room! This takes care of the overspray, it doesn't fit my gun as well as it probably would an Iwata, maybe I'll see about taking off my finger rest thing... But yeah, makes switching colors way less painful!


I think we've already seen this guy but... I couldn't get those stickers that came with the skeletons to work. Given my newfound obsession with BftBG, I decided to recreate the "evil skull" look pattern it had, which works given the whole hordes of grimskull thing. I'll get better as I do more.


Basecoat down on the movement tray, coming along I guess.


SORAK! He needs sealed, and based. Should take like 10 minutes total.. or 5, but y'know with setup and teardown times etc. Whatever, I think he looks decent for the little work I did. Basecoats only except for the little bit of black edge highlighting. I think it turned out alright.

Photo dump, I'll talk about them in a minute when I get to my kid tablet, baby is home so I must be quick:















I left everything full sized, so click on them for more detail!

Be back later with additional commentary, I didn't get those dwarfs up on their nails but I did get everything trimmed and the mini bases removed. If the baby is asleep tonight in good order, I may go ahead and get the yellow down, we'll see. After that it's just those skeletons and the two Infinity figures left and paintable (ignoring my horde of marines and other models that only ever made it to the black (primer) death ).

I have been toying with the idea of getting an airbrush for a while, but I am not really familiar with anyone that has one. Are they really worth while?

I am really loving the clear bases and when (if?) I ever get around to my Infinity models I think they are just the type to benefit from them.

The last 'action' photo is awesome, I love fully painted models and tabletop. Keep up the work. Or at least snatch little bits here and there when the little one is not around.

When I get my DZ stuff, and if tax time is nice to me and I manage to get a camera... There will probably be a few updates that are just me taking fun group/action shots... cause its fun.

Hopefully battle reports too when and if I can get people to play games with me

It's going to be a bit of an effort, but I got some clear epoxy specifically for my infinity models, I just hope they aren't too top heavy/side specific...



I really like the airbrush for undercoats and base coats. I think I've saved enough time/opportunity cost to justify it. I can't paint whole models with it, haven't learned how yet. I think its gonna be indispensable come my dz scenery tiles.


Meh, there was a page flip:


Two each of the 3 necromorph sculpts, a quasimodo, and a stalker. 30 points in the game.


From behind, I think some of what I painted as skin on the stalker is officially a torn shirt, but I thought it would look cooler if he appeared to be more mechanical, and tearing out of the fleshy covering so I went for it.


Close up on some gore, cause what sense is there in a belly mouth what doesn't eat people?


Also 30 points of vanguard. I used all 3 samaritan poses, the two ladies also moonlight as grenade launcher and lancer specialists, that's a reaver in the back.


The reaver was kind of out of focus compared to the rest of them, big old gun huh!


Two different skin tones, I think that of the reaver favors a more natural tone, but I like both and variety is good.


Obligatory action shot, get used to it... once deadzone arrives and I have some painted scenery It's probably all I'm gonna do


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Bwahaha, I got the dwarves nailed and basecoated mustard yellow. Well gold yellow. Same thing.

I also got Mr. Sorak sealed and based, pictures coming tomorrow, need sleep.

Geez, you make those Sedition Wars figures look really nice. What are you using to pain the armor on the humans?

And where can I find some of those clear bases? I'm thinking I'm going to really need them for my Mutant Chronicles since so many figures actually don't fit their included bases.

Good heavens, this is such a joy to look at. Love the look of your "undead", that red really contrast with EVERYTHING. It's glorious!

I'm happy you decided to paint the yellow shoulderpad, I feel a contrasting color like that does wonders to any paintjob.

Keep up the awesome work

I wasn't too sure on sedition wars before but you have made the models look great. The humans look like they would make good corp.

I like the single coloured shoulder pad. I did the same with when painting imperial guard before to dictate squads. People meant for the same squad would all have one shoulder pad in a squad colour.

You guys are too kind! I'm gonna a have to stop trying past the dip, this standard just looks better to me and combined with the expediency...

@Barzam I airbrushed their under coat of base grey, a light grey from the badger minitaire line, then the obligate Tudor dunk.

I got my bases from Litko, they do a lot of bases and counters. They are here in the US. I got the 1.5x25mm clear rounds for $15 a pack of 100. They do thicker 3mm bases that are closer to normal/official bases too but the thin bases dissapear better IMO.

@TDL I'm getting a bit obsessed with blood for the blood god. I need to check if they do a similar green 'cause I'd want to nurglize my marines in that case . And I agree on the shoulder pads... they needed something.

