Dr H wrote:Good work, Graven'.
Right proppa dirty like.

Thanks bud. We're having a filth off, you and me

monkeytroll wrote:Niiice! Really liking the icon bearer, although obviously I have a soft spot for the Lord and his tentacles....
Even have me playing with some Papa related ideas...

I can say with full confidence you have already obliterated my annual record

Mwahahahaha! Well, as for records, it's just about pushing yourself I think to whatever you want to do that's a challenge. It's not a numbers game... Honest

Slinky wrote:The poxwalkers are looking great - That paintjob suits them soo much more than the bright colours of the official GW models.

Thanks mate. There's lots of colours in these fellas, but to me they have to be muted and decaying or what the heck's the point?
Didaskalos, the Teacher, Chaos Sorcerer Lord in terminator armour





And Stentor, the Herald, icon bearer





Very happy, all things considered. Which means first wave done!

Something else for a bit of variety now. Not sure what, but something.

Suggestions?
Later
Graven

Everything looks great Graven. I do like the crustyness... it's a nice effect rarely seen other than on bases.

Wonderful catching up on this blog, so much fantastic work. These crusty are amazing fantastic to see.

Lovely stuff

Definitely digging the icon bearer as my fave.

As to numbers, whilst it would be nice to finish some things off, I'm just happy to be building again, and let's face it, choppin' and gluin' is always going to take priority over colour with me


What next? Not sure what you have on your pile at the moment, think we've had Nurgle, teenage alien football turtles, and some Gotham dudes all recently.

Here's the big thing, I think.

Variety. Not massive, harlequin-esque variety, but enough to draw attention to and highlight the desired detail.

For example- these guys are all crusty- great. But in order to off-set that, in order to really draw attention to 'They're crusty', why not try to add in a spot or two of highly-polished material? A bit of their armour that wore shiny, or a portion of gut or tentacle or bloated flesh that's smooth and glistening, in contrast to the rough and crumbly everything else.

Similarly, with the colors, having a scrap of 'still bright' somewhere would do a good job of emphasizing the muted nature of most of their surface- bright purple bruise, or orange rust, or a dribble of bright yellow puss running out of one of their ulcers.

You've got SOME blood there, but I feel it could be brighter, as a start. Maybe mix in a little white for puss.

Having those points of contrast (smooth, bright, clean) helps to emphasize the nature of the overall paintjob as well- it says "Look, I've deliberately made them look like this" instead of "I had a dodgy batch of primer and couldn't be bothered to fix it".

Gitsplitta wrote:Everything looks great Graven. I do like the crustyness... it's a nice effect rarely seen other than on bases.

Well, by accident, not design. But many thanks.

Gitsplitta wrote:Everything looks great Graven. I do like the crustyness... it's a nice effect rarely seen other than on bases.

Camkierhi wrote:Wonderful catching up on this blog, so much fantastic work. These crusty are amazing fantastic to see.

Thanks mate. And look after yourself, great to hear from you.

monkeytroll wrote:Lovely stuff

Definitely digging the icon bearer as my fave.

As to numbers, whilst it would be nice to finish some things off, I'm just happy to be building again, and let's face it, choppin' and gluin' is always going to take priority over colour with me


What next? Not sure what you have on your pile at the moment, think we've had Nurgle, teenage alien football turtles, and some Gotham dudes all recently.

Well a degree of chopping is certainly called for to make the rest of the Poxwalkers, but I'm waiting on some fantasy nurgle plague dudes for bits first. I love the icon bearer too. Proof of what you can do with a pile of assorted crap. My favourite

Anvildude wrote:Here's the big thing, I think.

Variety. Not massive, harlequin-esque variety, but enough to draw attention to and highlight the desired detail.

For example- these guys are all crusty- great. But in order to off-set that, in order to really draw attention to 'They're crusty', why not try to add in a spot or two of highly-polished material? A bit of their armour that wore shiny, or a portion of gut or tentacle or bloated flesh that's smooth and glistening, in contrast to the rough and crumbly everything else.

Similarly, with the colors, having a scrap of 'still bright' somewhere would do a good job of emphasizing the muted nature of most of their surface- bright purple bruise, or orange rust, or a dribble of bright yellow puss running out of one of their ulcers.

You've got SOME blood there, but I feel it could be brighter, as a start. Maybe mix in a little white for puss.

Having those points of contrast (smooth, bright, clean) helps to emphasize the nature of the overall paintjob as well- it says "Look, I've deliberately made them look like this" instead of "I had a dodgy batch of primer and couldn't be bothered to fix it".

I see where you're coming from. I think more blood and glistening tentacular goo is a very good shout. I think I've been so focused on saving them that I've lost sight of variety. Good shout!

Speaking of variety, some more terrain and so forth.

Decided to make some trapdoors. Sewers feel ridiculous sometimes in BMG, because they can go on rooftops also. So...

Bases and coffee stirrers. Simple but effective.

And new billboards, continuing the Batman Beyond aesthetic.




And finished the lazarus pit, at last

Working on it in situ.


And made another barricade.



Some RL stuff happened (nothing to see here, these aren't the droids you're looking for, move along).

So, I think I need to refocus my priorities.
What does this mean in real terms?

Probably less frequent updates, for one thing. Sometimes, I think dakka becomes as needy a form of self-validation for me as those idiotic Snapchat obsessives.

No more new toys for a while. Yes we've all heard it, and we've all said it. But, seriously, I have 160+ unpainted models on the shelf alone, certainly more than enough for every game I play.

No commission stuff. It's tempting, and flattering, but I'm not going to risk getting burned again. Plus, I want to paint for me, on my terms, to no-one else's deadline.

Less reviewing. Well, ish. No new companies, certainly.

And, slightly riskily, less time playing. Kids' activities have changed, so geek Tuesday is going to go for the foreseeable. Maybe it's a sign. Besides, I can just teach my kids - win-win, right?

Having sat on this for most of the day, I'm sure I'm doing the right thing. Time will tell, eh?
Best,
Graven

I can empathize graven, though not for exactly the same reasons. My blog went from a monster to almost non-existent... that wasn't an accident. However, in the ensuing years I think I've found a nice balance... but I made a promise to myself years ago never to skip out on anything I could do with my kids when the opportunity came. Life got better after that. Hobby time got better after that too.

Best of luck my friend.

I can fel your pain graven. Got sucked into battletech lately (at least that kept the costs down ), but I do feel the need to tone it downa bit as well.

Nice models as always, and we'll see updates when we see them!

Pretty pics

For the rest, sensible choices you make my friend.

Hobbies are part of our lives, our life is not a hobby. Focus on the right things and everything else becomes better too.

Good work on the Nurgl-iness, Billboards, Pit and Barricades.

All sounds sensible. Do what you must to keep the real world happy. We'll be here whenever you have time to indulge.

Oh yeah, models are looking good, love the trap door idea, brilliant and simple.

Gitsplitta wrote:I can empathize graven, though not for exactly the same reasons. My blog went from a monster to almost non-existent... that wasn't an accident. However, in the ensuing years I think I've found a nice balance... but I made a promise to myself years ago never to skip out on anything I could do with my kids when the opportunity came. Life got better after that. Hobby time got better after that too.

Best of luck my friend.

Thanks old son. You're an inspiration on many levels.

CommissarKhaine wrote:I can fel your pain graven. Got sucked into battletech lately (at least that kept the costs down ), but I do feel the need to tone it downa bit as well.

Nice models as always, and we'll see updates when we see them!

Took me a minute to realise you meant the computer game. And thanks.

Dr H wrote:Good work on the Nurgl-iness, Billboards, Pit and Barricades.

All sounds sensible. Do what you must to keep the real world happy. We'll be here whenever you have time to indulge.

Cheers mucker. Or should that be mucky?

Camkierhi wrote:

Spoiler:

Nothing is more important than family.

Though we are family too, maybe that weird smelly uncle that teaches you naughty jokes and gives you sly drinks. We are here, as I am finding out, you are all amazing. And most importantly do not judge us for prioritizing.

Funny, I often hear how this hobby is expensive, can steal away money. Yet I am poor and chose this hobby because I can go for months without spending a penny.

Rambling on a bit here, lost the plot somewhere back there, anyway I think I was trying to say, totally agree with you, right choices. Head down the rabbit hole is not good. Pull back a bit. As to numpties screwing you over...got an address? Smelly uncle is good for something else too! Above all things, take care of yourself and your beautiful family. Will look forward to seeing you about here when you can.

Oh yeah, models are looking good, love the trap door idea, brilliant and simple.

Cheers, thanks and you're not that smelly

Thanks all, in brief.

Variety continues to be the key. And I want to feel like I'm making progress... So I batch highlighted all my BMG and DCU stuff.

As you do.
Plus, finished Bane for #2's birthday.


Decided to paint my TIE silencer, as it's just been sitting there.


And no pics of this, but primed up Mr Freeze crew (final commissions for a looooooong time), Yndij team for Dreadball, this year's walking dead promo pack (Walker Rick!!) and plaguebearers with some brown primer, as a further experiment in coloured primers.

So quite a lot for cutting back. but actually it's just mixing things up, preparing to clear space and staying sane.

