I know nothing about HeroClix, but when I bought a bunch of the World of Warcraft and Star Wars Minis prepaints years ago, I found that you could pick what you wanted from various eBay sellers pretty cheaply. I've seen D&D Minis sold the same way as I've occasionally picked up a few of those as well.

I'd presume HeroClix stuff is sold in the same ways also.

Yeah batman potential wasn't lost on me

You can shop individuals, I don't think every single figure is a available but a lot. Some as cheap as a quarter.

My kiddo likes blind bags and isn't well versed in super heroes so random figures aren't a heavy drawback. Gonna research to see if I should stick to the cheap ones or if there is any profit (more likely mitigation of cost than true profit) in buying the more expensive newer sets and selling any super/rare/chase figures (whatever a chase figure is). Those do seem to have higher costs on MM and people play the game locally so I may have a market.

Been waiting for a deal of the day I want to get to combine with a sampler platter of 'clix figures to see if she likes them, nothing yet (wallet is pleased).

Got more done this weekend than expected, nothing finished though. Primed 26 zombies and got all the flesh down. I've started working on the soldiers and hazmat/scientists and hope to get theclot done soonish. These and two more will put me at 200 for the year which is under even 2/3 of my goal but over half and between buying a house and this unique/wonderful/trying experience of the second baby... I'll say I did alright, probably more volume than any previous year.

Gonna do what I can but the calendar is running out for this year.

Oh hey, what do you guys think about the urban/tiger stripe camo pattern in the middle on my enforcers? Would be simple but could be neat?

Lots o' Zombies! 200 minis in a year is still well more than most get through, and you could probably bulk that up a fair bit if/when you get Zombicide or get through some Dungeon Saga stuff! Well done!

It might just be the time of year and the context, but at first glance at your tiger stripe camo, I thought “mummy?"

200 is very good going, many struggle to get 20 done in a year and I think the new baby and house move adds to the impressiveness. Still about a 5th of the year to go as well, I think that 250 is a possibility.

You're disappointed in 200, and you have a wife, kid and house? I have the first two but not the third, and I have finished... 10 minis this year I think, plus 20-30 that are still WIP, plus a couple of scratch-built terrain pieces .

I think 200 is an amazing effort. I remember building my home a few years back and working full time at the same time nearly broke me, no thought whatsoever of hobby and I had the option to just leave it a week or two. You have two dependents that cannot be left to their own devices. I can't even imagine. So 200 is a damn good effort. But you still have a month and a half, that's plenty of time to knock out another 50-70.....

Well remember guys, most of the stuff I've painted as been table top quality infantry and boardgame pieces, not a lot of terribly fancy models. Sure I only count the tentacle dragon as one, but there are a lot of boardgame models that got maybe 30-60 minutes of paint max in the mix too.

Thanks for all of the kind words For those of you nutters who keep saying I should get another 50+ done... remember I still gotta clear 28 more even be at 200 to start with

I do plan to hit dungeon saga pretty hard pretty fast but I'll get it fairly late in the year most likely.

Ah, you are just being humble. They may only be "board game" models. But you have cleaned, primed, painted and rebased them with a level of care and attention I find hard to summon even on the really spectacular models. Plus that tentacled dragon has got to be at least 28 models just for the conversion idea and execution. So much awesome.

Bah you are too kind archer, but thanks all the same. I'll file the kind words away for a gloomy day

@Grimdork, dude, most of us only paint to a tabletop standard. 200 is more than what I've painted in 5 years (excluding my Zombicide horde that was a painting splurge that got me in deep with the wife for how much time I was spending away from her and the kids). We don't paint to a commission level, nor do I expect myself too. I want it "good enough" to help my gameplay, not to win awards. You have a wife, two kids and a hard job, you e done awesome. Usually it's me who needs a reality check . Plus the basing and the 10,000,000 posts you've made in everyone else's threads to encourage them, you are a trooper that I've come to depend on here. Keep up the great work and don't make me come over there .

I know Theo, just feel bad for not trying a little harder to improve as a painter even a bit

I'm pleased with the amount though. Next year will be more of an effort to paint more than I buy while reducing the pile further.

I'd like to chime in and say that you have been one of my primary inspirations for painting this year. 200 is a fine total, and I've enjoyed ogling every one of them.

A horde of 200 zombies? Break out the HMGs!

Thanks alot Josh, I'm touched . Shas, 200 anything for the year. Probably just 30-50 of that will be zombies.

If I get a core set of zombicide and paint every other zombie I own, then maybe we're talking 200...

I have to agree with the general sentiment, GrimDork. In my mind, you are "the guy who gets things done." I haven't painted a miniature in years. I intend to, sure, and when the lunar cycle is right I go nuts with modifying miniatures. But your ability to take things from start to finish is inspiring. And frankly, so are your modifications. You and I buy a fair amount of the same Mantic stuff, and we have some ideas in common, but you carry a motherload more of those ideas out than I do. Looking over your work is always an inspiration - your workbench is always teeming with ideas.

Great idea for turning the DBX Sorak into a Swordspawn, by the way. I'd been thinking of trying to sandwich some kind of minigun between his outstretched arms, but blades are a much better idea.

I know this is ancient history at this point, but I liked what you did with your deadzone and battlesystems terrain. I have some battlesystems terrain in a box - like most of my collection, it will probably stay there for a good while before I get to it. But I'm curious as to how you found it. It certainly looks good in your photos. Did you find it worked well in practice? Strong enough? Stable enough on the table? Were you constantly knocking walls and rooms out of alignment as you moved pieces around, or was that not a problem? How much time does it take to throw together relative to Mantic's battlezones?

Should I impose any more on your time with these questions?

No. But thanks for putting up with them. If you do have time, I'd be interested to hear your response. Otherwise, use your time more wisely and paint some more miniatures.

+1 to all the praise. I love this thread because it's always moving, you're always chirpy and communicative, and you're able to finish an inspiring amount of stuff given the job and family.

It's a personal inspiration to me to get more done and enjoy myself more with the hobby, and also to be more positive and active on Dakka.

Keep it up dude!

Aww gee guys, thanks It's this level of support that keeps me at dakka and keeps me working on models, so I thank you all for it and will be glad if it continues

@Vermonter I kind of liked the idea of the sword spawn but didn't have any rebs painted and so didn't want to order yet more minis for them (kind of out of character for me but my 'get all the things' attitude was by its nature a limited thing, and that's good for both my shelf space and bank account..), so I talked myself into the rebs team when I saw it. Lots of cool aliens overall.

Battle systems is great. I think fantasy nailed what the scifi promised a little better, but scifi is still fine. It has more prep time than I was anticipating (but 'none' was probably unrealistic) but if you slow yourself down and take the time to prep all of your pieces, it goes together pretty easily. I think building layouts with battle systems is a bit faster than doing something in battlezones, though I tend to expect most of my BZ stuff to be permanent whereas I never do for the BS layouts. Putting together a layout, especially with some height is kind of time intensive, I used more than half of my stuff (mostly extra nicknacks and walls I didn't have enough clips for that got left out) for that 2x2' enclosed layout and it probably took anywhere between 1-4 hours to do it. I can't really remember, and I think I did it in 10-30 minute bits at a time which is why the bad estimate. But you have to work slowly and methodically, and if you do something out of order or change something.. you will have to backtrack to reassign different clips and such.

The stuff is pretty solid on the table, the scatter bits will go all over the place because they're scatter and the floor is card so no friction really. On the rubber mats they sit a little better. The walls and clipped in bits don't move much.

As a caveat to the cleaning stage for BS stuff, fantasy is supposed to be a lot looser on tolerances which means less cutting, and the new post apoc is supposed to be at least as good if not better (plus no ramps so quicker/easier construction and more bits to use). I think I'm gonna like my post apoc stuff the best.

On strength... I think it's definitely gonna be easier to ruin BS because its card, but it's not so black and white. BS will typically survive drops better though it doesn't run into too many drops really imo, if you manage to slide a whole 2x2' layout off of a table onto the floor you can expect some harsh bends and sheering, though you'd have to have a weakass table or some kind of horribly circumstance for that to happen. BZ's obviously can hold up better because thick hard plastic doesn't break easily, even if it's cold and drops far... but what will happen if you drop a building is your clips will pop out and a fair few of them will probably sheer and break off. This is especially annoying if you have it painted and hot-glued together. I'm starting to reconsider my stance on hotglue and may switch to supergluing the clips in, it will look cleaner on the inside and the hot glue has a tendency to separate over time. Maybe I have cheap hot glue?

I think BS and BZ have similar construction times though with BZ i'm usually making something permanent and never with BS, even if I leave a BS structure together for months I rarely consider making permanent alterations to the card (I did one time to make a clean room work out of the pieces I have).

Anyway enough prattling on about that, hopefully I managed to answer your questions?


@Da Boss, thanks

I love chattering on folks, even if it's not particularly pertinent feel free to talk as much as you like here, old hands and newcomers alike.



So in other news.... I kind of sort of started researching my old personal poison WoW. Current expansion sounds neat and the one after that next summer sounds even cooler. I went ahead and spent $15 to try it out again, so far so good. Burned up my amazon points I was saving for Zombicide to get a fancy new Razer Tartarus gamepad to replace my dead old nostromo n52 (just can't get them for reasonable rates anymore) and dug out my old gaming mouse.

I suspect that this will eat into painting time a little bit, but there are loads of times that I've got a little time but not really in the mood to paint.

Let me know if you guys see a large drop off in my productivity and host an intervention if necessary

 GrimDork wrote:
I know Theo, just feel bad for not trying a little harder to improve as a painter even a bit

I'm pleased with the amount though. Next year will be more of an effort to paint more than I buy while reducing the pile further.

The more you paint, the more you improve. It really is a question of practice. I would love to be able to paint at 1/4 of the rate you achieve with the quality you achieve.

Yeah, sometimes i wish I could get myself to slow down and try out some new things... but most of the time I'm pretty happy with what I do.

Not WoW! *starts prepping for intervention*

I think you've done great with your painting this year. Your blog is one of my favorites to come and see what you are up to.

Nothing wrong at all with being happy with what you do. Personally I feel I have reached a painting plateua, but it is good enough for what I want so is not really an issue.

@Vermonter: why the lack of painting Sir?

Oh snap if WoW is on the horizon we will maybe see you next season......

Heh. I'll admit that I've put in more hours these first few days back than what would be usual... but I got rained out for almost two whole days and re-subbed over the weekend while the kids were especially good. Some of that time would have been good for painting but as often as I have to stop what I'm doing to play with the baby to keep her happy, it's pretty hard to paint.

I'll find time, it's typically more fulfilling than playing WoW.

Have to echo the others here and say 200 minis is a pretty big achievement! And the quality isn't that bad. Don't sell yourself short! They look great in the batreps and the cinematic pics

Keep it up! Certainly makes me want to paint more. Though I could never keep up with you

Going to gather them all up for an year end shot?

I struggle with my one-a-week goal, so you guys who bang out hundreds of high quality minis amaze me. Plus you do all sorts of terrain, etc. Keep it up!

While I’ve never played WoW, I do understand computer game distractions. Whatever keeps you happy. Can be hard with a little one though. Once I had to quickly AFK to get The Boy out of his crib when he woke up early from a nap, move his bouncy chair next to the computer, and finish out the raid. Nobody died, and the flashy lights kept him entertained. If you keep a small workspace next to your computer, you can do things like clean mold lines during load screens a/o crafting, to maximize your hobby time.

Yeah but you put a lot more effort in per min ckig, really excellent figures at which time gawk.

If I can track everything down, Nev, then sure. Probably can and will.

At the moment my hobby space and computer occupy the same office and I've almost always done just as you say, hobby during queues and breaks and what not. Let game idle while i take a 10-30 minute TV/paint break and so on.

Working on getting another tablet/laptop so I can bring the WoW upstairs while I hangout with the kids. Well not just wow, dakka, other lower end games, and so on.

Good progress this year Grim. Thats gone now you are platying WOW again though.

Dooooooooomed, doooomed!

@GrimDork - thanks for answering my questions on Battlesystems, that's very helpful. I will get to it someday.

@Thraxas - Good question! Unfortunately, I have a good answer. We've moved, and are renting a small apartment where there is no room to set up a painting area. I don't know how long it will be before we buy another house, but I won't be able to paint until then.

Before we moved, I just had too much dissertation on the brain and too much guilt about doing things other than working on it and taking care of the kids. Honestly, I took that "be serious and drop all your funtime hobbies" way too far than was healthy.

I'm currently on miniatures hiatus due to work, but plan to dive back in again in December. With space restricted, I'll be doing modding rather than painting, as usual. I also intend to put up helpful scale comparisons and conversions of all the new mini lines I'm getting into, particularly Gates of Antares and Maelstrom's Edge, to help others interested in Frankensteining their miniature lines. I'm currently waiting impatiently for an overdue box of Gates of Antares from NWS.

Finally, it is kind of you to dignify me with "Sir," but at this point I consider you a friend. As the Germans say, "wir können uns duzen."

@GrimDork - my apologies for hijacking your thread with my self-centered response to Thraxas. I won't do so again.

Lol don't worry about it dude, keeping track of PM conversations is kind of a pain on Dakka compared to chatting in thread.

Great job on 200 for the year, mate. I also well understand the need for something different - and yeah, getting to PLAY something, which WoW can supply in spades/ Luckily I'm still too butthurt about flying to come back.

Still gotta get those zombies done for 200

Whats this about flying now, Az?

I never really got into WoW - LOTRO is my poison of choice. I've been clean since spring though.

Do you count scenery and so on into the 200 Grim?

I was mucking along with a really seasoned everquest and my sister talked me into playing with her guild. Good times have been had, times have been wasted. Probably overall positive.