@Carlos the good thing is the scheme is really simple to reproduce if you like it. Not sure if I'll do all 17 Samaritans with the same yellow or switch it up a couple of times.

I'll put the sorak up later, and I'll be working on the dwarfs today for a switch.

Happy hobbying.

 GrimDork wrote:

@TDL I'm getting a bit obsessed with blood for the blood god. I need to check if they do a similar green 'cause I'd want to nurglize my marines in that case . And I agree on the shoulder pads... they needed something.
Happy hobbying.

I hope I use it for the first time soon. The VenDread is gonna need some of that Blood for the Blood God on his Claw and I'm finally reaching that stage.

About the green, there's something that looks like the green goo you probably want, the new Nurgle's Rot.

Here's a quick review about all of them: http://taleofpainters.blogspot.dk/2013/11/review-citadel-technical-paints.html

Cool link. I may have to reevaluate the whole line in that case. And yes, do paint up that vendread and let us know!

I see what you mean about the squad markings needing something. Maybe its becasue all the greys are dark outlined but the yellow isn't.

Dunno we'll see. Now that I look closely I see that those are straps going over their shoulders and need switching to the same color of the belts.

Meh didn't get much done. Though it doesn't take much to work out those forge fathers in my scheme. Perhaps tomorrow, maybe the next day. Soon those will be done. Sorak is done, haven't gotten a good picture yet though.

I also managed to get my shotgun enforcer together. It's a bit rough, and needs to be smoothed out a bit. Still need to sort out what I want to do about the shield. Sleepy time now though.

The action shots look great, especially on the pre-coloured SW board with the clear bases.

Can't wait till I have my dz scenery to make ever better setups. And an actual camera. Gonna lower my expectations a little and look for a good solid camera, with shooting minis in mind, that doesn't break the bank merely because its an SLR or what have you.

Still treading water in regards to the dwarfs, but no hurries. Gonna see to them and to my enforcer defender as I get time.

Hows the defender looking?

Temporary. He obviously has a shotgun and shield but just as obviously they don't match perfectly.

Gotta put some green stuff on the gun too now that I remembered .

Got four more of the new gw technical paints. I will report my findings as I use them.

Looking forward to seeing the Defender, I've got 5 enforcers I'm looking to convert into Defenders and possibly Recon variants, so any inspiration is great.

As for the tech paints, I've used Corrosion, Rust (those two together make great rusty weapon effects, perfect for plague/orx) and Blood (just awesome). Looking forward to what you do with them.

Might get to him today. Wanna finish dwarfs first but that'll be quick. Need yo sort out how I wanna do black or dark grey then its done.


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So update: Enforcer is done, as are the 5 storm rage vets. I'm a bit apprehensive about all six models but I think the dip will sort them out as it always seems to do.

Enforcer is fairly close to the studio scheme with a darker, less white, grey on the armor plates and a dark almost black grey most everywhere else. You guys will have to let me know what you think about the spot color.. I'm on the fence there.

The dwarves are really, really basic. I tweaked my scheme (and updated to minitaire paints just for simplicity) from the first 10 forge fathers, but the bombay mahogany dip is so dark and thick I'm willing to bet it will be fairly hard to tell They look kind of like crap right now. Dip makes things look better. I'll have to do that before I can tell if the base pre-dip models are good enough or not. Snap, just remembered a few wires. Still... whenever the baby takes her nap, everything will get dipped, and I'll take a WiP.


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Oh man, you just don't doubt the tudor. I thought my enforcer may not have been good enough before I dunked him, but now i'm totally happy with the results. Just need to seal and base. We'll see how well the bombay mahogany works out on the dwarfs. I have half a mind to switch them to tudor as well, but then I'd probably want to use darker yellow and I'd already be 10-15 models in etc... We'll see.

I think he looks pretty good for the negligible amount of time involved Need's flat coat and a base, then woot.


The shotgun is pretty shoddy work, but it get's the job done. The tombking shield is kinda bleh but it was mostly the right shape and almost the right size, this should be a suitable proxy.


I was sorely tempted to use the tudor instead of the bombay mahogany, they might have been a bit sharper, but they'd have lost the nifty orange color. Since I'm not trying too hard with this faction, I think I'll keep going as I have been.

Now... what next? Any suggestions? I'm not especially keen on making the extra yndij and sorak, would rather do a breadth of DZ models before depth.