Cheers for everything, once more,
Graven

It’s a good thing to take stock time to time. I’m also glad everyone is sharing. Seriously I felt like a sobbing idjit for a long time moaning about what was happening to me/my family, I’m glad others feel “safe” enough to open up. I think time helps but you have it prioritized correctly. The kids will get excited I’m sure and you’ll get games in with them. Win-win as you said. The friend exploding...always difficult. Take notes. Seriously, then when he is busted up for real and asks what went wrong and starts blaming others you can snap him back with “but you said...let’s not kid ourselves and let’s get this worked out.”

I’m being a good stalker and watching....not being a good commenter though. Sorry.

Always good to see the variety your blog offers graven. Given my own current situation... it's very reassuring.

Theophony wrote:It’s a good thing to take stock time to time. I’m also glad everyone is sharing. Seriously I felt like a sobbing idjit for a long time moaning about what was happening to me/my family, I’m glad others feel “safe” enough to open up. I think time helps but you have it prioritized correctly. The kids will get excited I’m sure and you’ll get games in with them. Win-win as you said. The friend exploding...always difficult. Take notes. Seriously, then when he is busted up for real and asks what went wrong and starts blaming others you can snap him back with “but you said...let’s not kid ourselves and let’s get this worked out.”

I’m being a good stalker and watching....not being a good commenter though. Sorry.

Don't be daft mate. We all do our share of lurking and abbreviated commenting.
As for the opening up: there's an odd security here. It's the pseudo-anonymity, I think. BigGreenStompa very accurately observed that part of the problem with t'internet is that Anonymity breeds Aggression, but sometimes, for us, it can be enable empathy, also.
As for the friend ...

Gitsplitta wrote:Always good to see the variety your blog offers graven. Given my own current situation... it's very reassuring.

Cheers mate. Yeah, we need to mix things up to stay sane. Loving YouRTube

Speaking of mixing things up. It really annoys me how mono-pose the new DG Termies are. They're lovely models but there's very limited poseability. Some cutting required, I think.
The Plague Marines, fortunately, are a bit more varied. Before I build them, a bit of 8th logic needs applied, I think, so any advice gratefully received:
Currently, from DarkImp, I have 7, including a Champion with PF and Plague Sword, a Plasma Gunner, and my kitbash Icon Bearer with bolter.
From what I can deduce (and with good advice from Yorkright) I think a gun-blob unit and melee-blob ( I say blob - 7, because ) makes sense:
So, Gun Blob:
Champion with Plasma Gun (because he can take one, so why wouldn't you? - reckon I'll be converting this from a DarkImp guy, quick hand swap).
PM w Plasma Gun
PM w Blight Launcher
4x PMs w Bolter
7 gives me room for a bit of attrition, mixing a PG and BL gives me a little flexibility. I don't think they need an Icon Bearer (reduces LDR by 1 on enemy w/in 6") because although they're for taking and holding objectives, I'm not convinced it's as important on a run (well, steady walk) and gun unit.

Melee Blob
Champion with PF and Plague Sword
PM Icon Bearer with axe (this will require another hand swap, as he's got a bolter atm, but also allows me to take on board Anvildude's excellent point about bright splash colours).
5x PMs with various large melee weapons - a flail, a bubotic axe, and other assorted others.

Does that seem reasonable, mighty dakkasaurus? On the one hand, it loadout doesn't really matter - it's not like I actually play but on the other, you want it to work in theory, right? Right?!
Cheers,
graven

Hmm...I'm thinking that Bane could do with a bit of tinkering from the meks and doks, and a tinge of green......

I agree the pseudo-anonymity can be a help in opening up, peeps on here can be close enough to be considered friends (I still consider quite a few peeps here to be friends even after I've been absent for several years) but also have enough distance to not trigger false threat signals that so often prevent us from being open. I know back when I was diagnosed with depression I had no qualms about sharing it here before sharing with some of the people I know IRL. Although this is a hobby space, we do get to know something of each other, and it is healthy to share with our peers.


With the load-outs - no idea whatsoever as to what is even legal anymore, and I think I'm now at a point that I'm not really bothered. I always tried to ensure that I could field my toy soldiers if I ever came back to playing, and it may just be the long break that has changed that, but certainly with my current builds I only have the very vaguest idea of what they could be in-game. So, in short, can't help you there much

@ Theophony: like Inmygravenimage said: don't worry about it



Not a clue bout the loadouts, about to play like my 5th game of 8th ed; tonight, but it seems sensible to me . Bane is looking great, and loving the variety in here!

I like the intervention idea if you need to borrow the Tetsubo I’m making, I’ll just ask for postage and you clean it up before you send it back .

Can Deathguard use powerfists? I just read another post somewhere saying that they forgot how to use them even though the models come with them . I don’t 40k, so totally oblivious.

Tetsubos are outlawed in the UK, Theo. Cricket bats do well as a substitute

The hobby. I buy hobby related things twice per year, and only twice per year, as Christmas and Birthday gifts for myself. This effectively reduces all impulse purchases. Something to think about to cut back on spending. Make and keep a wish-list, and ruthlessly prune it. You may be surprised how much you remove after a few weeks or so.

Yes, more time with the family. I think I mentioned, somewhere, a friend who built his dream shop in his basement, then came to hate it quickly enough, because he was in it alone while his family was upstairs. So, he abandoned the shop and went back to the cramped desk in the family room.

The eternal struggle. The quest for balance. We all face it. Keep your chin up. All will be well. And those billboards look awesome.

Whoa I dont check in and Graven has done more incredible work, all of it looks quite gribbly when it needs to be and very DC comics too. Big compliments on Bane I absolutely love your take on him, wow is he a monster and well done to boot. As for slowing down why not, you pour yourself into this or any hobby and it can detract from what is most important in life. Recently I have take a break from painting 40k and have loved not worrying about having to have the latest and greatest thing for my DG (of course it is all still in boxes squirreled away but thats another story). Keep us updated as you need.

CommissarKhaine wrote:@ Theophony: like Inmygravenimage said: don't worry about it

Spoiler:

Sorry to hear about your friend; if he's blowing up stuff everywhere around him, have you considered a good old-fashioned intervention? We did with a friend of ours, got him to,open up about the real issues, helped getting him patched up afterwards.

Not a clue bout the loadouts, about to play like my 5th game of 8th ed; tonight, but it seems sensible to me . Bane is looking great, and loving the variety in here!

Tried an intervention, got nowhere unfortunately. So, I'm ignoring him for a bit. I'm hardly WAAC with 40k so I'm happy enough to just trust my plaguey gut

Theophony wrote:I like the intervention idea if you need to borrow the Tetsubo I’m making, I’ll just ask for postage and you clean it up before you send it back .

Can Deathguard use powerfists? I just read another post somewhere saying that they forgot how to use them even though the models come with them . I don’t 40k, so totally oblivious.

Yeah, they get them for filling your opponent's face with power pus.

Red Harvest wrote:Tetsubos are outlawed in the UK, Theo. Cricket bats do well as a substitute

The hobby. I buy hobby related things twice per year, and only twice per year, as Christmas and Birthday gifts for myself. This effectively reduces all impulse purchases. Something to think about to cut back on spending. Make and keep a wish-list, and ruthlessly prune it. You may be surprised how much you remove after a few weeks or so.

Yes, more time with the family. I think I mentioned, somewhere, a friend who built his dream shop in his basement, then came to hate it quickly enough, because he was in it alone while his family was upstairs. So, he abandoned the shop and went back to the cramped desk in the family room.

Very good advice on the twice a year thing. I'll hard think on that.

youwashock wrote:The eternal struggle. The quest for balance. We all face it. Keep your chin up. All will be well. And those billboards look awesome.

Cheers mucker yeah they were fun.

Yorkright wrote: Whoa I dont check in and Graven has done more incredible work, all of it looks quite gribbly when it needs to be and very DC comics too. Big compliments on Bane I absolutely love your take on him, wow is he a monster and well done to boot. As for slowing down why not, you pour yourself into this or any hobby and it can detract from what is most important in life. Recently I have take a break from painting 40k and have loved not worrying about having to have the latest and greatest thing for my DG (of course it is all still in boxes squirreled away but thats another story). Keep us updated as you need.

Thanks mate, I enjoyed Bane. As you'll see I'm happy to be back doing a spot of BMG generally.

What's been going on? Well, Joe's 8th birthday has made things a bit busy. Still, my wife is master of the dwarven cake forge:

Quest for balance indeed

Other than that, tidy ups and touch ups.
Redid the Icon Bearer to a more melee loadout:


And this chap got an upgrade:

Don't think the hand being swapped sides is noticeable, thanks to new GS fingers and grip flattened out.

And came up with a test scheme for my Yndij:

All natural muted colours for the tree hugging forest dwellers they are, with a couple of spots to pop. Yes there's a mould line, tough

And started on the 90s movie colour scheme Freeze Crew:

He wants the goons in mucky creamy white.

Freeze himself a bit further along.

That's me, move along now,
Graven

Someone wants to be reminded of that movie???

Infinity cake ftw, now if she can figure out how to make cake last for infinity....

No sign of a hand swap from here.

That cake is amazing. Once again your wife proves that she's the real "king of cakes".

That last guy reminds me of the Dr. Who episode "The Library".

monkeytroll wrote:Someone wants to be reminded of that movie???