Scenery counts but just 1 point per piece, size independent. So with the scatter bits being loose on top, Taco Mars was probably 4-5 points for the whole project as the scatter *could* be used elsewhere. Haven't done a lot of scenery. Got the doors and furniture from black fortress primed but it made them tacky, well the furniture not the doors.

 Vermonter wrote:
@GrimDork - thanks for answering my questions on Battlesystems, that's very helpful. I will get to it someday.

@Thraxas - Good question! Unfortunately, I have a good answer. We've moved, and are renting a small apartment where there is no room to set up a painting area. I don't know how long it will be before we buy another house, but I won't be able to paint until then.

Finally, it is kind of you to dignify me with "Sir," but at this point I consider you a friend. As the Germans say, "wir können uns duzen."

@GrimDork - my apologies for hijacking your thread with my self-centered response to Thraxas. I won't do so again.

Ah Grim does not mind, the chat just motivates him .

Moving does have such a big impact...just so tiring and mentally draining too. The Sir thing is the curse of a career in retail...and "we can name terms" is one of those delightfully innocent but sounds slightly threatening terms that the German language sometimes provides.

@Grim WOW seems like a nice distraction, it is good to just relax forget the real world from time to time.

Zombie game looks fun.

That is the primary point of the endeavor so hopefully things pan out that way

Miniature Market got me again lol. Since she seemed to somewhat like her heroclix figures I bought a couple of retail display boxes (24 figures each) of the superman and hobbit sets. I had to order fast as one of the things for me was likely to run out of stock while I was browsing... and I didn't realize that there are only 12 unique figures within the superman set. Doesn't matter, she does well with duplicates anyway and it makes things more likely that we'll get all of the unique figures.

I also ordered some more bargain Infinity... sigh. I'm gonna have to spend all of next year just painting Infinity... shame drawer is almost to the point of not closing...


Eeeesh!

Now, hopefully I'm done ordering bargain miniatures for myself, or requesting them from family for the year. Too many...tooooo many. Lot of days off around Turkey Day so maybe I'll get those zombies finished. Maybe.

You can never have too many unpainted minis. Remember: you die when you paint your last one. It’s a form of immortality.

Haha, I think I've heard that before. I'll keep one of those old unpainted 3rd edition dark eldar I have tucked into a sock somewhere, just in case

I am so jealous of that Infinity pile, and the fact you got most of it on bargain prices just makes it worse!

How about 'clear the Infinity draw' as your 2016 goal?

I'm considering it Para, I really am. Gonna be tough, I've got almost 30 combined army now, 17 panO, 11 Haq, several nomads left... and you know I'll keep buying more if they sell it for half price.....

May be the thing to do though. And finish off some board games.

May have to figure up a different scheme for the panO, I like the one I'm doing but highlighting black is not so much fun and it would be hella tedious on the all armored guys.

The other thing to consider is that unlike most boardgame bits and bobs, Infinity minis really allow you to push yourself. A year or even 6 months on just Infinity stuff and you'd come out a better painter the other end of it simply as the models give you the canvas to really push the boat out with new techniques and such.

Infinity models are awesome, they look better when finished just for being what they are. The material and sculpting/casting quality make washes and dips really shine, and almost all of the minute detail is physically there for you rather than something you have to free hand. They're good stuff.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I also want to do some more battlezones scenery (I haven't forgotten you Josh, just hard to get around to taking photos with the kids!) and finish a permanent 4x4 board but I'm not even gonna talk about that until I get work started on it

I'm right here, still waiting. I'm thinking about dedicating the first couple of months of 2016 to terrain, so anything for inspiration would be appreciated.

Do you play Infinity, or just buy the minis?

Yeah, I'll get around to it as soon as I can, I would like to do some more terrain soon.

Next year is painting things I want, terrain, and maybe some table stuff. So far. Tentatively.

Tentatively is right. My son starts elementary school in April, so I expect to have even less spare time than I do now.

He's going to school and gonna be gone all day, why won't you have more time?

That's what the brain thinks at first right?

Damn I think I may have mis stepped on the MM sale. It seems like they're progressively slashing prices as it gets closer to black friday/whatever metric they're using. Many things were 50% off now it appears that several are 60% off or better.

Many things are also completely OOS too... so it's kind of a game to play. I don't mind the price I paid for what I ordered before but if the prices keep sliding I'm gonna have to consider a second order. The battlezones redbrick sets and the octagonal forward base thingy have both come down since their initial holiday sale price point... much lower and I shall be tempted... I may order some connectors too just because you can practically never have enough of the buggers.

Those brick battlezones are very nice - I have my eye on them for terrain for This Is Not a Test (if I ever find a group for games like that here).

It's always interesting looking back on the year and thinking about what you've achieved vs. what you planned.

I often find I start the year with clear plans and goals and then pinwheel off into some other aspect of the hobby as I get distracted during the year. Like I started the year with the plan to make Viking, Celt and Norman warbands for Saga which could be combined into a "late dark ages Irish" army for Hail Caesar, before moving into the Medieval and making a Confederate Irish force for the Civil War to face off against the New Model army.

Progress? Well, basically exactly the same as it was.

Meanwhile I've gone crazy buying Descent minis and painting board game pieces generally for use in a school dungeons and dragons campaign, and assembled an ass load of LOTR stuff when I got enthused due to some of the chatter on here about the game. Now I'm singlemindedly painting as much Dungeon Saga stuff as possible, while my poor Celts and assorted Norsemen sit weeping in their box.

 GrimDork wrote:
He's going to school and gonna be gone all day, why won't you have more time?

That's what the brain thinks at first right?

He and I will have virtually identical schedules, plus homework (assuming first graders gt homework) at, er, home. If he maintains his interest, maybe he can do his own hobby stuff while I do mine, but we'll have to wait and see.

I both envy and don't envy you access to those wild sale prices. It's quite likely that I'd be in the doghouse if I bought more stuff, even at 50% off.

The wife and I keep separate finances and I don't think she has any real understanding of the relative cost of items. Some also get picked up under the radar (usually send kickstarters to my parents' home in the country) so I doubt she realizes how much I purchase in a year.

But I also keep up my end of the bills and payments. I don't typically spend money on anything else but food and bills anyway.

 GrimDork wrote:
The wife and I keep separate finances and I don't think she has any real understanding of the relative cost of items. Some also get picked up under the radar (usually send kickstarters to my parents' home in the country) so I doubt she realizes how much I purchase in a year.

But I also keep up my end of the bills and payments. I don't typically spend money on anything else but food and bills anyway.

My Wife probably spends as much on hair dye and chocolate as I do on minis. As long as you can keep a roof over your head and everyone fed, it's all good.

I've managed to keep the minis coming for far too long. I will be cutting way back "SOON", Like I have just the Zombicide Black Plague still out there, but in the mean time I'm good. When I do buy stuff like the Dungeon Saga set that just showed up I tell my wife that I sold a few figures to get enough for my Kickstarter funds. My other purchases such as paints and brushes are so small that she never complains about those. Plus I let her get her hair done, and have girl nights out all the time, so my small purchases are usually not worth her complaining about. I don't drink, smoke, do drugs or chase other women, so this addiction is at least manageable, and now with Zombicide it is time well spent occupying the kids.

Same for me, my only vice is plastic soldiers (and sometimes video games) so I get by alright. Next years goal is to buy zermo minis. I will fail. But I wanna get asxfew new models as possible.

More soon, but time to get home and prepare for the night shift (both kids while the wife works). If I play my cards right, I get to sleep a little.

I would never suggest using daddy's little helper , because sleep is for losers

Gah! I'm still alive and stuff, just been stupidly busy. The second kid has proven to be a challenge, for sure. We've also worked a lot later this year than usual due to unseasonable warmth. Haven't gotten much done between caring for the kids, working longer than expected (though I'm not complaining!) and doing all of the holiday shopping and stuff. We also totally adopted/stole/whatevered a young cat (no longer a kitten though for sure) that I found hanging around one of our regular jobs. Saw it in the summer but lost my chance to pick it up then. Saw it again a few weeks ago. He was happy to come home with us, though it's a bit of an adjustment for everybody So far all he's done against my hobby stuff is knock over some precariously perched Dungeon Saga cards, and I'd call that so far so good.

Dungeon saga came in. I'm pretty happy with the quality of everything, if all of the minis straighten out with hot water like people are suggesting they will... I should be quite pleased with my purchase overall. The GCPS marines from the warpath kickstarter are shaping up to look good too. I may throw a little funding towards that since their PM will last beyond my birthday and I may have some loose cash to burn. Beyond that, or possibly the latest licensed IP KS Mantic has planned, I'm really hoping to buy less models next year. I may still get zombicide with amazon credit because I have almost enough and I hear it's a stupid fun game. But yeah... Overall I want to pick up less models. No 365/365 painting goal though. It's too unrealistic for me. Still want to get as much done as possible, just with different metrics for success.

Here's a photo to go with all of the blabbering, finished 4 enforcers and 13 zombies dip/seal/base (most were painted already but have not yet been counted for the total). Pictured also are the other two enforcers previously completed.



So I'm gonna go off to do some other housekeeping things but I wanted to check in with everyone before I vanish again for holiday stuff. Some notes...

I don't think WoW is gonna take. I just can't put in an hour or two a day, and none of which with headphones for immersion/better group play, which I think is what I'd need to be doing to have fun. Logging in every morning before the kids wake up so I can spin on my garrison hamster wheel is... less than satisfying. And I don't think even my winter schedule will allow for fun stuff like battlegrounds, dungeons, or raids. It was worth a try, and now I've got a new game pad out of the deal. I think I'll look into restarting some owned games that I've not touched in years or possibly pick up some simpler new games like Magicka 2 to take advantage of my 'has a working game pad' status.

I got Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for my android phone. Loving it. While I think the gameplay would technically be faster with an emulated PS1 version (plus save state shenanigans to take the edge off of grinding certain things), they did a much better job on the translation/localization in the updated version and it's a joy to have a clearer idea of what's going on. Add in some cutscenes and most importantly, another class (Ramza can finally be a class with special knight skills, woo woo!) and I'm fairly smitten. They added a couple of neat new characters too, from other FF titles set (vaguely) in the same world. Overall I'm having a blast but I relapse into playing FFT every few years just because. May possibly my favorite game. Can't even explain why in so many words, but we get along well. The game does crash periodically(0-3 times a day I'd say, and the 0 comes up more often than not). So far I haven't had it happen after any hours-long grinding sessions or I may have broken my hand punching the wall... usually it's after saving or switching menus, so mostly I haven't lost anything when it does. As frequently as I save the game, it's not much of an issue.

Alright anyway just wanted to check in. Gonna try to do 11 more models before January 1st so I can call it 200 for the year. Maybe some dungeon furniture.

Oh also. If any of you guys have missed me at your own Blogs/topics, I'm slowly trying to work my way around and catch up. FFT has been eating into my idle forum time

That's a lot too balance. You won't get any pressure from me to increase production.

The GCPS guys do look nice, but I will stick with Asterians, I think.

They're sooo spindly. I can't get inspiration to paint them at the moment, just gathering dust in my containers.

I like the spindly robot look, personally. Plus I already have a metric ton of generic SF troopers between SW and Alternative Armies levies (from long long ago) .

Nothing new to report just wanted to well-wish you all, thanks for hanging around and providing frankly epic levels of motivation.

Merry Christmas family Grim. I am holding back my little motivation for the start of the new year. I feel a painting streak trying to start, but I want it to simmer for a little while instead of jumping full into it.

Merry Crimbo Grim and family.

Looking forward to more inspirational stuff from you in the year ahead.

Thanks guys, hope xmas went well for everyone, and new years does as well. Almost done being sick, I think.

Got 11 pieces of DS furniture finished so thats 200 for the year, yay.

Great Job , I feel that you've sooooo much more than just 200 models though. Your pace seems to be really solid and great quality work all around.

I fall off the face of the earth occasionally and don't always paint in large spurts. Sometimes it's just the one big green dragon thing.

You kicked my ass on models painted Grim. Though that isn't saying much.

Fish in a barrel ehh? Candy from a baby? You got some pretty cool stuff done either way, and it's not about volume anyway, that's just the metric for which I chose to test myself this year.

Got those 11 pieces totally done. Gonna let them air out a bit from the Lacquer (that stuff is freaking awesome) and maybe get some photos later today. Trying to think of one or two small little bits to knock out before new years but not too worried about it.

Here's a few more photos.


11 pieces of Dungeon Saga furniture/doors.


All six finished newer scheme Enforcers


Military/camo zombies.


Zombie research team.

Got at least one more model finished (just needs sealed or lacquered) but I'll share that after there's photos. 201 ain't so bad. May knock out a couple more but I'm not gonna rush for the 31st.

Amazing total for the year, models are looking great too.

And those Enforcers look superb against the medieval setting. Love it.

The furniture looks great. The finish on the timbers in particular has that lovely warm glow.

I like the white enforcers.

Thanks guys I painted the wood with the color I usually reserve for leather stuff (but that stuff gets a highlight with a more leathery color too). I think I'm gonna do everything in this set that same wood color, but for the other two sets I'll find something else. And the treasure chests, a few need to be bright red and one or two need to be blue, recalling my old school rpg roots.

May take a stab at those other 13 zombies before the 31st but I dunno. Not long till then.

Nice work! I'm excited to see you tackle Dungeon Saga. I have gotten a big chunk of work done in the last few days but I've been at my parents place so I haven't done any real photography.

In my head, a major motivator was "Gotta get it painted before Grimdork!" But then I felt like that was unfair when you had to wait so freakin' long for your shipment!

I've done a count, and including scenery pieces, I got 280 pieces done this year. I was aiming for 300, but I think 280 is the most I've managed in a good few years, mostly board game pieces for Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

Fine work and great progress. I've kinda given up on speed running DS as I got such a comparative late start. Still early on my agenda. But I think cold is finally settling in hereabouts and priming weather may be sell and truly gone for the season. I primed dozens of minis ahead, so I may just work on those.