Having said that... I still have 2 enforcers worth of bits, and two more I could update to the new scheme. Then I could just about jump straight into the plague faction when my stuff shows up. It's a thought.

I have more dwarfs. Wouldn't wanna do more stormrage vets straight away, which leaves steel warriors or the flamer guys. I'll probably split the flamer guys up and do one or two per batch of steel warriors though.

Obviously the very next thing I paint will be skeletons, but as soon as something else is ready they get bumped back in the queue, it is their dark fate, but they're used to it and anything is better than languishing in the box.

I could grab another 4-8 sedition wars minis and bulk out the two 'starter forces' I just finished. Both paint up super quick now that I know what I'm doing.

Have you guys got any thoughts? I'm hoping to have deadzone soon-ish. Supposedly they ship for their 15th release on the 14th or whatever, I should be on that, meaning I have 6 days till I can vaguely expect a shipping notification, then it should be no more than a couple of days after that. I did pay for courier after all, and everyone else's courier shipments came in about 1-2 days after they were picked up. We'll see. I've been patient but it's wearing thin


I've come up with another decision/deadline as well. I want to be rid of my old armies, those that I'm sure I'll never use again. These include Dark Eldar, Tyranids, Empire, and potentially skaven. I have the most love left for the skaven, and they're in the best shape. If I do let them go, I'll be after the most in return for those. Anyway, my loose plan is to nab one of those flat-rate shipping boxes and verify that an army will fit into it (minimal packing, but what can you do), and them dump at least the first three onto ebay for a relatively low value. I've gotta tally everything up, but something to make them move like a hundred bucks an army or something. Maybe a buck fifty if I've got nice stuff. The skaven will theoretically be more, I've got a brand new in (opened) box hell pit abomination and a bunch of the moderately older metal models like poisoned wind globadiers, storm vermin, etc.

Anyway, there's a game store an hours drive away that does an annual Bazaar where you bring them your hobby stuff and they put it out and people can purchase it etc. If it sells, you get the value in store credit. I plan to go to see if I can turn up anything cool, but I also plan to use it as a motivator. It's probably in august or something. If I haven't sold my armies by then, I plan to bring them along and make them move. This is less desirable than eBay because store credit means full prices and a more limited array of choices. I'd probably be stuck getting GW or warmahordes, or hobby supplies etc. Obviously paypal from ebay would be better, so that's my motivation for getting my rump into gear.

I say this here because I felt if anyone that reads my blog were interested in any of that stuff, they ought to have first crack at it. I'll be trying to sort things out, there are a few pieces in some of the armies that will either be absorbed into my undead (wizards--> necromancers, etc) or kept for nostalgia. I'll have to take pictures, and those will probably end up here, or at least links to the galleries. Anyway..

So yeah, probably get a wee little bit of skeleton work done tonight, and then I've got to dig something out to prep for painting.

One last thought... my ridiculous hoard of marines... Damn near considering making at least some of them into nurgle chaos marines. Bang out some kind of small force. Maybe use my plague zombie warriors eventually coming from the DZ survey2 as cultists... that kind of thing. Who knows. Thoughts? It would be a way to do the "tall scaling" thing and cover it up with plaguey chaosy stuff...

Happy hobbying!

It's looking good so far, Grim. Shotgun from a SM scout?

And yeah, Hawkeye. Lol. And my Defenders will be a Cap design. Carrying shields, it's pretty much an auto requirement.

Meant to put this in the Mantic thread. D'oh!

Top 3/4 is yes. And you can post here all you like

Kind of reminds me of these kind of shields grim

Nice work on the defender, I may have to try something very similar with my few leftover enforcers. In game I can see defenders being very useful, so the sooner I can get them sorted the better. Thanks for the inspiration.

Have you played Sed Wars at all yet? If so, how are the rules?

@Carlos cool shields. I'll put up some pics and thoughts about my dipping process as I get time today.

@Paradigm thanks. The highly likely knock back does seem fairly useful for sweeping an objective to claim the control vps. No sedition wars though I do have enough to play. Birthday coming up maybe I'll coerce a family member to play


So wow lots of models finished yesterday! I got the enforcer and forge fathers dipped, and then finished all 13 remaining skeletons and dipped them too! I still have to do their shield icons in blood and then I want to try out those corrosion and rust paints, but they are close!

Only models left that are primed and nailed are two infinity minis so I may get to those soon. Also think I may assemble the orx grunts command sprue to try out some ideas for orx flesh and gear colors. I want to finish the moving tray for my skeletons too.