Infinity cake ftw, now if she can figure out how to make cake last for infinity....

No sign of a hand swap from here.

Cake is almost entirely gone, alas,though the stones remain... anyway, my kids always get 2 cakes, one for the party, one for the day - reece' s peanut butter meltdown on the way

Gitsplitta wrote:That cake is amazing. Once again your wife proves that she's the real "king of cakes".

That last guy reminds me of the Dr. Who episode "The Library".

Vashta narada? scary stuff. Great episode. Yeah, he does a bit actually.

That cake is art of the highest quality.

Tried an intervention, got nowhere unfortunately. So, I'm ignoring him for a bit. I'm hardly WAAC with 40k so I'm happy enough to just trust my plaguey gut

Ah well, in that case I can only wish you strength!

That gauntlet-cake is pretty amazing. Oh, and the models are looking good as well!

youwashock wrote:That cake is art of the highest quality.

Tasty too

CommissarKhaine wrote:
That gauntlet-cake is pretty amazing. Oh, and the models are looking good as well!

Cheers, buddy.

Just touching base.
Got the Freeze crew done to my buddy's requirements.

<Insert ice pun here>

Apparently, KM are getting their act together again and sending me goodies. We'll see *shrugs* given that I'm scaling back, it's good and bad. Free toys, woo, but again too many toys brings out my worst tendencies. Am getting on with the Yndij, going ok. Not sure what's next, any suggestions gratefully received.
Best
Graven

The Freeze team looks awesome. I've never seein these in IRL, how do they scale up next to a circa 1996 GW Necromunda figure?

Looking good.

The leader guy is suitably spooky...

Nice work, Graven' and Mrs Graven'.

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:The Freeze team looks awesome. I've never seein these in ITL, how do they scale up next to a circa 1996 GW Necromunda figure?

That assumes I own any however, a scale shot of sorts:

CommissarKhaine wrote:Looking good.

Short and sweet, ta

Slinky wrote:The leader guy is suitably spooky...

LOL trying to balance the silliness of 90s Batman with the gothdark of BMG, so thanks

Dr H wrote:Nice work, Graven' and Mrs Graven'.

Cheers. Yeah, she's scary talented.

As I was in a bit of a Mr Freeze place worked on Mayor McCheese (some freis with that?) to complete the (tournament legal!) Fry Guy crew:

Decidedly less scary in retrospect might do away with the silly eyes and just go back to white glasses. Bit rough and ready generally, but fine to be going on with.

I've not forgotten about the btw, just snipping things off sprues merrily. Lots of bits with the set, which is fun but it's the classic I NEED MORE LEGS problem. Still. It's not like I don't have plenty of other stuff to work on

Speaking of which, playing with some colour scheme ideas for Dreadball Teams. I want them all to have clear, distinct colour identities on pitch. I'm thinking in terms of skin tone/main gear/accent colour
Just now we have:
Teratons - Ochre Skin, Dark Red Gear, Turquoise accents
Yndij - Dark Brown Skin, Miltiary Green Gear, Red/Grey accents

Yndij:

That's them done I reckon. Glad I didn't indulge the whimsy and paint them blue (Na'vi from Avatar)

Here's my thoughts on others:
Forge Fathers (Squats) - pink skin, muted gold gear, Bright blue accents
Marauders (Orks & Gobs) - green skin, purple gear, black accents
Neo-Bots (hi-tech robots) - grey "skin", red gear, white accents
Zees (space chimps) - black/grey "skin", bright green gear, yellow accents
Veer-Myn (space skaven) - brown/grey fur, orange gear, green accents
Corporation (humans - don't have a full team yet, but thinking ahead) - varied skin, blue gear, silver accents
Does that sound distinctive and varied enough?

So, a bit quieter, but still stuff getting done. 51 models this month. S'okay
Saw Solo with the kids, really great fun, western/heist movie, very Firefly vibe - and has a genuine shocker right at the end

Spoilers...
Graven

Everything seems to be in the quantum realm in that scale shot.......

Back to the glasses I think

Need more legs? Now, obviously, that's a query I understand, but if someone needs three (or more) someone else just had to go without.... That is what you were asking right?

How about introducing red or brown skinned marauders into the mantic-verse? I've always liked non green-skinned greenskins

Albino veer-myn? Just because I had a favourite skaven I had painted as an albino way back when.

But sounds alright otherwise

Loving the new offerings graven! Great stuff!

monkeytroll wrote:Everything seems to be in the quantum realm in that scale shot.......

Back to the glasses I think

Need more legs? Now, obviously, that's a query I understand, but if someone needs three (or more) someone else just had to go without.... That is what you were asking right?

How about introducing red or brown skinned marauders into the mantic-verse? I've always liked non green-skinned greenskins

Albino veer-myn? Just because I had a favourite skaven I had painted as an albino way back when.

But sounds alright otherwise

Lol dammit!


And fixed the eyes:


Like the albino veer-myn idea. I was actually toying with Blue orcs, a la Warmahordes.

Gitsplitta wrote:Loving the new offerings graven! Great stuff!

Sorry I have not dropped a note lately, but I have been checking in. The deathguard is definitly my fav of your recent stuff, all that crackly grossness will look great on the table. Mayor McFreeze is so much fun, cant wait to hear how he does in game.

Don't be daft mate, pleasure to hear from you but we all lurk at times. More goodness to come soon. I built my Marauder, Forge Father and Zee teams last night, just the Veer-myn left. But Tallyman was started also, and FINALLY all other bits have been clipped, so we're ready to build the laughing boys
On another note, we're at 150 models painted so far this year. Gonna bust 2017's total out the water

Still to come...

Good work on the McGang.

Dr H wrote:Good work on the McGang.

McThanks

So, a nice sunny long weekend has meant much pottering about and not much p&m.

Did get the blightlords and plague marines built:


Quick and rubbish pics, sorry.
Whilst I like how much personality these have, it really, really annoys me how limited a range of poses you have. The body sculpts are so heavily dictated and the arm/hand combos are not interchangeable really on the Plague dudes. I'm sure it's partly to disrupt the second hand market but it really limits you when building. Not any less time consuming either. Never mind. They're done now.

Oversaw a cracking game of Dreadball with the boys today.
Wee fella playing fast light Yndij All-Stars, big one playing brutal slow Teraton Avalanchers (turtles). Lots of to and fro, lots of fouling each other (yay!), players getting sent off, sin binned, ko'd - riotous good fun for our first game with all the rules ( bar team captains).
And how did it end?

Well folks, it's the bottom of the 9th and All-Stars have opened up a mighty big lead, but they're certainly shell-shocked from the beating they've been taking off the Avalanchers. Off the subs bench and that Striker is going straight for the Visitors end! And here comes the other Striker, steals the ball right from under the Jack's snout and OH MY GOODNESS the crowd goes wild for that pass fully halfway up the pitch and what's this? He's going for the far score! He's going for the bonus - he can't - he won't - HE DOES! And the crowd can't get enough of this! Landslide win to the All-Stars!


So, yeah, good game

Now, of course, they want me to paint the other teams
Later peeps
Graven

 inmygravenimage wrote:

Now, of course, they want me to paint the other teams
Later peeps
Graven

Hmm, From what I can see, their hands are not broken... if you get my drift.

150 so far. Impressive. Also, insane.

Carry On.

150. Mind blown.

I see what you mean about assembling the new DG stuff, very limited posing options - I guess that is the price for all the extra tentacles etc...

Good to see your boys enjoying a game, thus far mine have mostly played Talisman, but they have done some of the starter games from both the 40k and Mines of Moria starter sets

Red Harvest wrote:

 inmygravenimage wrote:

Now, of course, they want me to paint the other teams
Later peeps
Graven

Hmm, From what I can see, their hands are not broken... if you get my drift.

150 so far. Impressive. Also, insane.

Carry On.

Fair point. I think that getting them to do the Neo-Bots (robots in football gear), in particular, will work. Amazing what you can do with drybrushing and washes, after all.

Yes, insane. But of inconsistent quality. Some, like the Mayor, are rather slapdash, and part of the point was to raise my game generally.

youwashock wrote:150. Mind blown.

I've probably got the same again sitting waiting to be painted though.

Slinky wrote:I see what you mean about assembling the new DG stuff, very limited posing options - I guess that is the price for all the extra tentacles etc...

Good to see your boys enjoying a game, thus far mine have mostly played Talisman, but they have done some of the starter games from both the 40k and Mines of Moria starter sets

Tentacular spectacular, no less. There are enough bits flying about to do some more things, but, for instance, you only get 1 Mace of contagion to 2 bubotic axes, which makes exactly zero sense. Also, the heads are a bit too samey for my taste. I mean, the grinning grill is perfect for my Greek Masked Chorus motif (these are the "Comedy" chorus), but still.

Yeah, we like Talisman, but takes ages. Ticket To Ride and Settlers, of course. Walking Dead: All Out War is a firm favourite with the boys, X-Wing too but again, takes absolutely yonks to set up, play and take down. DCU is always surprisingly quick. For super quick fun, it's King of Tokyo every time. I've got Puppets War to play with them too, but not got around to it yet.

Mostly it's about teaching them right. My plan is to make Wednesday nights "Mum goes to cinema with your Auntie, boys play games once your sister is asleep" night

I understood about half the words in the plly-by-play... but as long as everyone had fun.