Got a bonus mini done to show off soon. I think I tainted my lacquer application with thinner still lurking in the bristles. Some parts of the white on this guy are extra clean. It actually kinda looks good but its spotty and I may have to do a repair eventually. More on that after assembly and basing.

Soooo, here's a Gecko. Came out a little rougher/dirtier than I planned and there was another snag or two during the process but after weeks or months of him sitting mostly finished on my project desk I had to get him done or die trying.


You boys may want to reconsider your contracts...

I'll take some better shots in daylight when I get the chance, weather is supposed to break Tuesday maybe but we'll see.

If you can't prime outside, you may want to consider priming with gesso(there's an article on Dakka, but I can't link to it on my phone). It cN be done indoors and it dries quickly.

Geckos are Big! My Super-mutants might try dancing with them if I had them, they like smashing stuff like that, But I would have to try and get me some battle-suits like those first.

@Josh, I have considered it. I have an airbrush set up downstairs and I often prime things with an airbrush just for the thinner coat, but I haven't messed with it in a while. If the rattle can coat doesn't go on too thick, it's a lot sturdier for gaming pieces too.

Geckos are awesome, they aren't really that much smaller than your regular Infinity TAGs (like the Squallo or whatever else they might consider the base-line). Geckos are 40mm based 'team tags' that can feasibly be taken in numbers greater than 1. Actually up to 4 of them though I have trouble fitting more than 3 into a 300 point list (and still have room for the other stuff I want/need). But even though they have half the stats and cost of other tags, they're nearly as big. Bigger too, than smaller tags like the sphynx.

It was pretty fun to work with, though I kind of dread doing three more. Large metal models will always have a certain subset of issues and the Gecko was no different. I didn't bother pinning, there are fairly strong contact points everywhere that matters and I managed to drill out holes for his pegs into the clear base, so he should be good under normal circumstances. I don't imagine any infinity model really holds up to a decent drop, just a case of metal. Probably better to shatter at the join than bending the metal anyway.

Gecko #1 may have been done in 2015 but I'm planning on doing a *lot* of Infinity in 2016. I have way too much stashed in my drawer and really need to work through it.

And scenery, lots of that.

But zombies right this moment.

Zombies seem the rage these days!

Great stuff, Grim. The DS furniture has come out really nicely, and so has the Gecko (more pics, please). I can';t believe I got more done than you, since you just smash your way through the numbers when you're on!

I think it's because I'm off just as often as I'm on. I could destroy my collection if it weren't for the kids, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

May get those 13 zombies done before it's over, but we will see.

Some cracking work recently! I second the call for more Gecko pics, I've got a couple to work on myself soon!

He's pretty rough but if we get some daylight today l see what I can do.

No sufficient daylight for better photos, but here's another peacekeeper and 13 more zombies done



That should put me up to 215 for the year. I'll take it. I got a lot of crap to do tomorrow so I'm not expecting to get any more done before the end of the year, but I may get started on some more stuff.

Now, to finish the last episode of Z Nation and off to bed before the kids destroy my sleep!

Kids destroy your sleep , try twins . Plus we have two extra kids sleeping over the next two nights .

Great total for the year. And now we both have goals for next year to beat.

So yeah definitely officily 215 for the year. I'm not gonna recount and I may not be able to find every single dude for a group shot but I'll get close. Try to do that tonight, not gonna get anything else painted this year though.

Will try to do a year in review or whatever but maybe in a few days. I will try to post mortem finished projects, those in progress, those I've mentioned and ultimately dropped, and those that I still plan to tackle eventually.

So first I'll start by saying I tried to get 365/365 models painted this year, and I managed to hit 215. I said it right at the beginning that I was going to get half or better of the list done before the summer started or I'd never finish the whole list, and that's more or less what happened.

Here's the post about what to paint for the list, bit long so spoilers.

I added some colored notes for what I did and didn't get done. I did several things that weren't even on the initial list too like WGF survivors, Imperial assault, and so on. That list will be a good place to look for stuff to do next year though, even if I didn't stick to it too well this time.

I'm gonna try to get a textual list of what I've done so far this yera by going through the blog and then I'll be back to update with that, and I'll filter in photos as I get the chance. Probably try to get the lads together for one big group shot if able.

Going through the blog I see how I used to have a monthly update for what got done, whoops. I should try to bring that back.

Kind of doing this portion of the update in a work-notes, as you go kind of thing... Things I started this year and really want to come back to... Those dwarfs. I would like to make at least a couple of units for that dwarf army I haven't really touched. I'm also really wanting to work on a jungle board along the lines of the Hill of DOOM, though likely with less emphasis on a grid for deadzone. Even if I come back and wanna use it for DZ, the simpler DZ rules coming out will probably be *even easier* to render down to having a tape measure in them than before, and there's pulp alley, infinity, maybe warpath/firefight that all won't need a grid.

Still on the fence about the battlezones drop ship. I could make drop ships out of a lot of other things and save the tiles to build more buildings for my city... Thoughts?

Heh, looks like I was playing FFT on the phone back in may, thought it had been longer. Gonna try to round the fellows up for photos now I guess.

215 is a damn fine number - I've done less than that for years in a row, and I don't have any kids to eat up all my time!

Still, I reckon you'll beat it next year

I reckon buildings are better than a dropship for what it's worth - you can make a dropship out of a lot of stuff!

I feel the same way about the drop ship, at least part of me does. I took photos of the whole horde, will be much delay in posting them though.

Happy New Year!

Will be great to see a full photo of your amazing years progress.

I think I would use the tiles to make more buildings and look for some suitable material to make the drop ship from.

@Archer, I think I'm leaning the same way on the drop ship. That octagonal building I was using the parts from actually looks pretty darn neat in theory...


I only managed to get 12/20 of the photos I took uploaded but I think you'll get the gist...

Grimdork's 2015 painting progress, 215 models:


Everything I could scare up, I know at least a couple are not present. I did not paint the trees or rocky whatsits on either flank but they looked good in the photo.


Imperial Assault and zombies!


A lot of scifi, zombies, some modern stuff.


The Infinity dudes and the fantasy stuff, poor neglected fantasy stuff.


Spotlight: Imperial Assault. I'm proud of this set not because it's so well painted, but because I managed to paint an impulse purchase in it's entirety from start to finish...thereby justifying it (to me at least)


Mars Attacks, survivors, cowboys, it's all good.


Zombehs!


More zombies, because it's no fun when there's only a few!


Mostly deadzone and some bones.


Spotlight: Infinity. These have probably been my favorites to paint. It's just like they're designed and cast so well they make my paltry efforts better by their own virtues. Lovely models, looking forward to painting a lot more in 2016.


I'm kind of sad this is all I got done for fantasy. I mean I probably have as many or more fantasy models than scifi or modern, yet their pile is the smallest. I've always considered myself a 50/50 sci/fantasy kind of person, subject to whimsy and mood swings, but the year-end review is not showing that. I do want to tackle some regiments for KoW in the future so maybe 2016 will be different.


SO.

Thanks SO MUCH for your support folks. It means more to me than my pitiful unpoetic soul is capable of expressing. No joke, vry srs. Back when I just played the games and showed my buddies what I painted, I got a few models done a year. Now that I have the overwhelmingly positive support of you here at Dakka, I get stuff done. I mean I do it for me, sure, but knowing that I'll get to take pictures and share it with you fine folks (and then get to go check out what you're all doing too!) helps me keep putting one foot in front of the other when motivation is flagging. You guys soundboard ideas, schemes, and whatever else I need and I really seriously appreciate it



To business. For 2016 I do not have a numbers goal in mind. I do want to work on a few things.

I want to paint more models than I buy. Ideally I want to buy no more models but we all know how well that works out... but I want to get more painted than I purchase.

I want to reduce the amount of dollars I spend on models. This means sticking to sales and clearance, using the amazon points, models as gifts, and only pledging responsibly on kickstarter rather than going all in or crazy town. Ideally I will back no kickstarters but there may be one or two that I will want to dump some modest funds into, and I'm ok with that. Just no crazytown I already hunt bargains and wait for sales as it is, so a lot of the cost-cutting is going to have to come from volume. I'm really reaching a saturation point where I have more than a little of everything and so I really only need little bits and pieces sprinkled in here or there. Army deals are awesome, but I don't really need that kind of bulk any more.

I want to paint more Infinity. It doesn't have to be *all* of my Infinity, but I want to get a lot done. I'll probably keep buying miniature market infinity deals if they keep putting them up at ~50% off MSRP because I can't think of any model I'd rather spend 4-6 dollars on than Infinity minis, and that means I need to keep knocking the ones I have out so there's room in the shame drawer

I want to get more fantasy models done. I have a *lot* of bones with more coming eventually. I have fantasy armies sitting idle. I really want to knock out a few regiments this year, fantasy is under represented on my display shelf and while I don't plan on it overtaking the scifi any time soon, I'd like to flesh it out some more.

I want to use up and paint more of my Battle Zone scenery I have so much of this stuff, and I've wanted a proper city for so long I can taste it. This needs to happen. Needs to.

Having said that... I still *really* want to make a 4x4' dense jungle board Think that hill I made this year, but on a 4x4' board. Dense, lush, maybe an abandoned research station bolted onto a bigass hill/whatever. This would be something that couldn't easily move though and would require it's own 4x4' table solution... possibly on wheels so it can be stored in the corner and brought forward when needed. No grid, while it would be a cool place to play deadzone, I would rather hack deadzone to involve rulers than I would ruin the terrain by imposing a grid. Works better for everything else without one.

I know I've got some more wants... trying to think...

Finish the Dungeon Saga core set. I mean, I'd like to get more bits of it done too, but getting the core set polished would be nice. I really like having a completed Imperial assault.

Finish Mars Attacks core game. This really needs to happen, it won't take much and it's needed to happen for soooo long.


But even having set goals like the above, I still plan to paint mostly whatever catches my fancy at the moment. I'm likely to do better and have more fun doing what I want than what I feel like I should do.


Anyways, thanks for listening to my ceaseless prattling. I doubt I'm gonna move quickly in the next couple of months, but I plan to work on stuff. The kids really wear me down lol... I know I'm more or less unemployed till early March, but watching the kids is nearly a full time job and even when I'm not doing that I've got to put up a reasonable effort at looking for work to appease the unemployment folk and so on.

Geez Grim. You were really busy in 2015. Unfortunately, looking at your pics reminds me of how much stuff I have yet to get to or started and never finished.

I like your goals for the new year. Should be achievable. As long as you stay away from all the shiny, pretty things that become available.

Looking forward to the ride.

You have some good goals set for this year mate. I have some similar ones too

I want to paint more models than I buy. Ideally I want to buy no more models but we all know how well that works out... but I want to get more painted than I purchase.

Unless you ban yourself from kick starter and get your wife to hit you with a stick every time you go on the website don't see that one happening grim. But I will hold out hope anyway

I want to paint more Infinity.

this I really want to see. I like your alternative color schemes for infinity stuff.

I want to use up and paint more of my Battle Zone scenery I have so much of this stuff, and I've wanted a proper city for so long I can taste it. This needs to happen. Needs to.

All mine is still on sprues. But I dont have nearly as much as you. Would love to see this one.

Finish the Dungeon Saga core set. I mean, I'd like to get more bits of it done too, but getting the core set polished would be nice. I really like having a completed Imperial assault.

this would be cool to see. Whats the model count on that?

Gee Carlos thanks for the vote of confidence

It's true though, buying less models is going to be something I have to work at.

Dungeon saga has hmm... I think there's two batches of 9 minions, 4 bosses, and 4 heroes. So 26 technically? And the furniture/doors. But I may just dump the third set of undead into the mix while I'm doing them and thats 9 more. We'll see.

Best of luck with those goals! This blog is one of my favourites on Dakka, and I look forward to another year of good stuff from you!

Thanks para

I almost made my paint more then I buy goal, but the late year Betrayal at Calth box torpedoed that. Like most New Year’s resolutions, it’s not so much the achieving of the goal that’s important, but the striving towards it.

Lots of cool stuff from 2015, awesome to see them all lined up. Nice diverse lot of minis. Looking forward to 2016!

 GrimDork wrote:
Gee Carlos thanks for the vote of confidence

It's true though, buying less models is going to be something I have to work at.

Dungeon saga has hmm... I think there's two batches of 9 minions, 4 bosses, and 4 heroes. So 26 technically? And the furniture/doors. But I may just dump the third set of undead into the mix while I'm doing them and thats 9 more. We'll see.

Welcome mat I am guilty of that too. Sure I don't buy quite as much as you but I also paint a hell of a lot less.

Dungeon Saga sounds very doable actually. Cant wait to see it finished.

BTW you still getting in on battlesystems? Doesnt count as models and is pre painted.

Yeah I have some ordered and may inject some additional funds for a few extra add ons before the survey closes in a couple of weeks.

Reckon those are some decent goals for the year. Especially "paint more than I buy!"

Not sure I managed that, this year!

I'd be excited to see your DS stuff too. Though the jungle board sounds very cool, also.

I agree with Archer - use the buildings for buildings and work out something else to be the dropship. Seeing all your 2015 models all laid out like that is incredibly impressive. The Rebel Assault stuff looks especially good. I still haven't even cracked my box open!

I do know what you mean with the 50/50 fantasy - but it is what it is in any given year. I've always thought of myself as a 40k player/painted, but almost all I've painted in the last two years has been fantasy and I barely touched 40k in 2015.

I look forward to seeing you work through your goals, and being here to post (hopefully) encouraging comments. Your goals don't look too unrealistic. The buying one may well be the hardest of all, as we all know here.