Should be some pictures later!


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Ok Carlos, here's what I do in a pictorial nutshell, I'll add text later. Photo Dump:
























Tools of the trade, so to speak. Cotton swabs, and little twisted bits of paper towel to get into nooks and crannies as necessary.

I think I'm going to work on my big mech conversion. I'm liable to get several striders from the kickstarter now... but I still wanna work on this guy for fun I'm also going to look at doing around 5 more sedition wars minis including the wicked scythe-witch.

More from me later, going to see how many (hopefully all, of course) of these minis I can get flat coated before the baby wakes up. If I get enough down, I'll put the scifi models on their bases later and pop them up here as well.

I would like to see some further work on the big mech conversion. The little guys are cool and look great, but we all no we stay for the giant robot bash.

Ahh well you are in luck. Just magnetized his arm options and after I do the missile rack he'll bet set to prime

I see so you use a drill to get the gunk off.

You said they are attached to the nails with superglue right? How do you get them back off again?

Those you can do really easy with your thumb. Models with giant feet like space marines come off that way too usually. For models with thinner legs or small feet, you just work a razorblade in under the foot till you can pop it off. Some are a bit dicier than others but I dont think I've broken a leg off yet, just err on caution. Sometimes you can even dig into the nail with your knife just a bit.

You can also use pliers and sling the excess off but you need more room for that.

I usually use a teeny tiny blob of poster tack on the nail, apply glue, and set the foot down. Too much tack and you get a super weak bond. Just enough and you get a strong bond that's still pretty easy to break when you actively try. It also let's you get away with holding the join while the glue sets for s lot less time.

 GrimDork wrote:
Cool link. I may have to reevaluate the whole line in that case.

Nurgle's Rot works a bit differently to BFTBG (I wince every time I think of that name). Here's a pretty good explanation:




I also have to agree with others - you've made those Sedition Wars models - both Strain and, um, human corp or whatevers - Vanguard(?) look really good. If I hadn't just added 3 units to the painting queue I might have added some strain. Maybe after I finish these other guys, and they can be my next speed-painting sci-fi Zombie batch...

Btw what class did you roll for baldurs gate?

You are too kind. And you are just throwing fuel on the fire of " I'm never gonna not dip again". I have to agree that I like the strain. And the effort involved is quite agreeable. Maybe this is a case of paint smarter not harder... if or until I can paint minis by hand without dipping a lot better than the last things have turned out... no point in not dipping.

And its not like dipping precludes highlights or shading either' its just a buttery smooth dirty black wash and I've always liked a good black wash


Progress:
Skeletons have gotten their shield designs and are de-nailed. Movement tray is dipped, need to decide on grass/clump stuff. Regiment done soon though.

Enforcer and dwarfs based. Either I used a darker yellow or the dip stained harder.. they are noticeably darker.. may try same yellow and black wash nexttime instead.

Despite two for twenty striders on the dz second survey, still going forward with 'big Steve' and he's now magnetized glued and undercoated. Still need a small weapon for his right hand.. I figure the missiles are AP, the assault cannon is suppression , and the last bit could be a single use flamer or grenade launcher once I find the fight bit. Also painted his original left hand, it has rockets on it for rocket punch action, and will be an alternative melee option. Maybe that load out trades piercing missiles for suppression missiles eh?
Need to let him dry then mask some bits and spray white over the canopy and off color bits.. actually undercoated this one black for s change.

Took a stab at my moderator too. Gonna shy away from "paint infinity models good or go home" and just have fun with then. The nice sharp edges and abundance of detail will likely inspire somewhat better effort and results naturally anyway.

Tomorroe plus will see me painting the infinity guys and big Steve since I get his whites airbrushed on. When I can't paint, I'll be working on cleaning s necromorph, scythe witch, two Samaritans, and a lancer all to be painted vaguely next.

Happy hobbying!




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@Carlos what class didn't I roll!?

Did bg1 months ago with a jester bard and if was great, ported to bg2 now just before tob.

Made a gnome cleric/thief who only rolls with other 'shorties' and neera. Gonna run them thru all 3 games too. Maybe my favorite class.