Wow! 150 models, and not even a full halfway through the year yet. That's really impressive. I hope your wrists aren't regretting that dedication?

Gitsplitta wrote:I understood about half the words in the play-by-play... but as long as everyone had fun.

It's such a great game. And so much better than first edition, which never worked for me. Let's see if I can clear things up a bit:

Well folks, it's the bottom of the 9th
The game has 14 turns or 'Rushes'. It's IGOUGO, with the home team always starting. 6 players on the pitch per team, 5 action tokens to use per turn; any one play can only have two tokens used on them per turn, but there's various ways of getting free actions. For example, quite often you'll spend your first action token to buy a card from the game deck, which are usually free actions but can also be random events, or be discarded for a reroll.
Normally, all dice rolls are done with 3 dice, and you are aiming to beat 4+ (on average) on a single for a success, or on more than one to "double" which typically gives you a free action. If you score, or drop the ball, your rush ends immediately.

and All-Stars have opened up a mighty big lead,
Scoring is about points differential, with the tracker going up and down. There's 3 scoring zones in each team's end, the near 2 scoring zones being a 1 point if you throw it through the end hex, 3 if you do it from the bonus (furthest) hex), whilst the far scoring zone is worth 2 or 4 points in the same way.

but they're certainly shell-shocked from the beating they've been taking off the Avalanchers.
The Teratons (Avalanchers) are all about pummeling your opponent into the ground. They're not particularly quick, but they're strong, tough, and very hard to take down.

Off the subs bench and that Striker is going straight for the Visitors end!
You have an entry zone at your end, so can run players on to the pitch as an action. When someone has been injured or sent off, they got into the Sin Bin boxes marked 1/2/3 (depending on severity of injury or how badly you got caught out) moving up one box a turn.

And here comes the other Striker, steals the ball right from under the Jack's snout
There are 3 positions available: Striker (very good at picking up the ball, stealing it off other players, and throwing), Guard (very good at slamming into opponents, but can't pick up the ball), and Jack (okay at everything, good at running interference). Some teams don't have all the positions, depending on their species (Teratons have no Strikers, for example, though they do have access to have special kind of Guard called a Keeper).

and OH MY GOODNESS the crowd goes wild for that pass fully halfway up the pitch
The longer the pass the more difficult; a 9 hex throw triggers a fan check (as do various other impressive things like Tripling dice rolls or particularly impressive fouls), giving you a free card or a bonus die to spend as you see fit.

and what's this? He's going for the far score!
The far score zone being worth 2 points, you may recall. Normal movement is a run (up to your Speed (~5), freely changing facing) or a sprint (double, but a point of movement to change facing), but you can also Dash, rolling to add a hex of movement at a time - and Jacks get a bonus die on this - but if you fail, you trip, fall prone, and drop the ball if carrying it.

He's going for the bonus - he can't - he won't - HE DOES! And the crowd can't get enough of this! Landslide win to the All-Stars!
If you ever achieve a 7pt difference, you immediately win.

That help?
All 5 remaining teams are now built, though some conversions needed (Marauders and Forge Fathers need Keepers, for instance), some gap filling on a couple of figs, and a lot of mould line scraping required generally.

Syro_ wrote:Wow! 150 models, and not even a full halfway through the year yet. That's really impressive. I hope your wrists aren't regretting that dedication?

Funny you mention that. My right wrist, and up through my palm into ring finger (the damaged section of my hand) has been a bit twinge-y lately.
Still , pleased to be where I am for the end of May.

Built the Tallyman (heymrtallymantallymebanana) and Typhus, having misplaced the instructions. That was... fun Repositioned Typhus's head and the leg, just for a bit of variety, though it's a lovely model regardless. Didn't attach the Tallyman's nurgling, too useful for another project at some point, or maybe riding the plagueburster, not sure yet. Also been adding orange to start the rust on various DG. Nothing to show really though.

It occurs to me that I don't need much else to make this a really substantial, robust army. Ten more plague bearers would be useful (well, eleven, because then I have a multiple of seven ), to go with the ten old school metals I have, and of course I've got Mortartion, the plagueburst crawler (still need to work out how to do the arm to suspend the bell from), blight drone 2 and the rest of the pox walkers to build/chop/paint - I don't own a biologus putrifier or foul blightspawn, which are nice but not necessary, though potentially kitbash-able: the idea of a guy with wheezing bellows certainly fits the musical theme, whilst a putrifier would add a fair bit of punch to the cc unit of plague marines (don't like the official biologus model, so a more likely candidate for kitbash). Nor do I own any myphitics, 3 of which seem irratatingly necessary (but I'm not actually ever going to play, now am I?!). I may do other bits, Daemon Prince perhaps, though I don't like the extant models at all, Helbrute (very impressed with monkeytroll's) etc, but these will evolve from bits and as the muses are upon me.

Little one's been poorly, yet again (this is what I get for summoning ) so not got much else done, off with her today. Plus, life has been complicated by my dad ending up in hospital with a detached retina, so a lot of to-ing and fro-ing (they live about 2 hrs drive away in St Andrews, on the other side of Scotland).

Target for June is finish painting plague marines and blightlords, cut up pox walkers, get teams tidied, prepped and primed. Maybe some bat action, though having a break has been good for me I think.
Later
Graven



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh well. Maybe one pic:

Just as proof

Yeah, that's awesome graven. One question... what's a pitch?

Pitch, field, gridiron, board Dreadball is played on a hex board that's about 20x40 hexes.

Converting up a captain and keeper:

Getting my Marauders ready for the new season. Thinking purple and yellow accents, because the moustache made me think of Wario and Waluigi.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On a separate note, I sat down to build Plague bearers and convert up the Biologus to discover I have no slottas or 40mm bases?! How is that even possible? Baffling.

Yep, I can definitely see Wario orcs being a thing

You haven"t by chance painted some slottas brown, and had some particularly crunchy chocolates recently?

 monkeytroll wrote:
Yep, I can definitely see Wario orcs being a thing

You haven"t by chance painted some slottas brown, and had some particularly crunchy chocolates recently?

Lol if I ate chocolate that would perhaps be a concern (well, I do occasionally eat in, but I'm not fussed about it, certainly).
Plan with the orks is to prime them all ochre (orches?), as that should be a decent base for the green skin, and build up the armour as purple, but reversing on the captain. I'm also planning on priming the Veermyn that way because I think I can get a better fur tone by layering different washes over that, much as with the death guard. The exception will be the captain, who'll be albino.

150! Amazing amount of models painted in 6 months, are you sure your not revving up to start your own painting service?Glad to see your still working on the Death Guard, did I miss Morty or is he still on the shelf of shame?

Lol absolutely not! Did consider it, but I have too much of my own stuff. Very occasionally for friends, that's all. Morty is still in the box, along with crawler and the other drone.

Wow.. I have a lot of catching up to do.

loving it!

Solar_lion wrote: Wow.. I have a lot of catching up to do.

loving it!

Thanks and great to see you again
I feel like looking at my shelf I have lots of catching up to do...
Just dropping by. Busy busy busy in RL.
Good day Saturday, Dad on road to recovery.
Sunday involved a lot of painting of MDF. Don't get excited, it was my new shower room. but, I was very impressed by the lovely kitbashes of Dakka, and especially as I say of monkeytroll, so began work on the Biologus:
Needs a proboscis of sorts, and I need to harvest some fantasy vials and phials for his potion racks (for which I'm using scythe blades). Oh, and find a 40mm base, obviously.


Can't really prime at the moment, other than by hand, as the garage is out of commission. Probably should actually paint some stuff rather making new occupants for the shelf
Best
Graven

Woah, am I in the right spot? Is that 40k?

Lol aye, did you not see I've been seduced by ?

Oh stop it, you'll make me blush

I like it, and the idea of using scythe blades for the racking is very nice. Not sure how well it fits on a nurgly head, but I recall using a horn nabbed off some chaos helm or another for a termie tongue. Or are you thinking more of a straight needle/mosquito type proboscis - which makes sense given the whole fly thing, but this is chaos, and sense is not always an option

Looking very good so far

"No, don't suck my brain out of my ear with a straw... AAaarggh"

Good job.

Slinky wrote:Looking very good so far

Dr H wrote:"No, don't suck my brain out of my ear with a straw... AAaarggh"

Good job.

exactly. Proper brain sucker.

monkeytroll wrote:Oh stop it, you'll make me blush

I like it, and the idea of using scythe blades for the racking is very nice. Not sure how well it fits on a nurgly head, but I recall using a horn nabbed off some chaos helm or another for a termie tongue. Or are you thinking more of a straight needle/mosquito type proboscis - which makes sense given the whole fly thing, but this is chaos, and sense is not always an option

Well the "real" model has this as fluff in the GW store:

"Even the breathing apparatus on his helmet features a proboscis-like extrusion – all the better for sensing the results of his experiments."

So he doesn't necessarily need one, just part of that model's design (it's not in the codex fluff). I might just go with a long... appendage

I need to drill some holes into the legs, and get some ichor dripping. Glad you like the scythe/racks. Anyone know a kit with good vials/flasks/death heads? I'm so out of the loop on GW bits.

Hey ho,
graven

Some fantastic art pieces.