Thanks guys

I'm gonna shoot the bought/painted in the foot pretty soon... Amazon credit is gonna clear what's required to buy zombucide soon what with all of the holiday purchases. So that's 70 something more minis on the pile early on, guess I find something else to pick up.

I guess certain warmachine stock is reasonable on amazon too, but I'm less enthusiastic after getting those elves. They aren't bad but the quality/mold lines compared to Infinity is a bit lacking.

Gotta get on the horse soon, was having fun painting those last few things so I need to hit some more before momentum flags.

I cannot say enough good things about Zombicide . Quick and dirty to play and paint up, and cheap . I understand the momentum waining if you get of the hobby horse, I hope I don't lose it again this year like last year. If you want another cheap model count army to start buying/ painting then grab some copies of Sedition wars. I know some people will scream "NOOOOOOOOooooo", but for Miniaturemarkets standard $28.00 price tag you get 50 models with scenic bases. I've gotten 6 sets (mostly at the $18.00 price at black friday sales) and now I'm going to try and use them for warpath when it comes out I've only had issues with about 7-8 of the 300 models that I got out of the sets, and most are fixable with a little hot water or green stuff.

Yeah, reading your blog here on dakka has convinced me if I wasn't already convinced.

I already have a set of sedition wars and it's solid. I guess for the complaints you had to be there, because picking it up cheap at retail the set is pretty much gold. I don't love cleaning restic, and while I'm far from being angry about it like some people... it isn't the first thing I jump to when I'm slowing down.

I may try to do some D&D friendly models, my brother in law is gonna be moving further away early into the year and we've been trying to get a large dungeon crawl together for years.

Infinity soon too.

Got 2 boxes of Sed. Wars on the cheap myself Amazon of all places. picked up a terrain pack as well. Rediculous amount for the money.

I been watching (just discovered) D&D on youtube, lots of hints and tips, helping with tile based games all-round.

Your work this year has been amazing.

Yah there's some really neat dnd/rpg related stuff on the YouTube.

Thanks, your blogs are awesome.

Plotting on more painted minis?

Working on some stuff, though this project is one that I'm waiting to finish before I put up any photos.

I can totally see the complaints from the people who backed the kickstarter, or who bought full price, but for any discounted boxes sedition wars is tight.

I am feeling the urge to get back into DnD, but probably be a looooooooong way away before that happens.

I'm just looking to have some models available for this thing. I'm not even looking that forward to it as I prefer long campaigns to one-off games but we've talked about it for so long it really needs to happen lol. The brightest point is that I'll get to play for once. I've always had to DM. I've been on the other side of the screen a few times but it never really lasted. So if we can figure out what everyone else wants to play ahead of time, I'll be pleased to hammer out a fun character concept.

Currently painting something. Its one of those "I'm embarrassed I bought this with all of my other stuff sitting around" kind of things so I'm eager to validate the purchase by painting it all to death. I will not say what it is. That's the fun/boring part, you will only be seeing the end result. I'm hoping to get it knocked out this month, preferably sooner than later.

I would so love to get into D&D again. I have been on both sides of the screen and don't mind either job. But I also like long campaigns where people can develop their characters and grand story lines can be played out. Can be very hard to find groups dedicated to doing that.

Yeah, everything you said, Archer.

So I got a model done and dipped yesterday. This confirmed my scheme as something I can duplicate while refining the process. Should go pretty quick. I'll share some photos when I get a lot further along. I don't really want to *hurry* but I am eager to move on to some Dungeon Saga.

Now you have me wondering what it is that you bought and are painting in secret. Kingdom Death? better hide the kids

Nothing like that. It was a MM DotD if that helps you puzzle it out It wasn't a massive purchase, just something that added to an already large pile.

I haven't been watching them that close, but the last week or so has all looked like heroclix stuff. I haven't paid attention to it much are those even in scale with everything else?.........wait they had that wrestling game on DotD a few weeks ago . WWE figures???

Nah, I got this before x-mas. Not even in December, I've been shut up about it for awhile

It's a TITAN?

No wait, a giant zombie dragon?

No, no it's a Deadzone mega build?

No, no no, it's a...a.....my little pony collection!!?

It will be great what ever it is.

Haha. Don't have too much fun guessing, you'll just end up depressed by the cold hard reality.

Its a lifesize tattoo of a man your height.

Wow, impressive work last year, puts my efforts to shame... Must try harder this year (or maybe next...)

Muahah why do today what you can do tomorrow?

Interested to see what the secret is

I'm envious of you living in the US with easy access to Reaper Bones for Dungeons and Dragons. I've sort of an idea in my head to make minis for everything in the Monster Manual, with multiples for humanoids and so on. Be so much easier with access to Bones! (I could order it from Reaper, but with customs and all that it's a bit offputting...)

I've started using minis in my games again but I like robust single piece plastic stuff in the main because I'm playing with kids in school or whatever. Going to start a club soon in work (once the new years rush calms down) and run Barrowmaze or something.

If you do the giant dungeon crawl, I want pictures

Yeah i'll probably take some photos.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
You guys are gonna get to see this project sooner than I could have hopped, really productive day today. I think I may have also cracked a pan Oceania scheme that I won't hate painting... Just have to smooth out some wrinkles.

Probably gonna pay for it tonight, sleepy baby was conducive to painting but I'm sure she'll be up all night.

I really enjoyed the group photo. I'm looking forward to seeing your work this year, especially battlezones...

I do want to get some battle zone work finished this year, just gotta get into the swing with it.

Alright I've been sitting on these guys since last year. After August but before November. I got them assembled, primed, and figured the scheme out on one test model. I bought them right after I had said I should buy no more models this year (2015) and it was more Infinity at that. Bit ashamed/guilty I decided that they had to be done soon so assuage my feelings If they were finished quickly and added to the display shelves, then surely it was a worthy purchase. Got a bit distracted by zombies and other end of year projects, but finally got around to finishing them all this year. Bit of a batch paint exercise since most of them have such similar equipment and gear. They are definitely on the low/simple side of my Infinity dudes, but I'm happy with them nonetheless. May get some more eventually. Possibly going to paint my Mars Attacks human soliders (second set of 10) in the same color scheme as it's friendly to moderns and zombie stuff. Also a Mars Attacks truck.

I think I'm gonna join Azazelx's tale of hobbyists post (or whatever he's called it) by trying to complete a unit of Infinity a month. More if I can.

Anyway here you go, first 10 models of 2016:



USARF CT7, fronts and backs.


Spotlight grunts. I need to work on my freehand but I'm happy enough with the stars on the helmets. I'll get you some less fuzzy photos in daylight when I can.


Spotlight remainder of the USARF Army Starter set(the 6 model kit that's available separate from army box): the Minute Man (back), Marauder, and Foxtrot (soft hat).


Spotlight Mavericks: This is one of the biker units in the army, the one standing is (I believe) unique to early orders of the army box and is meant to be used as a dismounted biker, though she passes for a grunt (especially a forward observer) just fine. I can take the Maverick off her bike so as to use it as scenery or leave it in place when she dismounts in a game, but I'm unsure if I have plans to mount her on her own base (use as a grunt with shotgun etc) as it would require MUCH tactical rock and either pins or magnets.


Spotlight Devil Dogs: The U S Ariadna Marine Corps apparently involves large wolf aliens and dog soldiers (yeah, werewolves baby!) and I'm pretty pleased with how these have come out. I may go back and put USAMC on one or both of the Marine's shoulder plates. Need to get you better photos, he has a really "crazy eyes" look from the right angle. The Antipode is maybe a little plain and could have used some more color, even stronger white highlights but we'll see how I feel the next time I make a detail pass on my dudes.

So anyway there you go. Similar to the studio scheme but done in a way that was either more sensible, easier to paint, or more fun to paint for me. There are probably a few buckles, zippers, and such that could technically have been painted silver or some other color, but I saw no reason that they couldn't also just be a same-colored plastic or other future material. Just like I opted not to differentiate between different parts of their clothing like the studio scheme did. Their way looks maybe more technically proficient, but I like how the camo on my guys is all over the place.

I think that's enough out of me for now.

Good stuff! Really nice force there!

Thanks! Here's an interesting size comparison.

Very Nice
Great color set up for them. The head on the dog soldier reminds me of the Demogorgon models heads, very similar jaws and fangs.

Very nice Grimdork. Good to see you've found time to paint again. What paintare you using for their uniforms? I might have to steal it.

I love Infinity minis, and you've done a great job on them. Adrianna and Nomads have a lot of the coolest minis.

Thanks guys

The brown is vallejo model air: light brown, I got it in one of their 10-20 (somewhere in there) paint sets for..I dunno...military models or something. Or even the generic one, I'm sure it's available on its own though. The greens are pestilence flesh and swamp ground from the badger Minitaire line, though I'm sure analogs are available in other lines. I'm not sure how well you can order individual minitaires, I ordered the whole set and haven't run out of anything yet.


So remember that black armored Pan O guy? I think I may end up painting my Pan O blue. Not the typical blue, but a kind of blue. And maybe with white/grey/dark grey urban camo on their clothes. That black scheme looks great to me, but I'll never get them done. This blue/camo I think I can do.

The ariadna force looks great. I really like there werewolves and I have been tempted to grab a small group at some point. But I had also planned on some nomads as well and that didn't get very far either. Think I will live vicariously through your infinity for now.

 Theophony wrote:
I can totally see the complaints from the people who backed the kickstarter, or who bought full price, but for any discounted boxes sedition wars is tight.

I am feeling the urge to get back into DnD, but probably be a looooooooong way away before that happens.

That's the thing. I pledged and feel like I got bent over the table. I'm still pissed at McVey to tell you the truth. For people now picking up the boxes for cheap on the other hand I reckon are getting an excellent deal - the bases alone are worth what some people are getting the set for (though slightly devalued now that Marines have moved to 32mm - I was considering rebasing my Iron Warriors on them at one point. But yeah, for $30 or especially $18, I have no problem with the set.

Are those Infinity models a new thing? I'm not that familiar with the range, but I don't recall them from when I was looking at the game a couple of years ago. Either way, they look great and I really like the colours you've given them. The camo you've done gives the effect of multicam, which is pretty cool.

Thanks guys

@Archer I live vicariously through a lot of people for a lot of hobby interests, one of the more useful functions of Dakka

@Azazelx I could see spending $100 months (years, it was late right?) in advance and then getting what I got (and with the issues I've heard about the stuff that didn't make it into the core box...) and being mad about it. For sure.

The USARF guys got released last year, and in the later half of it. I think. I mean usariadna has been a thing in theory for awhile and I think the general ariadnan forces could take one or two american type units, but the full sectorial (splinter army of the main faction, limited unit selection but with less unit restrictions allowing for a more specialized force) and the army box are mid-late 2015 releases.

I had to look up multicam. That's interesting. I think to truly be going for that though I'd probably need a few black/white/grey dots here or there. But I think I see what you mean, as multicam is a bit more neutral in tone compared to desert or forest. I think it's the light brown doing it.

We'll all get to see if I can manage urban camo in as interesting a manner, as that's more or less on deck. I feel a bit lame retreating from my cool black scheme to do a more typical pan O blue...but I would rather have the faction finished than have one guy looking cool

Your Infinity stuff looks sweet, as always. Between you, highlord tamburlaine and Barzam, I am periodically tempted to pick up some stuff, but then I look in the closet and find the will to resist.

I may be one of the few SW backers who doesn't feel burned. Most likely that's because I've been here so long that US dollars feel like Monopoly money to me so spending it doesn't sting as much as it should.

Now I was doing fine for a while, but you had to go and do it didn't you.

Now I have to get some infinity!

They look excellent, love the camo, and "friken werewolves with laserbeams man!" AWESOME!

They look great grim. Must resist ordering that box set.

Thanks guys
@Cam do it, I have yet to find a painting experience to match working on my Infinity stuff. Really nice sculpts. Can't tell if it's the crisp sculpts, metal material, or what... but they just paint different, and I love them.

@Carlos yeah, stay away, I need you focusing on batman and samurai stuff so I can live vicariously through you and not need to order my own I like your updated banner too, need to see about fixing mine up with the new stuff.

Alright so a bit of a segue guys.

I said I wanted to paint Infinity for Azazelx's tale of 10+ hobbyists (or whatever it's called) but then I realized that as much as I love painting my Infinity stuff... these are absolutely the models I *will not* force myself to paint on a schedule. While I may fuss and stress about them more than basic rank and file stuff... they're still the models that sit closest to my happy place. That sounds bad doesn't it. Happy place. Sigh.

Anyway. I think I need to pick a new project for the 6-month paint challenge/blog. And I want you guys to help me choose!

So here are some topics, and do you think I should make a poll in the P&M general? Hrmm... I'm pretty torn over most of these:

KoW Army(armies)!
This is a meaty category that got a lot of neglect last year. I could choose to paint one army up to gaming standards in gaming quantities, one unit at a time. OR, I could choose to paint two forces in tandem giving me two smaller armies more suited to quick games and demos. The armies:

KoW Dwarves. I have two starter sets worth, and can probably scrounge/scratch more artillery.

KoW Orcs. I have a big fat army set, it even involves the boar riders. I can probably dig up a winged slasher to incorporate too and maybe some misc stuff.

Multi make Undead. I have a bunch of undead. Some whfb tomb kings, some kings of war army sets, quite a few things from reaper bones that would fit in as well. I do keep harvesting all of my zombies for parts but I could pull a lot of skeletons.

Bones Beast army. A smaller force of gnolls and bugbears, with some other stuff thrown in. More likely an ally force for other KoW armies.

Bones/KoW Nature army. I've got 20 naiads and a bunch of bones models that could be used as various things in the forces of nature list from KoW.

I have Men,Ratmen, and smurf(blue goblin) armies from WHFB that could also be updated, though that's less of a painting project.

Sigh, and that's just ONE leg of the table...