Also juked the multiplayer system to get my own custom party of 6 player made PCs, each something I wanted to try but that were either bad protagonists or that I just wouldn't get to.
Dark moon monk, very cool and fairly versatile
Pure bounty hunter for ridiculous traps and comprehensive thievery
Blade cause fightier bard but still auto identifies after a few levels
Dragon sorceress just cause I could afford to do weird in my party
Avenger druid as temp healer (may drop I'm bg2 to take various NPCs on their own quests)
And a stalker danger who will dual class to cleric in bg2 gaining a really neat mix of cleric druid and wizard spells. Plus sneak and backstsb

You asked

Sounds fun mate.

I have rolled many when I was a kid.

Playing as a fighter/theif atm. I always prefer rogue classes but they tend to get murdered pretty quickly in BG.

 GrimDork wrote:
You are too kind. And you are just throwing fuel on the fire of " I'm never gonna not dip again". I have to agree that I like the strain. And the effort involved is quite agreeable. Maybe this is a case of paint smarter not harder... if or until I can paint minis by hand without dipping a lot better than the last things have turned out... no point in not dipping.

And its not like dipping precludes highlights or shading either' its just a buttery smooth dirty black wash and I've always liked a good black wash

Try out the Army Painter "ink" washes
http://taleofpainters.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/review-army-painter-warpaints.html

I know people swore blind and blue by Devlan Mud as a "magic wash" but it was discontinued before I'd really used it for much. What I can tell you is that the AP washes (strong, dark and soft) tones are excellent for zombies, and give a lot more control than dipping. The coloured ones are also pretty good as well. I really give my strongest recommendation to you to buy the set and give them a go. I used them - both "straight" and diluted on the zombies I've done recently, and the results have been pretty decent.

Which isn't to say never dip again (and you made "Careless Whisper" by George Michael pop into my head with that phrase above - ya bastard!) but try out the AP inks, because I'd love to see what you end up doing with them.

May have to give them a shot. I've still got some oop gw washes and one or two from reaper. And the twelve minitaire ghost tints.... though I think those are more like glazes.

What's nice about the Tudor is that it isn't really overpowering, if I did some other colored washing before applying it, they should still show up for the most part. I also like the tough as nails application of poly whatever, combined with theflat coat that follows... hard to scratch.

I will consider these AP inks though. For sure.

@Carlos I prefer sneaky characters as well. Get those cheetah boots and your thief can use hit and fade tactics all day long and pick groups apart with his sneak attacks.


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Phew. Feels like I got a lot done today too. I think I still owe you guys finished shots of the enforcer and forge fathers right? I'll try to get to those tonight. I love updating, but when I can actually generate things to update about... usually that comes first

I tentatively finished my moderator. Just did bits and pieces in between other stuff today. Did do some highlighting and what not, some minimal freehand. simple stuff, but more than I've been doing on these last guys for sure. Dip still made him look even better, whoo! This may be one of those models I go back to after the dip, do some touch ups or correct some obscured details or the like. I think he's pretty close though. Gonna let him sit all night, at least till after baby is asleep again, before I seal. Then I get to see if that epoxy I got with my bases works or not

I also got some colors down on big mech. I was just going to put white down in spots that I wanted to add in bright colors, but screw it, why not actually use my fancy detail airbrush for fancy detail work So he's still mostly black, but he's got a blue cockpit. Still gonna handle anything fancy on that by hand, but I probably won't do too much as blending and glass have never been my strong suits. And he's got some red accent panels. Really not a whole lot to do, make some bits metallic, and highlight all of the black. It's down to him and that Reverend Moira on the painting queue, so one of them may see some attention later tonight.

I get nervous when I make too much progress in a short time frame, so I'm gonna take a video game break and get something to eat. I'll try to get some pictures for later tonight too. Oh yeah, got my regiment tray/ multibase done too. Or well, I got the skeletons glued back down. I'll put it here and see what you guys think, not sure if I should start adding static grass and clump foliage, or if it needs some more paint first.

Till next time, Happy Hobbying!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also just ordered one of those merkava tanks Azazelx and I (and others) have been talking about. Dropped $27 on it on amazon, but that was with my 2 day prime, and I think it's the kind that has the little motor. So... paid a good ten dollars or better more than I could have, but I'll get it Wednesday instead of early-middle next month. Gonna paint it up and give it to my father in law. He's more of a civil/ww# buff, but I still think he likes tanks in general. I'll have to shotgun this thing to get it done by the 19th if I'm getting it on the 12th or so, but I'll try to take lots of pictures of it with regards to my current scifi mini projects in scale. Will probably wait to order tanks from warpath kickstarter, but this quick project will let me (and you guys) have a better idea of if this would be a good fall back position