Kits like the dark eldar haemonculi and talos have lots of gribbly vial type things. The deepkin seem to have a number of interesting containers.

But I'm even further out of touch with GW than you Really need to spend some time looking at their site I guess to see what else I've missed. Over the last few weeks I've found Necromunda is a thing again, genestealer cults are back, marines have hover tanks - and apparently have some bigger, more true-scale brethren now, sea-elves have risen from the deep, and there seems to be some plastic 30k in existence....... Most of this would have been considered laughable fantasy before I dropped off the radar

Sneshy wrote:Some fantastic art pieces.

Thank you kindly, and welcome to my little foetid corner of Dakka!

monkeytroll wrote:Kits like the dark eldar haemonculi and talos have lots of gribbly vial type things. The deepkin seem to have a number of interesting containers.

But I'm even further out of touch with GW than you Really need to spend some time looking at their site I guess to see what else I've missed. Over the last few weeks I've found Necromunda is a thing again, genestealer cults are back, marines have hover tanks - and apparently have some bigger, more true-scale brethren now, sea-elves have risen from the deep, and there seems to be some plastic 30k in existence....... Most of this would have been considered laughable fantasy before I dropped off the radar

I thought about deldar stuff actually, from the Cronus. But then I'd have to buy stuff. Tsk.
Yeah it's both weird and thrilling to see gw finally embracing the nostalgia £.

Built, mostly:

I'm happy with the proboscis, and how it's sniffing around the equivalent of a pint of beer. Craft beer, this is still not sure if the legs need more details (beyond a GS tentacle here and there).
Definitely using that nurgling also, the codex fluff specifically mentions Putrifiers being followed around by nurglings making lists.

And likewise, the back is done, barring a bit of GS work.

I do wonder if there's enough jeejaws hanging on that side. Maybe the answer is some sort of GS flasks.

The other side is better

Fun fact, I used a lizardman tail for the injector pistol's needle

So maybe do some GS detailing.
Meanwhile, I've dug out some chaos warrior bits and I think I'm finally ready to start on my other pox walkers. Other stuff has stalled somewhat.

Can't decide what Batman stuff to do next. Any requests?



Cheers
Graven

That is quite the conversion Graven, going to go the crackly route with this one too or more conventional?

I am voting for Nightwing first and superwoman 2nd.

Nurglemen look great my friend.

"Black Adam" sounds so horribly non-PC... you should do him next.

Maybe some purity seals putrid scrolls if you have no more vials?

Legs look fine, but tentacles are never amiss

I quite fancy either pyg or the wonderland crew, although superwoman and power ring would be a good couple...don't recognise Monster T....

Putridly great!

Can't be of much help with the vials bits question besides the already mentioned Thalos kit.

lol at the lizard tail. It works really well.

I thought Kleptomania was an affliction of Tzeentch (and the blood ravens)
Looks great so far, I don't think I can add anything to the parts that others have, not sure you could fit any more on tbh. If you think the legs are bit plain, you could add some rivets to the left shin.

Are the scythes supposed to be the vents for the backpack?

I choose "Pyg & Dollotrons"

Yorkright wrote: That is quite the conversion Graven, going to go the crackly route with this one too or more conventional?

I am voting for Nightwing first and superwoman 2nd.

Votes noted! Crackles will only happen at the will and whimsy of old Papa N. But my garage is currently full of my new bathroom, so priming is out. He may get hand primed though, as bits of him are already done. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the whole prime-on-sprue thing when kitbashing so hard. I think that that will be really irritating when customising the plagueburster.

Gitsplitta wrote:Nurglemen look great my friend.

"Black Adam" sounds so horribly non-PC... you should do him next.

evil ancient Egyptian superbeing; The Rock is playing him on screen. He's a great villain, and brutal in game

monkeytroll wrote:Maybe some purity seals putrid scrolls if you have no more vials?

Legs look fine, but tentacles are never amiss

I quite fancy either pyg or the wonderland crew, although superwoman and power ring would be a good couple...don't recognise Monster T....

Monster T is the gangbanger that Joker kills for leering at Harley in the SS movie. Putrid scrolls is a neat idea, and very fitting, also. You can never have too many tentacles!

Littletower wrote:Putridly great!

Can't be of much help with the vials bits question besides the already mentioned Thalos kit.

Thanks I'm actually wondering if I can carve some from thin sprue.

OneManNoodles wrote:lol at the lizard tail. It works really well.

I thought Kleptomania was an affliction of Tzeentch (and the blood ravens)
Looks great so far, I don't think I can add anything to the parts that others have, not sure you could fit any more on tbh. If you think the legs are bit plain, you could add some rivets to the left shin.

Are the scythes supposed to be the vents for the backpack?

I choose "Pyg & Dollotrons"

Actually, weirdly, they don't have backpacks. Totally threw me. Cheers, I've ripped open the shin a bit.

So Votes:
Nightwing 1
Superwoman 4 (edit with votes below)
Power Ring 1
Black Adam 2
Captain Marvel 1
Pyg crew 2
Wonderland crew 2
Militia 1

I am properly freaked out by Professor Pyg. Fun fact, he's the only villain that Batman is scared of. Guess him and his dollies are next! Keep voting though...

Meanwhile, as promised, I started on the Poxwalkers. Looking at the sculpts, there's a pretty clear line between the legs and torsos. Why they're not multi-part kit is beyond me (actually, that's a lie - see previous rants about current GW kits). Anyway, a quick snip and...

So everything got sorted into legs, torsos, and (where necessary) arms and heads removed also.

And then, the first 4 reassembled:

Couple of chaos warrior weapons snuck in there, but fundamentally just swapping part for part. Decent, I think. Full credit to monkeytroll and Dr H for inspiration.

Onwards,
Graven

New bathroom? Someone's doing well

Im going to have to say superwoman, thought I don't play the game I do enjoy how you paint them up, I think my favorite was croc though

Slinky wrote:New bathroom? Someone's doing well

Not really, it's just we've been in the house 9 years this summer, and that was supposed to be the first thing we did finally just going for it. We've had a shower room put in first, so we at least can still function.

alabamaheretic wrote:Im going to have to say superwoman, thought I don't play the game I do enjoy how you paint them up, I think my favorite was croc though

I'm surprised, tbh, how popular she is as a character with folk. Pretty obscure (this is Earth 3 Superwoman, not Rebirth Superwoman, though). Interestingly, she and Black Adam have almost identical colour schemes - black, yellow/gold trim, yellow/gold lining of cape - so I might do them in a one-r. Yeah, I still love KC (hence the profile pic), and there may be a new croc coming soon...ish.

oh colored me interested in the new croc

That Nurgle boy is looking great, I love all the conversion work. The scythes look great, I like the tube running from his mask to the head he's carrying. I know next to nothing about 8th edition, but is he a Chaos Lord or Nurgle?
My vote is for Supergirl too, or the militia.

alabamaheretic wrote:oh colored me interested in the new croc

He's an absolute beast, biggest model in the game, on a par with Darkseid and new Bane.

Syro_ wrote:That Nurgle boy is looking great, I love all the conversion work. The scythes look great, I like the tube running from his mask to the head he's carrying. I know next to nothing about 8th edition, but is he a Chaos Lord or Nurgle?
My vote is for Supergirl too, or the militia.

Thanks. He's an elite for Nurgle, plague bomb maker and tester, upgrades all your plague marines' grenades. Nasty chap. Yeah, very happy with the proboscis.
I really should finish my Militia crew, noted. But Superwoman is the clear winner !

The bane you just previously painted? he was lovely as well. or is there another one? I liked him very much too...

Huzzah on Suparwoman, as a note after her and your very lovely nurgle guy maybe do the wonderland crew cuase dudesdman my two cents being superwoman a character, your nurgle guy while an elite is still a character and the wonderland guys will be a break. just a thought.

Ah, gotcha....he's the guy everyone thought might be the Tattoed Man.
With Superwoman my thinking was I'd like to see Power Ring, I seem to recall Owlman was done and I'm guessing Ultraman too, so let's see the full Crime Syndicate.
I think Pyg can be quite divisive, he's pretty disturbing at his best (stuff like Batman Eternal, but I also seem to recall some stories where he was just laughable. But then again, it's fairly easy to make s mess of lots of the bat-villains.

Good idea with bisecting the poxies, that should add some variety on there

For Nurgle, can't go wrong with a nice clubfoot.

SHAZAM!!!

(Captain Marvel and Black Adam, please.)

monkeytroll wrote:Ah, gotcha....he's the guy everyone thought might be the Tattoed Man.
With Superwoman my thinking was I'd like to see Power Ring, I seem to recall Owlman was done and I'm guessing Ultraman too, so let's see the full Crime Syndicate.
I think Pyg can be quite divisive, he's pretty disturbing at his best (stuff like Batman Eternal, but I also seem to recall some stories where he was just laughable. But then again, it's fairly easy to make s mess of lots of the bat-villains.

Good idea with bisecting the poxies, that should add some variety on there

Yeah, the other 3 are done (Johnny Quick also) so I should really finish the team. Very true about the mess that is easily made. Anything by Judd Winnick makes me (such as his excruciatingly bad Catwoman run).

Anvildude wrote:For Nurgle, can't go wrong with a nice clubfoot.