Scifi/Deadzone
So I've got a lot of deadzone and scifi stuff left to paint. I guess mostly deadzone but there's also sedition wars and a little bones scifi, etc. Less of a cohesive army and more like individual squads per installment. I've got....
Enforcers
Rebs
Marauders
Plague
Kulathi Invaders
Bathalians
Tyranids

So there's a lot of fuel for that fire.

Zombies and Moderns
I'm including deadzone zombies here, as well as WGF zombies and survivors, mars attacks scenery, mars attacks, and several miscellaneous models and terrain. Basically this set would advance in terms of 'a blob of zombies' and 'a group of survivors' and maybe 'a building with some scatter bits'.

RPG/Dungeon stuff
This includes my RPG figures from bones, dungeon saga, and maybe some individuals or small bits from kings of war. Anything from the lowly kobold sorcerer to the big nasty Ma'shaaf or khan'jira.



Sooo I guess it mostly boils down to four categories, though the kings of war would need subdivided after that.

Help me out guys? Should I make a poll too?

I can totally see your argument - I wouldn't really want to paint my RBG stuff to a schedule either, as I love the sculpts too much.

Hmmm. Well, I'm a bit biased, I'd love to see you painting up some fantasy stuff. So my feeling would be pick a fantasy project that is likely to actually see use. I know you are more of a Sci Fi guy, so feel free to disregard this if you are in a Sci Fi mood!

Painting while knowing you won't get any games in is demotivating, whereas painting for something you know you will get to use in a short timeframe is really motivating. So if you have a group or prospect of a group for KoW, or feel like doing intro game stuff, then painting two forces for KoW could be good, and provide you with an alternating model and colour scheme to prevent boredom and burnout.

I would love to see your take on Dungeon Saga or Dungeons and Dragons either, but that seems to be the least developed of your ideas, which might indicate that you're not super enthusiastic about it.

So my vote goes for KoW or a contained dungeon based project, depending on which will see more use in your local scene.

So personally I would like to see forces painted and thus ready to play for games.

So here is what I would like to see from your list. Painted as a playable force

Any KOW army: Orcs and Undead are probably the ones I am most interested in.

Deadzone Rebs

Moderns. Would like to see people more than zombies from this. Got any rules you can use them with? Maybe fist full of Kung fu or Black Ops?

I would also be interested in seeing KoW orcs, and I think some of the bones stuff could be cool too - though the Dwarves are an easy job to get done.

I suspect that the orcs would be pretty easy too, I would probably stick to my alien green combo since it looks good dipped and then a lot of metal. That's two votes for orcs out of 2 votes total so the blog vote has a pretty strong lean towards orcs. already.

I have a giant or two, and some large infantry from bones that I could draft in as ogre equivalent allies as well. And pretty much everything for the dungeon saga or expansion would fit in with the army and give it some more character.

I almost want to paint some brown orcs, but Green is so classic and I haven't painted green fantasy in a while...

Food for thought of guys, and everyone else keep putting in your thoughts, just because I take something for the challenge doesn't mean I won't get to the other stuff that is mentioned.

The Orcs seem easy.....I bought like five of the army boxes and primed them. I don't know if it was my color choice (Yellow ) or if it was the shear volume, but I set them aside and the amount of detail on them just drives me nuts for a horde army.

I do think you building a KOW army would be great as we might eventually both have time off for a game and meet up. I'd love to see you build up the Beast army or Force of Nature army using your bones models. You could do both as allies and then build the dungeon saga stuff and have raids using your beasts or the nature people trying to take back a cave system.

Why not just throw in the odd brown Orc with the green? Doesn't have to be a single colour force.

Ok theo bait me with the potential of playing some day why don't you...

So I see orcs three times and no opposition.

Orcs. You say.

Yes, orcs.

Orcs, you demand?

Thrice it is and done! Regret not your choice!

Gonna have to make an inventory. Getting book out now to research units.

Let me know if you need more orcs .

Maybe in 6 months when we are done with this challenge we can have a game using the painted models.

Hah, that sounds fun Are you doing a KoW army as your entry for the challenge? I would have figured MOAR Zombehs from you.

By the time I bring in allies, monsters, and maybe re appropriate my orclings from the smurfs... probably will have upwards of 100 models to work with. Maybe someday, for now though.. probably too much as it is

So I have most or all of Garlak's Barbarous Horde, a discontinued (as far as I can see) medium sized orc army box. Bigger than the starter, smaller than the $175 dollar kit. I do have some trolls and may be able to fudge some chariots or fight wagons so... close to the bigger set. I like converting infantry to be characters and war machines, especially for stuff like this. Anyway this is what I have to work with:

KoW specifically--
28 greatax (2 handed axe orcs)
45 ax troops (sword and board)
metal upgrades for morax (dual wielding unit mulchers)
10 boar/gore riders
metal leader on boar (though may fit on one of my dragons!)
orclings. not sure how many, I know I counted but I've forgotten.

Dungeon Saga booster--
3 trolls, score!
a few extra orcs
3 total skulks (or whatever you call orc archers.. sigh, hard to do anything with that)
3 lumps of orclings, making for more ready blobs of orclings

And from the rest of my collection--
3-6 mantic ogres for allies
1 or 2 giants
bones gnolls and bugbears which could stand in as ogre allies
a few miscellaneous additions

Some thoughts.

I'll probably spread things out a bit on the multibases in favor of having a decently sized force. The ax troop sprues have one model each which is capable of having two axes. I think I can populate (just barely!) two regiments of morax by using the metal bits and ALL of the spare axe bits available to me. I think this will leave just enough guys to make a regiment of ax troops, leaving the greatax guys alone. This all being the case, I should be able to make two regiments of greatax.

And by regiments I very possibly mean "two troops which will often be combined on a small tray", because I don't know which is best for KoW but it's not difficult to model in such a way as allows me to readily convert from troops to regiments.

I can maybe convert one or two orc archers from spare bows and a couple of troops stolen from the above regiments, and when combined with the 3 skulks and 3 goblin archers from dungeon saga... just barely skate by with a troop of skulks. Again, I hear it's useful to have troops to drop and missile units to drop troops, so this would work.

If I make troop trays that allow for socketing (required for the skulks unit above too), I can use the orcling piles from dungeon saga and my own orclings to maybe just eke out two regiments or one horde, also for screening the killy units like Morax..

I have a good feeling about either the dungeon saga dragon or my old metal D&D black dragon, so I'm gonna count on having a Krudger on Winged Slasher. His liberated boar can probably combine with my 4 old WHFB boars to make just enough pulling power for a chariot regiment or some fight wagons. I'm not sure which is more...better.. at this point.

If I make my gore riders an obligate regiment, I can probably swing only using about 8 in the block which leaves two for other purposes. Either for pulling chariots/pushing fight wagons, or to convert into mounted flaggers to help with morale.

I'll also need to snag some orcs to make war drums, and probably a couple of flaggers.

So now what I've got to work with:
(units with ?? will have to be converted/found/etc)
(points listed for regiment and then two troops)
1 ax regiment 125/180
2 morax regiments 400/560
2 greatax regiments 145/200
2 orcling regiments 120(horde using both is 90)
1 gore riders regiment 185
Krudger on winged slasher 275 (or 235 with no wings)
Foot Krudger with zappy sneak (he has a goblin wizard on his shoulder). 145
troll regiment 125
troll bruiser 125
giant 190
??chariot/fight wagon regiment?? 140 or 170
??second giant?? 190
??1 or more war drums?? 80 pts each
??1 or more flaggers?? 50-65(mounted) each
??wip the halfcast?? 90

Gonna see if there's an army in those points. I've got some mantic Ogres I can borrow to flesh out the list, and some abyssals from dungeon saga...maybe.

Well, looks like that got done and dusted while I was asleep!

Nice choice on the Orcs, and really heartening to see you guys already potentially setting up a game with the completed forces. That's what this is all about!

Indeed!

I think the above can definitely be cobbled into a 2000 point list give or take, though a bit heavy on heroes and monsters. Now to figure out how much of it I need/want to get painted, and how much I'll be looking to paint in a given month.

I had picked up 3-4 of those off boxes , so I have plenty, enough for a cavalry host of orcs on pigs. I just couldn't get motivated to do it......but maybe that's what this whole painting challenge is about. I could also add in some of the beasts from blood rage, such as the giant. AARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!! I wanted to get most Zombehs done or I could work on the terra cotta army, which I would enjoy more I think. I think j need a pole

@Grimdork: Do you have any command sprues? They come with parts to make drummers, and if you have enough you could put a you few on one base and call them a drum corps. I'm considering doing that myself.

Josh....brilliant!

This will be a fun project to watch. Looking forward to it!

Cool stuff!

I would have a look and see if you have anything at all that could be used as a chariot, as chariots seem to be one of the big parts of the Orc list.

On general plans, I believe you want to think of your army in two "waves". Orcs especially seem to benefit (in the tactica I have read) from a checkerboard deployment, with shock absorbing gobbo/orcling/ax units in front and then hard hitting Morax/Greatax units behind. You seem to have a good composition for that.

DS Trolls are way cooler than the restic trolls anyway. I love them.

 EyeamRai wrote:
This will be a fun project to watch. Looking forward to it!

Hey mate - good to see you back! You don't fancy joining in, do you?

Indeed, paint something with us eyeguy

@da boss what you have said seems to track with my limited research. I can build some chariots if necessary. I like the DS trolls too. I may make a big unit base for them and two of the bones trolls. Big nasty river troll and a smaller Stone troll. Wish I had a third, bit the extra big troll is gonna be a bruiser.

Wonder how to narrow down the above to 1k. Winged slasher seems a bit much, as does taking a troll horde and bruiser together, or the giant at all.

Maybe just best to plan for the whole 2k lol.

Since 3 molochs are a regiment I could take one of those, a troop of lower abyssals, and an ifrit or demon character as an allied detachment, from DS I mean. Beyond the scope of this project but just a thought

 EyeamRai wrote:
This will be a fun project to watch. Looking forward to it!

Can be a fun project to join if you like too.

A winged slasher is great for messing up an opponents backfield, or helping against huge hordes of zombies. The 3x attacks for a rear charge or flying over opponents to eat up their warmachines aid needed since we have a lack of artillery in the off force.

Yeah I think a Winged Slasher adds a lot to an Orc force - the options for fast moving units are pretty limited and the force relies on melee, so you've got to have something that can legitimately threaten enemy war machines and missile units. My problem is that it makes such a big target for basically everything I can see it getting nailed early on in a lot of games, and also that you're losing an Inspiring source by using it.

And covering that inspiring gap means even. less blocks of troops. Hrmrnrm. I have a mounted orc boss and large beasts, I'll likely be making it either way.

You could just use an orc Boar rider and make him a lord, and that will give you mobility and inspiring. You need that with the low nerve level.

Yeah, I'm planning on a mounted flagger or two. Easily swap to regular hero.

Flaggers are cheap and effective if all you want is the Inspiring bonus. Also, painting up banners is really fun.

GW used to do that plastic warboss on boar kit that had parts for a mounted standard bearer. I have one knocking around somewhere.

When I played with my Dwarves recently, I found Inspiring to be pretty vital at various points.

Yeah. Inspiring is reroll nerve tests in range right? Really forces your opponent to need to pile on damage opposed to grazing your guys and getting a lucky nerve roll. Keeps your units around more consistently with less rng dead units.

So, the new werewolves are the size of T.A.G suits

 shasolenzabi wrote:
So, the new werewolves are the size of T.A.G suits

Yep, they are fed with beef that's grain fed , just like all us darn yanks that are big and strong.

Gonna try to update more often guys, even if it's just pictures of primed stuff.


Here are 14 orcs for my random new project. Originally got an army set from another dakkafolk in trade for some space marine stuff I didn't have plans for. I think the way I'm going to base these guys may end up only allowing space for 12 on a tray. It's a bit thin, though it *is* over the minimum requirement by a model. I want them to be usable for D&D and skirmish games too.

Gonna see about painting these later... what do you guys think for the cloth? I'm between medium gray and lighter tan (like soft leather hides, and use a darker leather color for belts and stuff).

Here are a couple sets of photos of the USARF guys, in the jungle and blending in with some moderns and zombies. May try to get some better daylight photos today too if this kid cooperates...


US soldiers evacuating civilians as a horde of zombies closes!


A closer shot of the civilians, hey look that nun is packing!


Bit better view of some of the soldiers.


The marauder and minuteman unload with incendiary weapons to thin out the herd.


And one last shot of the evac scenario.


The Devil Dog team taking to the high ground thanks to their superjump capabilities.


Is that foxtrot calling in the thunder while the mavericks chill on the only flat ground to be found?


Grunts advance through a ravine.


The minuteman and marauder advance ahead of the grunts to clear the way with FIRE.


The grunts and dismounted maverick take a moment for a PR pose. You can see better examples of my weak, but hopefully improving, freehand in the form of the white stars and flag-themed bandanna and arm bands.


More deetail on the devil dogs, the antipode's crest thing had all the detail already sculpted.


Woah there, friendly, FRIENDLY! Nobody likes friendly fire That bike wind screen needs some gloss I think. The maverick come off if I want to use the bike as scenery or dismount in a game, but I haven't made a base to accommodate that bikers pose yet. May not.


Alright I'm tapped out for photos. May take more later. If this kid takes a nap, may paint some orcs!

Awesome figures and a great terrain layout as well .

The bus also works well as a backdrop.

Good stuff, definitely puts some USA-IN-SPAACE stuff in on my list of stuff for when I get back into Infinity.

Looking forward to the Orcs, I've always liked Mantic's take on them. Will you still be going the classic greenskin look, or something a little different or more varied?

Probably pretty standard greenskins. I like brown in some cases but Mantica's orcs were created by magic to well, be orcs. So I figure green works.

greens good, I've been thinking of trying gray on mine, but that's later.....way later.

Yeah grey skin could be interesting but I don't feel terribly original atm lol.

Woaaah, that jungle terrain set up. That's the dog's bollocks!

I must have missed when you put that together. Looks fantastic with the minis. Love it.

On the colour scheme, I reckon which type of cloth depends on the skin. If you go darker skin, the lighter leathers will make for a good contrast, but if you go for GW style bright green then a grey colour will go better, I think.

I reckon the mantic orcs lend themselves to a dark skin tone personally - they're less cartoony than GW ones.

One of the first things last year. Maybe you can see now why I want to build an entire 4x4 table like that. Probably a pain to play on but it looks neat.

You may be right, I might need to switch my greens.


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Hmm... wonder if 4x4 is the wrong size... If I made it *even bigger* I could have an area that's flatter for compliance with more traditional games... Hmm. I mean its all easy to make and paint, largely airbrushing and big-brush dipping before flock and hot gluing in the foliage.

I find that mantic orcs fit just fine on a 25x25 base, and rank up neatly once based. You won't have to be too sparse on the movement tray, unless of course you're being frugal.

I'm sure they do, however, I really want to do mine on 25mm rounds for use in various D&D and skirmish applications. If I make a KoW regiment tray that has sockets for such bases, the most I'm going to fit is 12 per orc base, including the larger size. The problem is in that the top layer of the tray, which has the gaps for the bases, would be extremely flimsy and hard to work with if I try to make any more than 12 fit. It already looks like exaggerated swiss cheese. Basically putting them 5 wide leaves no room for the material that will hold the bases in place during play. I could potentially make it 4 deep but it has the same problems, unless I make the tray not insignificantly bigger. And it feels kind of silly to do that, I mean at 12/20 models I'm over the minimum (though just barely) and the unit still looks like a block of troops. They're burly enough to fill the negative space without looking shoddy, I feel.

I considered doing several orcs that *could* come out with several static but ehh, I like I kind of like the all and nothing approach.

Here's what they're probably going to look like:


Dip is drying, obviously he needs sealer and a base.

The leather isn't as red as the photos make it look, either, sun was up to it's usual tricks.

The sad/funny thing is that these guys actually seem to take a bit longer than zombies or survivors. There are a lot of straps and various materials and colors within close proximity so picking out the details will probably get tedious quick. Don't be surprised if my Orc army involves a lot of auxiliaries like trolls, a giant, and so on.

Colours look good and gritty. I was going to suggest toning the straps down until I read the rest of your post.

Straps are the bane of my existence on fantasy miniatures - almost always cheap out on them if possible.

I think 12 per base works okay - if you check out Azazelx' LOTR/KOW stuff it looks good. Maybe sprinkling a few Orclings and so on will fill up the space too. Because it's 25mm it might look a bit more sparse with 12, though, so if you could even fit 1 or 2 more on it might make a difference.

They should look really good when you've done a block's worth though - that's when the mantic orcs really look their best I think.

We'll see, may be able to fit s guy or two in between the others.

Mantic orcs do have a lot of straps, pouches, scabbards and what not, but I just paint them all the same color, which is different from the leather I paint their clothes. After a dip/wash, it looks just fine.

12 on a movement tray will give you the same footprint as a 20-man squad on 20mm bases. Since orcs come on 25mm bases, you can probably fit 20 on a movement tray. Again, it's different story if you are being frugal (and I can't fault you for that), but you're still going to have a lot of empty space on that tray.

I have already set them up on the 125 by 100 millimeter tre, 12 is literally all that will fit allowing for a not insignificant amount of gap between them such that the base will be able to hold them. 2025 milimeter round bases will fit, into that space, however they will not do so in such a way as I want them to be removable.

Nicely done sir

This is one of my main questions right here. How many can i get away with on a tray? I set out 12 chaos warriors on a tray and it looks fine. Gives a bit of room for posability.. would be the same surely with orcs.

Thanks theo.

@Cam, the minimum number of models in x unit type is the max number of the next smallest unit plus one. That...is maybe confusing. For troops its 6, regiments 11, I believe that would make hordes 24 and so on. Really, as long as the movement tray/ unit base is the right size... That's the big thing. But if you wanted to do official whatever's, then its like I said before.


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For the other shapes and sizes of units just Google the KoW FAQ, there's a handy chart. There's also a recommended size which appears to be 70%. I think that's a good amount, I prefer to do 13-15 where possible. Basically the front rank is full and either some terrain or gaps in the back.

I'm only going down to 12 because that's what works for removable models. I could get the other 2-3 guys on there if I only made about half of them removable. I had plans to do that for skeletons. I suppose I *could* make the front rank a permanent fixture and leave the rest loose... I'll research it. Getting the 5th man into the front rank goes a long way to making the unit look filled out/imposing.

I guess I'm just having a hard time visualizing your basing scheme. I'm sure it will look fine when finished.

The test Orc looks great. Really like the skin tone and metals. I am a fan of the green Orc. Doesn't need to be neon green, but the fantasy world has enough "normal" skin tones to afford something really different. Keen to see a whole regiment.

I'll be working on it soon Josh, which will hopefully clear up the confusion.

 Theophony wrote:

 shasolenzabi wrote:
So, the new werewolves are the size of T.A.G suits

Yep, they are fed with beef that's grain fed , just like all us darn yanks that are big and strong.

LOL! I guess they would continue certain traditions even in a space colony!

USARF all looking damn good! also makes for some good zombie busters! Makes me wonder, does the Were-wolf virus override the Z-virus? Zombie Antipode or Dog-Face would be severely scary! Oh and let's not forget, they likely would be turned if exposed to the mutagen of the artifacts left behind on planets such as the "Plague"

I always thought it was the Dairy in our diets-- Milk builds strong bones and all that. Worked for me anyway.

That bus makes a great piece of terrain. The USARF guys look pretty good too.

Seeing the motorcycle and the zombies reminded me of that scene in Day of the Dead, or was it Dawn of the Dead... the original anyway. Remember though, Romero Zombies really are Ghouls, not Zombies. Real Zombies don't eat.

By real zombies do you mean Voodoo, or necromancy? Or are you just deeper into zombie lore than I've ever cared to go?

Some work on orcs today, nothing photo worthy.

Noteworthy happen yet????

Also you sounded like you didn't believe zombies exist , Even the CDC recognizes that they are a real threat.
http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies_novella.htm

Nah got straps done on 5 or 6... Got their base lined out, should support 14 orcs, 8 of which would have clear arcylic bases and be removable, and 6 glued to the tray. Maybe a couple orclings/rocks/flowers too.

If it looks like the kids will go easy on me tonight I may stay up and paint but that's fairly risky lol.

Did I ever shar e one of my concept lists with you guys, the hero army? The idea started when I got a smaller idea... I wanted to do my dwarfs and have a unit of just a few heroes counting as one of the strongest units in the dwarf list, with kind of a Drizzt and the companions of the hall style party. So a dwarf king, human barbarian, dark elf, human lady with a bow, a halfling and giant panther...representing the strongest drawf block or possibly even the brock cavalry.

Anyway basic concept was 4-6 adventurers represented a whole regiment. The fighter and cleric hold the entire front line, the rouge sneaks through the enemy ranks doing the real damage. Wizards hidden behind the defenders give ranged blocks their shoot values (or possibly take a missile troop, one wizard with suitably dynamic scenery and some elementals or animal companions etc..even apprentices) and so on.

Then I thought. Wait, what about a whole army of adventuring parties? They could form several elite blocks, and the very best heroes would get to be solo hero characters nabbed from the army list heroes section. Even easier now with the destiny of kings dungeon saga heroes profiles out. Weaker/chaff blocks would be a batch of common soldiers with a proper hero at the lead, but like a junior one.

Dunno what list, whatever worked out. Maybe Men, maybe elves for the blocks to be elite yet fragile, or maybe something out of the new army list book.

Just an idea rattling around in my head.


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Thematically it would be a force called into being by a wealthy nation without a strong army of its own, for whatever reason. Part of what sparked the whole idea was the mount and blade prophesy of pendor mod... You could run across roving bands of adventurers and heroes who may or may not be hostile. The number of units was comparatively low, but they were on par with the strongest knights of most of the mini kingdoms and a bit more versatile.

Not a terribly realistic approach, kind of more like something you'd see in a diablo style setting, teams of heroes plowing through swarms of enemies.

I like that idea. I vote that you do that after you finish the orcs.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
I like that idea. I vote that you do that after you finish the orcs.

Yes, really cool concept, not sure which army to use though

Not sure which army either. Secondary concern at best anyway

It basically is a combo bones/D&D adventuring party display base and kings of war army plan. Win Win.

That's a pretty cool concept, and with the heroes on removable bases it lets you use them for D&D/DS/whatever as well.

Hmmm, Heroes! for the win!

Really like an army of adventurers. Would be such an awesome rag tag, but insanely dangerous group. Would you group them via profession or actually dungeon diving groups?

Gotta be by party/company. If you have a batch of rogues they'd crumble to a unit of troops, its because they have tanks and healers in place that they can do their sneakery. Same for wizards who aren't their own units and so on.


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Gotta be by party/company. If you have a batch of rogues they'd crumble to a unit of troops, its because they have tanks and healers in place that they can do their sneakery. Same for wizards who aren't their own units and so on.

Sounds like a fun concept. How about some evil adventuring teams to balance things out? Troll up front tanking, sneaky little goblin scampering about, some robed thing doing the finger wiggling. An evil cleric to heal a/o reanimate as needed.

I like the concept of the base being the unit, rather then the individual models. Opens up a lot of concepts.

Kings of War is good that way. Realizing themes and unit filler existed back in my whfb days was cool. Unit bases in kow opens it up even more.

Evil party is possible but I dunno about within the same force. Maybe as an evil mercinary unit.

The list would have to take a lot of magic items too, to help differentiate the blocks of heroes. And a lot of solo heroes and wizards as well as rangers/wizards fling in for war machines in places. Depending on list.

Sooooo....
Stupid or cool? This is the only dragon I have that will work at all. Thoughts?

Can you get him down closer to the shoulders? He looks like he'd fall off in battle.

I think that Orc looks good, I painted a load of them back in the day as Slave Orcs for my Abyssal Dwarf army and I found uniform colour and wash dealt with the pouches etc just fine.

That metal Orc Lord is one hell of a hunk of metal, and the thinness of his choppa blade always worried me but I think he looks pretty cool atop the dragon. As JIJ says maybe move him closer to the shoulders? But it does look tight for space down there.

Is it possible to put a chain in his other hand and wrap it through the dragons mouth? Make him look like he is battling the dragon in an old school rodeo?

I reckon he needs to be either closer to the head, maybe even holding/having a chain around one of the horns, or back at the shoulders, sitting at the base of the neck. The former means he's going to be swinging about all over the place, but able to get more stuck in (seems pretty orcy to me!), the latter gives him more stability, but the dragon will be doing most of the killing, and I don't see him being too pleased with that! Having him nearer the head also helps from a composition standpoint, as he and the head become the focal point of the model.

I agree that it needs some sort of controlling/guiding device....or a whip .

Another idea might be use plastic Orc warrior bits to see if you could have him standing on the back part of the dragons skull and have one hand holding the horns while the other hand flails a weapon around. Not sure how it would work though.

Yeah I'm not sure either but winged slasher krudger is something I want to do. I was considering s chain. Could make a saddle too but I kinda liked the idea of him jumping on and clamping down with his mighty orc legs because he's just that much of a boss. A chain reins in his shield hand was something I considered, maybe that would do. I will be leaving him removable as the dragon goes with dungeon saga too.

well you could always model a stick coming out of his shield hand with a orcling hanging from a stick dangling in front of the dragon. (or a smurf with your smurfy skills . Almost looks like the dragon is staring at something up close and about to grab at it anyway .

I'll figure something out. For right now I'm thinking legs clamped on plus chain in hand, the chain should be removable if it works out the way i want it to. Bought like 18 feet for five dollars so may find some other uses for chain too.

Working this guy in at 1000 points is hard... Just not sure what else to take.

I took some other photos too, but they're pretty boring. Basically he looks bad by the head and bad at the shoulders but still on the neck. Sits too far forward or backwards, and I'm not interested in making a big tall saddle for him, I think he just jumps on the dragon with a chain and holds on for dear life, possibly even hopping off on occasion to krump things.

Maybe set it up with chains really long coming off the shield hand connected only once. Then you can place him on the dragon and wrap the gain around the neck like a dog chocker collar and the end can lay loose over the shield hand when you field it in KOW, but then Removable for dungeon saga. It might wear some paint later, but fixable.

That's similar to what I was thinking. I may make a proper loop and put it in the dragons mouth like s bridle or whatever, with length such that the loop is taut when the orc is in the right position on the neck. Blue tack him down or whatever. When I'm ready to remove the orc, the slack gained by moving him towards dragons head should allow me to slip the chain off. May even work out to fit his boar too.





This also:

I'm in the process of trying to figure out a list so I can plot my monthly goals. I really want to use the Krudger on winged slasher but he takes up nearly 1/3 of the points in a 1000 point list. It's not so much that I mind an 'all your eggs in one basket' approach, as I can't figure out exactly what else to pack into the remaining points. I'm currently painting the Morax, the most expensive infantry block I could have gone with. So now there are only 500 points left to work with

I could expand the challenge to 'get all of my orcs done' but I have so much stuff I'd like to do that I don't like that idea. Anyone versed enough at KoW lists to take a crack at it?

Krudger on winged slasher
Horde of axes
troop of Great axes
Regiment of More Axes
REgiment of Orclings
Troop of Gore riders

Comes to 970. Add in some magic items and you can be at 1000. I think you have enough stuff from your set, might need to spread out some axes though.