That's true enough, and an easy gs job.

youwashock wrote:SHAZAM!!!

(Captain Marvel and Black Adam, please.)

Lol well Teth-Adam does seem to be gaining ground. Billy B I think needs a juice cup before painting, thanks to the movie poster I picked up Uncle Dudley also (raffle prize woo!) so I might do them together.

Also, as you have maybe realised, I'm trying to keep up the chat momentum if not the strict P&M churn. Hope that's cool with folk,
graven.

Graven its your plog you run it as you see fit keep it as OT or Off topic as you want.


Not sure who Uncle Dudley is but cool win on the raffle.

1- WOW! Grandfather Nurgle does let his children run amok into other fancies, but they always come home.

2- Captain Marvel (the original, not that 'Dr. Who.. the hell is she?" crap) One of my all-time favorite DC heroes. Was wicked jealous of Billy when I was a kid. Can think of plenty of times where I wish I could have yelled "Shazam!" and then knock the snot of the person bullying me.

alabamaheretic wrote:Graven its your plog you run it as you see fit keep it as OT or Off topic as you want.


Not sure who Uncle Dudley is but cool win on the raffle.

Noted Uncle Dudley was a conman who ended up being part of the Marvel family (and outsmarted Adam once to defeat him). He's a ridiculously expensive/tournament exclusive, so nice to have, even if not brilliant in game

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:1- WOW! Grandfather Nurgle does let his children run amok into other fancies, but they always come home.

2- Captain Marvel (the original, not that 'Dr. Who.. the hell is she?" crap) One of my all-time favorite DC heroes. Was wicked jealous of Billy when I was a kid. Can think of plenty of times where I wish I could have yelled "Shazam!" and then knock the snot of the person bullying me.

Funnily enough I've never really been sold on the character, apart from in Kingdom Come. But, duly noted.

Meanwhile, made another Street walker for Street Wars:

I think I'll call her... Foxxxy
Graven

digging the lady of the night. does she have a man in apurple suit following her around? you know you need a man in a purple suit now just saying...

Mayyyyyyybe:



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Thanks man: D

I read something else recently in which I quite liked the Captain Marvel character.....can't think what it was though, possibly an 'elseworlds' (are they still called that?) adventure....going to bug me now. But I was never a big fan either.

Foxxy and Flyguy looking good

very nice

Foxxy Brown, dead on graven!

monkeytroll wrote:I read something else recently in which I quite liked the Captain Marvel character.....can't think what it was though, possibly an 'elseworlds' (are they still called that?) adventure....going to bug me now. But I was never a big fan either.

Foxxy and Flyguy looking good

Well, Kingdom Come is Elseworlds-y? Not really my bag, baby. But Black Adam is a great character, especially as he is increasingly an antihero.

alabamaheretic wrote:very nice

Gitsplitta wrote:Foxxy Brown, dead on graven!

Cheers, her and Debbie should do well together on the mean streets of NYC.

Finished off the poxwalkers; here's the rest:

Glad they're done, enjoyed the fact that I could get creative and not be bound to how they "had" to be.

Went to both my regular flgs and the new one that's opened locally... neither had bases, 25mm (which is less pressing, need some for the plaguebearers, but they're wayyyyyyyy down the paint queue) or 40mm (for the Biologus).

I'm not being unreasonable expecting something so basic, am I, really?!

Sigh.

Anyway, with the poxies (and Foxxy) built, I'm going to look at getting some paint on stuff So the paint queue is

Superwoman
Power Ring
Black Adam
Shazam!
Pyg & dollies
Nightwing

Though not necessarily in that order - I imagine Superwoman, Black Adam and Nightwing will get attention first, as they're going to be layered black washes, and I like consistency.

Cheers
Graven

I like the green stuff work, you have truly unique poxwalkers (which is always more fun). I'm looking forward to what you have in the works, but more than that I hope you get the chance to be creative on more models soon, like with the poxwalkers.

Thanks matey. Well the next wave of have begun...

suitably gribbly

And now, to torment Graven.

One of these things is not like the other...

@alabamaheretic: and dribbly
@briancj: nice motor pool you have there. And took me a minute to spot the car in... stealth mode.

No, sir. That's a nice motor pool *you* have.

 Briancj wrote:
No, sir. That's a nice motor pool *you* have.

Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

Can you tell me how tall the average bat-figure is?

Well, 35mm theoretically. It's definitely a heroic scale game. Some female figures are completely tiny, and some are comically (as it were) huge, like Ra's Al Ghûl.

Perfect, thanks!

Good work on your Poxie conversions.

Like the GS 'fro you did.

What hasn't been voted for yet? I'll vote for that.

Briancj wrote:Perfect, thanks!

Slightly dreading whatever you have planned...

Dr H wrote:Good work on your Poxie conversions.

Like the GS 'fro you did.

What hasn't been voted for yet? I'll vote for that.

Well, very much inspired by your own take on the poxies, so thanks. Re: Fro thanks, that was the second attempt. Good excuse to watch classic blaxpoitation stuff.

you're a bad person There's always more DC to do. After what's listed there will be animated Bats, Batgirl (who's also a major repair job, as she was a freebie from a friend because she's snapped through the ankles), Raven and Uncle Dudley. So I'll move Raven up the list, there you go. But, anyway, before I start the next BMG wave, I do want the current stuff done.

However, a lovely hot weekend got in the way, and some other RL stuff.



As I say, onwards with the

Tallyman progresses


As does typhus:

I do like the FW powders, the method I'm using (dry powder onto wet wash) gives me a finish I really like; great to finally figure out a way to get powders to work for me. Shame they're stopping doing them, but there's always other powders out there.

Oh, and the Biologus also


Kitbashes always look better with a dash of paint.

And the rest of the


The Blightlords are a step behind, as they've not had powders or next layer of grimy wash (which is Earthshade/sepia/fleshshade in roughly 4:2:1, and I'm out of Earthshade now):


So that's where we are at
ttfn
graven

You're really doing a number on the Death Guard there matey. Good to see as always. Makes me want to jump in my private jet and pop across the pond for a bit of a to-do.

I'll let you know...

Hand pain. I have the arthritis, especially in my left thumb. The digit I need to hold things steady while working... I empathize with you. I have found that it pays to be creative with clamps and hold-fasts and that sort of thing. Do not be afraid to experiment and modify your hobby work area.

Remember too, one of the Perry brothers who lost a hand, and yet still found a way to continue. I met them at a Gamesday: Baltimore many years ago. Great guys.

Gitsplitta wrote:

Spoiler:

Sorry to hear that you're having renewed issues my friend. I had CT at one time due to my job at the time... that wasn't fun but in the end was easily fixable ("without drugs... life itself would be impossible". Your long-term prognosis is a lot tougher and its greatly to your credit that you're driving through it. You are inspirational in many ways my friend. Keep at it. Do what you can for as long as you can. You won't get the time back. Wishing you the best... Gits.

You're really doing a number on the Death Guard there matey. Good to see as always. Makes me want to jump in my private jet and pop across the pond for a bit of a to-do.

I'll let you know...

many thanks old chum. And I hope to get stateside again some time, it's been many years

Red Harvest wrote:Hand pain. I have the arthritis, especially in my left thumb. The digit I need to hold things steady while working... I empathize with you. I have found that it pays to be creative with clamps and hold-fasts and that sort of thing. Do not be afraid to experiment and modify your hobby work area.

Remember too, one of the Perry brothers who lost a hand, and yet still found a way to continue. I met them at a Gamesday: Baltimore many years ago. Great guys.

Yikes. I empathise, that's a nightmare. And I'm aware that folk manage in far worse circumstances than mine. Just having a moan

Anyway, filthed up the Blightlords

Decided to use VJ smoke with the powders. Which seems to have worked.

And started something... Super:



Black Adam and Superwoman. Starting on the joy of yellow.
Woo.

"VJ smoke"??!

Wow... you Brits are crazy... and... your women must be even hotter than I realized.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
"VJ smoke"??!

Wow... you Brits are crazy... and... your women must be even hotter than I realized.

Filthy mind, you have there. Vallejo Smoke, as well you know
Also my wife is very , thank you

LOL! My life is now complete...

nice start graven. you know they say where theres smoke theres fire...

Tallyman looking great so far. I never tried the FW powders, but the Mig range is excellent.

Yellow is also looking good


And sorry to hear the hand's flaring up, but don't apologise for the moan - better to let it out.

Gitsplitta wrote:LOL! My life is now complete...

*Bows* I'm biased, naturally The fact that she can still fit into her wedding dress after 12 years and 3 kids continues to impress me.

alabamaheretic wrote:nice start graven. you know they say where theres smoke theres fire...

Cheers. And, fnar.

monkeytroll wrote:Tallyman looking great so far. I never tried the FW powders, but the Mig range is excellent.
Yellow is also looking good
And sorry to hear the hand's flaring up, but don't apologise for the moan - better to let it out.

Thanks man. I really did need to let it out, actually; it's reinvigorated me, strangely. I've struggled to get my head round powders for a long time but I'm finally in a place where they really seem to work for me. I've got some Tamiya and Humbrol ones so more experiments may be incoming. And Tallyman will feature powders AND yellow (because tallymebanana). I'm in quite a good place with yellow ATM; I've got to get Batgirl (New 52) right though, I've been putting her off because she demands a very rich yellow.

I decided to crack on with the villainous threesome. In the end, I got fleshy: all primed BMG/DC models got flesh tones done (apart from Monster T, because I wasn't doing dark skin tones), as did 2 of the remaining Warriors and Debbie for Street Wars.
And meanwhile:

Very pleased with how these are coming along, especially all that black. Doing the super ramped highlights with white is always... Fun Tidying up required here and there, especially on Power Ring. But decent progress, and good to feel in a good place again about BMG.
Onwards, if not upwards,
Graven.

Deathguard looking rusty and crusty, really like how those powders work. I have villain envy, those are very well done.

Veryu nice on the dc folks, greenlantern came out ace in my book

Yorkright wrote: Deathguard looking rusty and crusty, really like how those powders work. I have villain envy, those are very well done.

Thanks on both counts. Next up will be experimenting with other powders, I think. They are very easy to make a mess with though, and I'm not the tidiest of workers at the best of times.

alabamaheretic wrote:Very nice on the dc folks, greenlantern came out ace in my book

Cheers. Power Ring is a deeply weird character, I don't really buy into someone who is complete coward wielding a ring (even if - or especially if - it's the First Ring of Will). But then one of the current Earth GLs has anxiety (not well-written, even with Tim Seeley at the helm), so what do I know? Ironically, the best of the new GLs run has been when they revisited Power Ring as a character recently (any excuse to see Singularity Jane in action is good in my book).
Sorry, went full DC Nerd there, didn't I?
Any-hoo, happy enough with these 3:

Possibly more to do. But I'm going to take a step back before I do anything else with them.

And more progress on Typhus

He's going rather well I think. Deliciously crusty. Just to prove, really, that I'm still working on the The next big job with them is adding the lighter armour colour (Flayed One Flesh).

The other big job on my desk right now (of the many) is stripping mould lines from DB teams. Veermyn and Marauders first, because they're getting khaki prime.

Had a lovely moment yesterday. As school winds down for the year, there's very few senior pupils in. Found one lad sitting in class painting Cadian heads (very well, I might add), and had a great chat about the hobby. It's the little things

I've just realised, as I was editing the OP, that today is the 8 year anniversary of this blog. Crikey. Thanks for your unwavering support, whether you've been here since the beginning, are a newcomer or have boomeranged back and forth. You guys are the best.

Hey ho, and to the future,
Graven

Congrats on your 8th year on Dakka!

Typhus and that base is looking purty kewl.

Congrats on the blog dakkaversary

Typhus looking well, or rather, unwell.

Adam and the CSA looking good, although I was hoping for a more interesting sculpt of Power Ring, maybe cowering down whispering to the ring or something.

Happy Anniversary!

Typhus is looking amazingly nurgly and the terrible trio looks ready for many dastardly deeds.

Well done old man

The Biologus fits in perfectly, with the rest of the range, nicely done!

Let's increase Graven's sensations of imminent dread.



--Brian




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 inmygravenimage wrote:

I can't tell if she's holding her purse, or her underwear.

Happy blog-iversery!

The villains are looking very nifty, particularly Black Adam.

8 years! Graven that's awesome... and your blog is only getting better and more relevant day by day. Congratulations my friend!

8 years of fantastic wonders. Thank you sir.

I am truly loving your Nurgle. Got me itching in a good way.

Yorkright wrote: Congrats on your 8th year on Dakka!

Typhus and that base is looking purty kewl.

Thanks Yeah, I found that bit of FW brass and thought ooooooooh just the thing to offset the big fella.

monkeytroll wrote:Congrats on the blog dakkaversary

Typhus looking well, or rather, unwell.

Adam and the CSA looking good, although I was hoping for a more interesting sculpt of Power Ring, maybe cowering down whispering to the ring or something.

Cheers. Re: Power Ring That would've been epic! Yeah, it's a great Green Lantern sculpt (much better than the real Hal sculpt, actually, and before I did John Stewart I'd planned on converting him as such) but not a great Power Ring.

youwashock wrote:Happy Anniversary!

Typhus is looking amazingly nurgly and the terrible trio looks ready for many dastardly deeds.

Thanks. He's very crusty. Need to get started on the veridgris at some point. The terrible trio are going to be devastating together; Black Adam is possibly my favourite DCU villain piece in terms of game balance and versatility (he's right in the sweet spot of value-for-money 12 & 13 point characters).

OneManNoodles wrote:Well done old man

The Biologus fits in perfectly, with the rest of the range, nicely done!

Oi! Yeah I'm happy with him, and the sack of mysterious things culled from a night goblin seems to have filled a back-gap well.

Briancj wrote:Let's increase Graven's sensations of imminent dread.

Spoiler:

--Brian

 inmygravenimage wrote:

I can't tell if she's holding her purse, or her underwear.

Wait, what?! I'm so confused. And scared... You're not the only one tormenting me, I keep getting cryptic messages from Mabrothrax about an impending myserious package.

It's a rope of golden barbed wire, actually, as she's the evil Wonder Woman. But yeah, I thought purse initially, too.

aku-chan wrote:Happy blog-iversery!

The villains are looking very nifty, particularly Black Adam.

Cheers muchly.

Gitsplitta wrote:8 years! Graven that's awesome... and your blog is only getting better and more relevant day by day. Congratulations my friend!

That's most kind, especially given that you've been here since day one (well alright, day 4, but page 1 )

Camkierhi wrote:8 years of fantastic wonders. Thank you sir.

I am truly loving your Nurgle. Got me itching in a good way.

The itching is entirely Papa's doing With your passion and skill at weathering I can't wait to see what you do with

Thanks, all, for the kind words. Work is all kinds of cruddy, despite it being the end of term (new timetable is a carcrash), but hey, I'm taking kids paintballing in a week, so that's ample opportunity to vent my frustrations

Not much to show. All the mold lines scraped off the Marauders and Veer-myn, ready for priming; Poxwalkers primed this morning; and started on the next set of colours for the adding spot reds and violet wash for eyes, cloth and iconography. Then GW pinks/sepia wash for tentacles and nurglings, base VJ turquiose and gw edge blue for verdigris and blades, VJ sick green/gauss green for any spot bright greens, VJ Ivory/fleshshade for the various horns, and VJ ochre with camoshade for pustules. It's good to have a system

Father's day coming up, but no geek this year. Shares in Brewdog instead. Mmm, cheap beer
Best
graven

Huzzah lets keep to another 8 years!

typhus is lookin rather gross in a good way

yea you did hit full dc nerd out lol its cool though it happens to the best of us... the figures came out quiet will so good one.

Congrats on the 8 years. It's a testament to your skill and popularity for you to be going so strong still.

Thanks for sharing and allowing us to be a part of your hobby as well as inviting us into your family moments both good and bad. It's been touching and we are better friends for it. We look forward to the next 8 years as well.

SL

Indeed. Congratulations on the first eight years, and may there be many more.

"Move me closer, so I can hit it with my purse." has a nice ring to it, eh?

That typhus, a very big mini. Progressing nicely.

Say, Graven, have you ever used fluorescent paints?

Nice work Graven'.

Good luck with RL. Paintballing with kids... that won't be cheap, first time I went (at school age) I spent 50squid on paintballs alone.
Last time I went, some of us got together and bought a box (that the place gets from their supplier) of 1000 paintballs... was cheaper in the long run... kind of.

I was going to comment on whether that was a handbag... but this...

Briancj wrote:...I can't tell if she's holding her purse, or her underwear.

...nearly made me empty my nose onto my keyboard.

Gratz on the 8 Graven, my time has flown!

alabamaheretic wrote:Huzzah lets keep to another 8 years!

typhus is lookin rather gross in a good way

yea you did hit full dc nerd out lol its cool though it happens to the best of us... the figures came out quiet will so good one.

Cheers. Yes, I am a nerd. The geek shall inherit the earth, and so forth.

Solar_lion wrote:Congrats on the 8 years. It's a testament to your skill and popularity for you to be going so strong still.

Thanks for sharing and allowing us to be a part of your hobby as well as inviting us into your family moments both good and bad. It's been touching and we are better friends for it. We look forward to the next 8 years as well.

SL

Aw thanks mate.

Red Harvest wrote:Indeed. Congratulations on the first eight years, and may there be many more.

"Move me closer, so I can hit it with my purse." has a nice ring to it, eh?

That typhus, a very big mini. Progressing nicely.

Say, Graven, have you ever used fluorescent paints?

I haven't. I'm a bit scared of them, like colour shift paints. Not that there's anything wrong with going outside of my comfort zone.

Dr H wrote:Nice work Graven'.

Good luck with RL. Paintballing with kids... that won't be cheap, first time I went (at school age) I spent 50squid on paintballs alone.
Last time I went, some of us got together and bought a box (that the place gets from their supplier) of 1000 paintballs... was cheaper in the long run... kind of.

I was going to comment on whether that was a handbag... but this...

Briancj wrote:...I can't tell if she's holding her purse, or her underwear.

...nearly made me empty my nose onto my keyboard.

Knightley wrote:Gratz on the 8 Graven, my time has flown!

I know, right? Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away...