That definitely works. I'm not sure I have enough axes though. Also that's painting most of my boring regular orcs up front I'm dying to try these DS trolls so I may just have to work them in.

Painting skin on the orcs, getting close to done but still a lot of work left really.

Aiming for this 1000pt KoW Orc list:

Krudger on winged Slasher
(big orc boss on dragon, wee!)

Morax Regiment
(two axes means twice the fun, mulches things)

Greatax Regiment
(almost as much fun as the Morax)

Ax Troop
(screen/points filler, bit boring but mainstay)

Skulks Troop
(sneakier bow wielding orcs, I'm using the orcs and possibly goblins from Dungeon Saga for these, unless I find some bows in my bits box to convert regular orcs)

Orclings Regiment
(mantic's even tinier answer to snotlings, tiny orcs in a swarm, 3 40mm bases worth)

Trolls Regiment
(going to work on reposing the DS trolls to make a unit, love those guys)

Seven distinct units, but the skulks and ax troops are smaller so I'll either combine those two or combine one or the other with the Orclings to split into the 6 monthly goals.

I'm not sure this is a good list, but it seems reasonably entertaining to paint. I'll get about half of my basic orc troops finished and still leave a few fun things like giants, gore riders, and any chariot/fight wagons for later. Also have a couple of reaper trolls and a bigger troll boss for later too.

So there's the target list. Seems a bit meager for six months, but then we must consider that this isn't all I intend to paint over that time... just the challenge portion.


Also I've recently gotten access to the Uncharted Empires supplement for Kings of War. Even more cool armies to think about! The Night Stalkers list especially has me thinking in a dozen different directions for conversions and awful/terrifying unit ideas


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Also... I'm bored of Orcs, for a little while at least. Feel free to suggest something else I mentioned working on recently for my next project after this block. Infinity, Modern/zombie, terrain, I don't care. I need a palette cleanse badly

Why not knock out a quick bit of terrain, enter the LoER comp. Can just be a small piece, no pressure, maybe for your saga stuff?

What's the new LoER Comp? I'll have to take a look. I thought you guys preferred scratch build stuff anyhow though?

Click link in my banner.

Does not have to be scratch built, this one is recycle, so maybe using something that was not meant to be terrain for a terrain piece. Sure you have bits kicking about that could be used alternatively.

Ahh well when I say scratch build I usually include repurposing stuff in that as it's what I tend to do most. Fair enough, I'll have a look.

You could always paint more bones things to use in a nightstalkers list

I think Mashaaf is in just need to decide what unit. Maybe genesyealers with head and or armswaps. Greenstuff/casting stuff.

I know the aim is to avoid buying any new stuff, but anything you could proxy/build into chariots would be useful in my opinion - the chariots are one of the good things in the Orc list.

I can make chariots from scratch, I've done it before. I've even got 4 extra boars. I'd have to maybe gank the big boar from the Krudger but if he's gonna stay on the dragon it's an issue. The chariots are that big of a deal though huh?


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Points-wise I can technically swap out the trolls for the gore chariots and still be under 1000, just don't have spillover points for magic items..but they probably weren't necessary anyway.

I think the Orcs need fast units to close in on the enemy quickly and chariots fill that niche- perhaps an experienced KoW orc player would say otherwise though!

Hmm if I intended to bring chariots and the flying krudger.. why not focus on speed?

Krudger on winged slasher 285
gore riders regiment...........185
gore chariots regiment.......140
trolls (can't help it)..............125
Morax (nearly done)...........200
Orclings (only filler that fit)..060
Should be 995/1000 unless easy army did its math wrong.
It's fast and punchy, with a dedicated clean up crew of regenerating trolls and blender morax. And the orclings still fit, wee. This list is even more compact and involves even less regular line troop orcs getting painted. It does eat up more of the fun stuff first but if I get it all done and never paint another orc... still got 1000 pts of orcs done.

Ehh?

Bah vallejo gunmetal is *not* equivalent to boltgun. I'm not sure I can use it, very shiny and I don't really like the opacity, boltgun/leadbelcher just have that certain look I really like. Unfortunately I'd have to drive out of town or order and have the leadbelcher shipped..basically the cost will be $10 for a pot unless I happen to be by a gamestore =/

Boo.

What I get for going back to fantasy and actually using metallics

Being on the metal step (or near enough to check paint alternatives) is a good thing, but this will slow me down. Maybe I can scrape the bottom of my bolt gun bottle.

Aww, I hate being out of paint like that! Recently ran out of purple, which is something I rarely use, but it would have been handy a few times.

The list at 1000 points looks interesting. The speed of it would mean the troops can keep up with the Krudger and retain his Inspiring benefit. No idea how it would play to be honest, but I've always fancied an all mounted Orc force myself.

I've almost got the Morax done so they're going into whatever list I do... but honestly I'm not in the mood to paint more orcs for awhile so the trolls and chariots and so on will help me keep putting stuff down on the project.

I think there's enough boltgun, there's more in the bottom than I realized... but I need a new pot soonish.

I think I may do a little bit of scenery for the LoER comp, probably something small. Only real guideline is that it needs to have some recycled parts. Any thoughts guys?

Idol for your orks to dance around in celebration.

That's a thought.

For right now I'm gonna keep working on this:

Early construction.


And a little progress. It's got the slats done for the front and proper see-through windows, though I'll likely be cutting those up for broken panes instead.

Making a cabin, gonna use it in the LoER competition and probably for modern/zombie woodland scenarios. It will want some furnishings on the inside, definitely a chimney, and some other bits/bobs. Maybe a front porch. Maybe some outbuildings like an outhouse and storage shed. Ideally I could stretch the outbuildings and some other features into a 2x2' area for a nice claustrophobic rural encounter map.

Wouldn't go nuts on the interior gubbins, there are nice big tables from dungeon saga, and barrels too... and the BS urban apocalypse stuff would likely fit as well.

Gonna be working on the shed in the background, as a much needed break from the orcs. I like them fine, but I tried to do too many at once. Now I just need to do the metal on six more and I can do two or three detail and touchup sweeps before dipping and looking on to finishing their unit base.

Nice. Is that just cardstock or are you using some other material?

It's some kind of card...board. Paper board? Mat board maybe? I got s couple of clearanced packs of 30ish 12" square pieces from hobby lobby awhile back. It's like several layers of paper... Kind of like card dungeon tiles almost. It's an interesting material, I don't think it's particularly sturdy but it works differently from plasticard and is better used in some projects for those differences. I like it for making KoW movement trays.

Fantastic start.

Cool cabin!

EDC

Now you just need some camp consellors and a hockey masked bad guy.....and a lake

Haha, yeah I figure there are a few modern scenarios that might be kind of amusing with this.

 Theophony wrote:
Now you just need some camp consellors and a hockey masked bad guy.....and a lake

You know, Reaper does make a hocky mask wearing serial killer. They also make Boyscouts and I think there's a couple packs of teens as well. You could totally run a Friday The 13th game.

Do you know the names/skus Barzam? I may just have to look those up

Fireplace/chimney is about done. I need to figure out a floor... maybe hardwood though it'll be a pain.. But then I'm getting close. Even installed furniture like shelves and pantry I can paint separately and glue them in later so I may be looking at painting this soon. The idea is to get it finished and then keep adding to it, but to have it essentially done the whole time. Same with extra buildings and even an entire 2x2 board before it's over (potentially).

Almost have the metal done on these orcs... two more...two more.

Then just a few detail passes and a dip.


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The orcs have been dipped. It was a rushed hack job of a thing but I don't think I ruined anything. I tried a couple of tamiya weathering powders on the lot and I think they were looking pretty good pre-dip, but we'll have to see if the dip washed them out or not. If It did... not like I couldn't just add them later again.

Sigh children demanding my attentions. More later.

That's a cool looking building, Grim. My first thought when I saw it was "Bolt Action", so you might have to start another new game soon...

Noooooooooooooo'ooooooooooooo!

Never really could get into the whole WW2 thing for whatever reason. Or the alternate/weird WW2 things that exist either for that matter.

Hoping to add a lot of little nicknacks and possibly expand it to a small 2x2 self contained play area. We'll see.

You could always get the scooby doo gang and mystery machine and relive dozens of the episodes using the cabin as a backdrop . Then you can use half if not more of your bones collection to be the bad guy .

 GrimDork wrote:
Do you know the names/skus Barzam? I may just have to look those up

Ask and you shall receive (several hours later).
Serial Killer (he's multipart too, so you can have Jason or Leatherface)
https://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/hockey/sku-down/50037
Boyscouts
https://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/scout/sku-down/50192
Teens (Jock, Chick, and Nerd)
https://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/nerd/sku-down/50090
Geeks
https://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/nerd/sku-down/50231

Haha nice stuff. May have analogs to some of those already but its a nice range for inspiration too.

So with as little preamble as possible, here's the completed Morax unit, just need to finish the base:


So you can see some of the guys are glued down permanently while others are on clear acrylic bases and can come out.


The removable orcs are clustered more towards the back as they have to sit further away from each other due to not wanting the top layer of their base to be too flimsy.

One thing I didn't hammer out before finishing the painting of everything is that I would end up leaving the 15mm integral bases on the glued-down orcs. It was a decision I made late in the process, but I stand by it for now. My other regiment trays that have the models hot-glued down have this issue where those models tend to not stay in place very well... the hotglue works fine on the models but not so well on the composite base/tray surface (which is basically plaster+paint+flock, reasonably crumbly all around). So this is more of an integrity thing than aesthetic.

So I'm going to have to add the crack shot/spackle/plaster whatever to the tray in an amount that's enough to hide the integrated bases. It's going to put the slotable bases kind of into a bit of a hole... so I may have to treat the inside of the slots.. though that could end up getting messy. I'll figure it out, I'll just have to work on it until I get it right.

I think you can see some of the grease/smudge weathering stuff I put on their backs and clothes to make them look dirtier. Most of the rust powder stuff came off when I dipped so I may add some more back on and then dust them with the rattle can again some day. Who knows.


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Idea comes to mind. Not sure if it would be easier to make things balance out with the messy messy crackshot.. or if I couldn't just find something to make the little 15mm holes like I made the 28mm holes, dunno if I can find a 15mm craft hole punch, but maybe a 15mm outer diameter piece of copper pipe I can sharpen and then hit with a hammer to make my own. Or what have you. Probably easier in the long run with less fiddling, and less extra crack shot over the top of it all.

Those are really nice, should look grand when the unit base is done!

Thanks, and here's hoping. I think I can do better on the next unit base having done this one first, but I may not be doing another regiment of infantry for another month or two.

Looking good. The irregular spacing on the back ranks makes the reduced numbers less noticeable, so good work there. I really like the brown on their, er clothes? Armor? What did you you for that,apart from weathering powder, I mean.

Looks nice mate. Cant wait to see it based.

They're looking good. I wouldn't stress too much over making the ground perfectly even. Some broken and uneven ground it a given - It's a battlefield, not a golf course, after all!

I don't know. Some of the golf courses I have been on resemble a battlefield.

The orcs are excellent. Keen to see more.

The only good golf course is one that has been blown up

The Morax are looking good, I always liked them as a nice hybrid of the LOTR realistic Orcs and GW's more heroic proportioned ones.

Cannot wait to see the base completed, whilst I have not painted much ranked fantasy in an age it was my gateway to the hobby.

I like how they don't have a discernible animal origin. D&D orcs are porcine with snouts and tusks, these guys just have nubby toothy murder faces.

Base is getting there... I'm finishing up 4 orclings and a couple other bits of battlefield detritus to glue to the base and then that will all get dipped. Then sealed (along with the six orcs on top) and then I can finalize it with flocks and grasses and stuff that don't wanna be sealed.

Love the layout on the base - the greater density at the front really visually tricks you into thinking it's much more packed than it actually is, and it looks really full enough to be a regiment- I think the extra couple of Orcs really makes a difference.

Here's the base with fixin's after two layers of the crackshot/spackle and a coat of minitaire earth followed by a dip to help seal the crumbly surface in.





So right now it's mostly a muddy field, but I'll be adding some flock and what not. Maybe some static grass, sand, or larger bits for bushes. We'll see what fits and what looks nice. It's got to be a little green to match my other fantasy stuff but it can be muddier too as the orcs march to war.


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Huh there's a skeletal arm holding a sword closer to the front ranks and you can't even see it in the photos. Oh well, I'll be doing a full spread of them once I get everything totally finished.


Time to paint some random stuff I guess.

Oh a tally for the year, and yes, I'm totally counting those Orclings

January 2016 painting tally:
10 Infinity USARF models
14 KoW Orcs
04 KoW Orclings
01 KoW Regiment bases

Neat 29 models so far!

I've got a bit over a week before I need to be thinking about starting my next Orc unit to keep up with Azazelx's unit a month challenge...and frankly I need a break anyway. I've got the cabin but I think I need to do a little more work on that before I dive into painting so... from the following list is there anything anyone would like to particularly see done? (list incoming).


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Easier to do a photo. See anything you guys wanna see with paint? I reserve veto privileges.

Giant bug gets my vote.

That'll be pretty quick regardless of scheme and its pretty generically useful. Either dark browns or maybe like a red orange fire ant style. Black with grey drybrush is possible but I dunno.

The Orc tray looks good. Will you be putting that much work into all movement trays for the army?

I second the bug, if only so I can get some inspiration on how to do mine.

Josh, yeah, I should be doing the same thing for all of the movement trays. Future ones should be easier though as I've sourced a punch that comes out to roughly 16mm which means I'll be able to counter sink the integrated mantic bases on the models rather than having to put them on top and smooth out the height difference with extra surface stuff. Found a 2" punch too that should be great for 40mm round base inserts. Gotta buy them yet, they're a bit pricey without the hobby lobby coupon but over the next few days...

Bug is underway.


A question for you guys... I've finally banked about $60 of credit with Amazon and the original plan was to buy the Zombicide base game. I'm still considering it but I wanna double check my gaming options before pulling the trigger.

There's descent, but do I really need another fantasy boardgame after DS? Probably not.

The Imperial Assault stuff is a bit high. The individual packs aren't necessarily so bad, but the expansion (which is probably what I'd aim for) is.

Could get some X-wing ships but my interest is flagging there due to how little I play and my (mostly) lack of desire to repaint them.

So I guess I'm not seeing anything too competitive with Zombicide. The super dungeon explore was a contender but it used to be $40 and now its back up to $60 which puts me off of it a bit more.

Do any of you guys know of any secret troves of minis or paint that I could be getting instead? The WGF survivors were a pretty good deal on Amazon when I bought them, for instance.

So real quick from that last post... Got enough amazon credit to get Zombicide, is there anything else miniatures/gaming related on amazon that I should consider spending the credit on?

And here's the Morax regiment, now complete with frills:




I'll get some proper daylight photos when the weather permits.



And since my daughter wanted to help even more (she was sprinkling some of the flock ) we took a couple more photos of just the tray and attached orc/lings.



So be honest here guys, do you like it? Does the flock help bring it to life a bit or should I have left it a horrible mud pit. Do I need more flock? Different colors? How a bout the little green bushes, worth having? I used larger bushes on some of my other trays in the past but it seemed like a bit much with so many orcky things already on the base. No rocks this time either. The flowers.. got them clearanced... out of place or do we like them?

Glad to have this finally done but I don't mind tweaking it a bit if necessary.

I don't think that looks bad. Leave it like it is. It looks like an field that's been trampled by orcs

I will go on record as saying that I feel Zombicide is incredibly boring. If you buy it, buy it for the miniatures, is my suggestion.

But my REAL suggestion? Don't spend it. Bank that sucker down, and keep adding to it. I use mine to buy books (I read on my kindle, tablet, and phone) and occasional video purchases. It is nice to have that bit of cash handy, when you want to grab some entertainment. Also, by the end of the year, you'd be all set for buying Christmas Presents.

Anyways, that's my $0.02.

--

As for the flock, I think a touch of static grass would make that pop!

--B.

Yeah, I think that looks great! And as with most things, it'll look a lot more natural once you have 3-4 lined up on the table.

Thanks guys

@Brianj interesting points. Honestly I don't know if I like the zombicide models that much between WGF and the eventual TWD from Mantic. There's nothing wrong with them but their aesthetic is a little cartoony for me.

I may see what other WGF kits they have on Amazon and check some other things I'm interested in... I don't love warmahordes but I know you can get a reasonable price on some of it from Amazon.

May still get zombicide too, been thinking about it for better than a year

BUY ZOMBICIDE.......or wait a little while and BUY ZOMBICIDE:BLACK PLAGUE

Remember to only shout while typing, otherwise the walkers will hear you

Lol Theo, we always knew what your vote would be

The tray looks very nice all flocked up. The the flowers are a nice little accent, as well.

I've never played Zombicide, but I wonder if it's 100% cooperative. If so, then I'd advise getting something else. Working together doesn't feel natural for the zombie apocalypse genre.

You can play co-op or you can play competitive. I've only done the co-op with my kids. I've also played solo games, as the zombies are controlled in a very methodical manner it's very possible. Also fun to watch your own guy get torn down by walkers when your rooting for the walkers .

Haha....disturbing what you do in your own Theo

I think I will try to make my own flowers sometime. I may need a spool of thinner wire but the flock I have should do. Maybe a bag or two of the fruit for model train trees to use for flowers. Or maybe white flock actually.

I think the orcs look fantastic. The base really looks like a unit of orcs has trampled their way across it. I think the scattering of flowers and orclings really adds a spot of interest among the main feature of orcs.

The finished base on those orcs looks great. It looked less so when in it's muddy trampled stage, but as with so many things it went through a period of looking so-so to looking great when finished.

Next painting thing - I'd vote on a couple of pieces of small scatter terrain as a palette cleanser. Then do the bug or whatever.

For spending your cash. Zombicide. Get zombicide. Just do it.

Love the base, has some life to it, which just adds to the figures nicely. As to the flowers, make your own flock, its easy, and you can make any colour you like.

Zombicide! I have no idea, looks to be a nice No-Brainer game, fun and quick! Don't have to sit about for hours working out lists and stuff. Been thinking about it to try and encourage my beloved into playing games with me and the kids, she really has a thing for Zombies, but then she probably thinks she lives with 4 (me at my desk hunched over and 3 teenagers hunched over XBOXes.) occasionally yelling Feed us!

I do really like your ork base though, that's helpful, just looking into that silly game and between you and Theo getting some real tips. Thanks.

Thanks guys, for both your comments on the orcs and feedback on zombicide


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Krudger on winged slasher 285
gore riders regiment...........185
gore chariots regiment.......140
trolls (can't help it)..............125
Morax (nearly done)...........200
Orclings (only filler that fit)..060

Probably gonna keep recycling this list on new pages so I don't forget it. Could easily put it in notepad but I do that for like.. everything else

Took some photos today:


A wizard of light and justice leads his swordsmen and mercenaries against a necromancer and his hired help.


The necromancer ducks for cover as the light wizard unleashes a potent daylight spell which threatens to blind the orcs and turn the skeletons to dust!


More of the same


Such light, so wizard. Gandalf was mistaken if he thought he alone had the rights to this move.


The bloodthirsty Morax engage the swordsmen and skeletons at the same time!


We change gears as the human mages join forces to repel an invasion of ratkin with their turncoat orc allies.


The Warlock wisely forces the fodder ahead.


The necromancer makes a play for the enemy general, but the warlock won't make it easy on him!


Too busy with the slaves, the humans are overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies.


Now we have some better daylight pictures of a handful of the Morax Regiment, for Para's monthly comp. The theme this month was "Up close and personal".






Rawr.

I think I've decided to work on the hardest units first for my Orc unit a month tale of gamers challenge... It may burn me out... but if I don't get the harder stuff done earlier I may lose momentum in the summer and not finish my goal.

Got some paint on that bug too, boring stuff right now though.

Always love those kind of' 'action shots'. good stuff!

That was a fun update. Thanks for posting those photos.

I really love the great axe that orc is carrying. I wish I had more of them.

Only problem is that it's pretty weak. He may not see a game before it just follow off.

Thanks for dropping by, asxlong as people do I'll keep making updates

Great stuff. Shots like this always add a sense of fun and despite how odd it sounds, they give your (our) figures context outside of WIP and individual model/unit photos.

I'll have to cobble together some forces for a proper 6x4' table mock battle. I probably have enough ratmen painted for one side but they need bases.

Got a few things painted. More photos later. Maybe. Baby is...being difficult.



Was looking at the contents of zombicide... Not sure I could handle all of those duplicate sculpts if I'm honest.

What is that ring on the left? The bug looks great.

 GrimDork wrote:
Got a few things painted. More photos later. Maybe. Baby is...being difficult.



Was looking at the contents of zombicide... Not sure I could handle all of those duplicate sculpts if I'm honest.

So the Baby is being a baby.......I lucked out, all three of mine were colleckey .

The multiples of the same sculpt didn't bother me at all, the business suit guys got different colored suits, the dresses got different designs/colors as well. But to each their own.

Bug looks great, a little more like a lobster, but still very nice .

It's from reaper. Got mine in bones 2. It's like a set with two robed cultists. The original metal set had a semi/NSFW female sacrifice/victim. Makes a neat little objective for...whatever, and as a piece of set dressing it can lend a serious/creepy vibe to a room or area.

You must have posted when I was typing theo.. Yeah the first one had her 'moments' but this second kid feels like we restarted the game on hard mode =/

I'm not sure why the sameness bothers me but it seems like it might. I may reserve judgement till I see what Mantic's zombie game looks like. I think the variety I can get from the WGF and plague zombies has really spoiled me from doing repeat sculpts.

Been looking over the D&D adventure system board games and they do look interesting. Slippery slope though as there are 4 separate boardgames that all have interchangeable monsters and heroes, can even be combined to make larger adventures, and there are several packs of prepaints from the D&D Command game (it's some kind of skirmish game) that have crossover cards for the Adventure System.

Slippery slope, and the quality looks to mirror bones with some pretty good and some pretty not good.

I think I may keep looking and tentatively plan to hoard the credit for hobby supplies.

Working on some ideas for clusters of models based around themes... more on that later.

I skipped the D&D as I looked at reviews, MM had them as specials a few times and I get tempted, but manage to hold onto the wallet.

I'll be honest - I haven't painted a single Zombicide zombie. I've done several of the survivors and zombivivors, but more importantly I've played the gak out of the game. It's not overly complex and accessible enough that Marouda (who isn't a gamer like we are) is not only able to play, but play confidently and point out things that the rest of us miss on occasion.

It's a fully-co-op (if you want it to be) "Ameritrash" style boardgame with enough randomness that the best laid plans can fall apart or require on-the-fly rejigging for those "oh gak!" moments but well thought out plans can also go smooth as silk. Also, a very cinematic feel, if you enjoy "forging the narrative".

Think of it as an accessible co-op boardgame that also comes with miniatures, rather than a box of miniatures that happens to have a game attached - if that makes sense.

For what it's worth, the D&D game boxes are fully self contained, so while there are a few to get, you're not missing out on anything by just getting one. The mechanics are also simple enough that making your own missions, monsters and heroes is very easy.

@Az, if I actually got to play, I think zombicide would be worth it for the gameplay alone.. but I really don't. Add to that the sameness of the zombies when compared to my reasonably varied mantic/wgf dudes and it just isn't adding up right now. It does sound like a blast, maybe when the kids are a bit bigger and more self sufficient.

@Para, I know I could just get one of the D&D games... but chances are it would be a slippery slope See, I'd have to get the Drizzt one first because Drizzt. Then I'd be kind of bummed out because the monster selection is kind of awkward. So I'd probably have to get the other three boxes for slightly more kosher monsters. The AI/solo friendly does intrigue me (though zombicide comes with that too), but I'd probably just wind up having Drizzt and company tear through all of the games. Especially if Jarlaxle, entreri, and athrogate all have player character cards... because that team up is tense but ridiculous

@Theo those have been the deal of the day? I guess they probably have and I dismissed them. May not do that again.

Alrighty guys here's a minor update in keeping with my 'update more frequently than the tail end of last year' goal.

Got a few small things the last couple of days to make some stuff easier.


Got a couple of punches.

These aren't exactly perfect. The 1" punch I have is next to perfect, it's a little weaker and meant for lighter materials..but it works and is the right size. The 1.5" punch is about 2mm short of a 40mm base, and the 1.6cm punch is a tad big for 15mm integrated mantic bases. The small circle also wouldn't fit on my base material so I've had to dismantle it and widen the paper feed area. And now I have to hit it with a hammer instead of using it properly lol. It still works easier than cutting the whole shape out with a knife. I should have at least half-arsed solutions for every common base size in terms of my fantasy basing setup.


I'm thinking about this layout for my gore riders regiment. I mean, technically all 5 would fit very easily onto the base and I don't exactly have another use for the two loose models... but I may want a mounted flagger some day and this will let a little more of the base show too. Also, it gives me a trio of gore riders which might be fun in outdoor D&D scenarios

I've been sort of looking for a portable light system for my smallest painting tray set up. The one that has room for a dozen models, new wet palette, and a couple of pots of paint, basically the one that gets used for simple batch painting jobs of one or two colors at a time. I found this barbecue handle mounted lamp for grilling at night clearanced from 18 bucks down to $5 at Lowes this morning. I think it will work just well enough to let me paint in the not-enough-light of the living room without making me stand right next to an outlet or window.




So that's that. I think I may work a bit on the gore riders themselves today, the sooner I get these dudes primed the sooner I can start chipping away.


Oh, had another thought about amazon credit. What about a light box?

Something like one of these guys?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DOGIED2?keywords=light%20box&qid=1453741268&ref_=sr_1_4&sr=8-4
Or
http://www.amazon.com/LimoStudio-Folding-Photography-Studio-AGG1071/dp/B00DOGIKXG/ref=pd_cp_421_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1ZDGPG6PP76BS344KVJZ

~$50 range and they come with the box, several backgrounds, the lamps, and even a little phone-capable tripod thing. I'm sure the lamps are probably the weakest link but the reviews are largely positive.

Thoughts or experience with this kind of thing? 2x2' is a bit large even but I guess it would work well enough, just have to find a spot for it.

The gore base looks good. I like that the back three aren't pointing straight forward, making the whole unit seem more chaotic.

I figure they'd crowd up at the front and then anyone who couldn't get there would just kinda keep up without necessarily crowding in.

Grim - do you have a preferred "final" shot of your Orcs for Jan?

I can just use this one for now.

Yeah that works fine. Not like its a competition with points to be won and that gets the idea across.

Loving the paint job on the Orcs there, Grim. Makes them look pretty brutish!

Thanks I don't really like bright cartoony orcs as much and that's one of my standby greens.

Priming a bunch more stuff today.

I don't mind samey poses but I wanted different weapons for when these guys rank up for KoW.

Does the chain wielding troll need anything at the end of the chains? They look a little scrawny next to the other weapons.

Hooks or wrecking balls.

Are you leaving them on 50mm bases? If so, wouldn't they be too big for a KoW unit?

You are correct, but nah, I'm gonna put them on 40mm rounds. They'll still work for DS in a pinch and they'll fit into a base as necessary like the removable orcs. The default bases are useful for holding the trolls in place while I paint them.

I was thinking about making my own little Basius using something like instamold, and then rebasing the zombie trolls (as well as all the other big monsters) on 40mm square bases. They'd still be bigger than 25mm but also usable in regiments.