So Father's Day came and went, without really any geek time (booooooo) because trying to find new bathroom lights (), but there was a very large breakfast and a case of beer to go with my beer shares so I can't really complain (well...) Nevertheless, progress is being made on the :deathguard: tentacles are pink, pustules are ochre, blades are turquoise. Starting to come together. And the remaining poxwalkers are now primed, also, though I'm holding off on the Khaki priming of Dreadball stuff just in case, heaven forfend, more invades in the next
week or so from the darkest recesses of mabrothrax's bitsbox, because he's an evil soul.

Having only painted 3 models this month, so far, I feel very behind, but then again I'm making progress through these as a batch, and that's another 15 if I get through them, so June won't be a write-off. 165 by halfway through the year? That's not bad given that I was 187 last, and whilst I doubt I can keep up this pace (May was a very good month!), I'd like to aim for 200 at least this year. 47 to go Oh, and apparently, there's a parcel from Spain waiting for me, wonder if it contains any (dark) Knights...

Later, and thanks for the support as ever,
graven.

All base colours and washes now done, pretty much.

Niiiice! The picture rewards a bit of zooming in, there's a lot to see

Cheers mate it's just a quick phone snap to prove I'm actually doing stuff, so zooming doesn't really hold up
Things that still need done:
1) Bone highlights up to white.
2) Armour plates with Kreig Khaki
3) All the damn flies on Typhus and the fly-bits on the fly terminator.
4) Crackly wickedness on the bases.

Generally happy with how they're going, but window renovations on the downstairs begin today so I may have to pack stuff away (temporarily). Will I finish in June, that's the question?!

Those flys on Typhus took a bit of work for me, patience and a good magnifier helped me. I do want some close ups when they are done ;-).

Yorkright wrote:
Those flys on Typhus took a bit of work for me, patience and a good magnifier helped me. I do want some close ups when they are done ;-).

The horror. I've only got his flies left actually.

But the rest are done; Tallyman:


The book may have the song lyrics written on it

Blightlords


Melee squad, with the Icon Bearer and original commander.


New ranged dude for filling out that squad.

Aw, he looks so lonely

Biologus as he stands, as it were, as he currently doesn't have a base

Need to find that pesky nurgling too...

And Typhus


Done, i think, apart from the flies. No idea how to do them, I wonder about bluebottle look to give a good contrast?

And what, I ask, is this?

That's a box of DC goodness and badness that is. Not including the stuff that's going to go into a mahoosive prize draw on my bigcomicpage.com bog, there's: Lobo with his Hawg (and dawg), Justice League Dark (Swamp Thing, Deadman and Black Orchid), New TV Green Arrow, a resin Superman to convert into Bizarro, Green Lantern (Hal), Mera and... Well... Supposedly Harley Quinn with Bud &Lou, her hyenas, but open up the blister and...

Amazons. Which I don't own, which is cool, if a bit odd I guess it's a sign from the universe to convert up a full Dark Trinity (Red Hood, Bizarro and Artemis, one of the lost tribe of Amazons) and be done with it. one of them is also missing a head, but I've got a spare from Ravager that should work. Artemis will be needing a bloody great Axe anyway (none of this lasso nonsense). KM are sending me a replacement Harley anyways, so no great loss.
I choose to be amused, and slightly despairing.

Feeling pretty phlegmatic about turning 40 on Sunday. Mostly as I suspect there will be more toys
Later
Graven

Exciting! Do kindly push Swamp Thing to the front of the painting line, please. Thank you.

woo shiny loot! I bet the song lyrics are kumbya...

Yeah, metallic blues and greens for the flies. They are Nurgles' shinies after all.

Tallyman looks great, as do the rest.

"Come Mr. Tallyman, tally me bananna..."

youwashock wrote:Exciting! Do kindly push Swamp Thing to the front of the painting line, please. Thank you.

I promise nothing. I don't get the level of fanaticism he inspires, my editor on bcp is obsessed with Swampy. But each to their own, and it's a lovely fig.

alabamaheretic wrote:woo shiny loot! I bet the song lyrics are kumbya...

haha nope

Gitsplitta wrote:"Come Mr. Tallyman, tally me bananna..."

That's the ones

monkeytroll wrote:Yeah, metallic blues and greens for the flies. They are Nurgles' shinies after all.

Tallyman looks great, as do the rest.

Ok, well they've had a layer of silver, red eyes, thinned flayed flesh on wings. I *think* a layer of thin blue - either VJ air or asurmen - followed by nightshade. That sound good?

That sounds spiffing....

monkeytroll wrote:That sounds spiffing....

Actually ended up being really difficult to get to a point I was satisfied with.

Thin layers of (in order) VJ Silver, Gulliman Blue, Waywatcher Green, VJ Violet, VJ Sick Green, Nightshade, Druchi Violet. Ultimately, it worked though, I think.
And a couple more of the big fella:



So that's Wave 1 complete!

Biologus not pictured, as he's not based; also, needle fell off so I may redo with the rod and gs - but on the plus side, found the nurgling for his base when, you know, I have a base for him

Still, that's 18 models in June so far, taking total to 168. Not bad, not bad. Unlikely to get anything else painted I suspect as it's all now covered in dust sheets (continuing work on the house).
Merrily we roll along,
Graven

Okay, that's more layers than I was expecting - guess the tiny size affects the effect.

I like it though, they do stand out from the rest of the model.

Group looks suitably grimy and diseased.

That's fantastic work graven! Very impressed by both quality and quantity. Maybe I'll send you some of MY models to paint... how do you feel about yellow??

monkeytroll wrote:Okay, that's more layers than I was expecting - guess the tiny size affects the effect.

I like it though, they do stand out from the rest of the model.

Group looks suitably grimy and diseased.

Well, partly it was to achieve a sense of that iridescent colour shift. But I think also over the silver it just required... more.
At least they stand out
I wonder if generally everything could benefit from a bit of Nurgle's Rot though? Just to add some sticky pus-filled neon goodness?

Gitsplitta wrote:That's fantastic work graven! Very impressed by both quality and quantity. Maybe I'll send you some of MY models to paint... how do you feel about yellow??

You're a bad man, gits.
Thanks, I'm aware of my limits though. Not in the same league as some of the serious painters here. Just a happy dabbler.

 inmygravenimage wrote:

youwashock wrote:Exciting! Do kindly push Swamp Thing to the front of the painting line, please. Thank you.

I promise nothing. I don't get the level of fanaticism he inspires, my editor on bcp is obsessed with Swampy.

Personally I attribute it to old movie nostalgia and the mighty Bernie Wrightson. That Nurgle group is very impressive.

That makes sense, my initial thought was just metallic blue rather than iridescent, which is obviously songbird insects anyway
I've been thinking of your guys as more rusty and corroded rather than actually pus-ridden, but there's never any harm in a bit of goo on Papa's favoured is there?

I was a big fan of the initial run, leading on to Alan Moore's run, never really picked it up after that though.

The DG look awesome dude, LOVE typhus (that sounds weird when you say it out loud)

Happy birthday graven!

Great job on Typhus.

Happy belated Birthday for you and the blog.

Hey gang, sorry for the radio silence.

youwashock wrote:
Personally I attribute it to old movie nostalgia and the mighty Bernie Wrightson. That Nurgle group is very impressive.

Cheers . Yeah, true enough. Likewise the weird fascination with man-thing I suppose.

monkeytroll wrote:That makes sense, my initial thought was just metallic blue rather than iridescent, which is obviously songbird insects anyway
I've been thinking of your guys as more rusty and corroded rather than actually pus-ridden, but there's never any harm in a bit of goo on Papa's favoured is there?

I was a big fan of the initial run, leading on to Alan Moore's run, never really picked it up after that though.

Newer appearances have been interesting. Great in Batman, but Tom King is generally on a real hot streak just now.

JoeRugby wrote:The DG look awesome dude, LOVE typhus (that sounds weird when you say it out loud)

Sexy beast, isn't he?

Gitsplitta wrote:Happy birthday graven!

Thanks mate.

Dr H wrote:Great job on Typhus.

Happy belated Birthday for you and the blog.

Thanks on both counts !

So summer is here, and it's baking hot. 30 degrees in Glasgow in June is frankly a bit much

Massive amount of work on the house getting done just now means can't get into study or garage, hence no new geekery. Birthday loot had good comics (Dark Nights Metal, Pirate Fun, some Cullen Bunn horror, Slaìne: The King), lots of random Star Wars stuff (lightsabre umbrella is a standout) and some toys (a Beast of Nurgle, which is very cute if extremely rubbish in game, but may get converted into a helbrute, and Dreadball Event Deck/Tour expansions). Even my parents got in on the geek with Dumbledore's wand
Oh, and a lot of beer was consumed, which was a bit messy, but led to a reconciliation between 3 of my oldest friends who've not spoken in over a decade. Because beer is awesome.

However, sunshine has meant some priming done.

That's the Veer-myn and Marauder teams done. Veer-myn are getting bloodletter glaze on the armour and a range of different browns on the fur (except the captain, who'll be albino). Marauders (orcs&gobs) are getting yellow and purple but not sure which will be the main and which the secondary. Green skins regardless. Probably purple armour, yellow accents, reversed on the captain. Thoughts?

Hey ho, will try to get back into things soon as, but won't really be till the tail end of next week
Graven

Don't see enough purple on miniatures in general, so I reckon the Marauders will look pretty swish. My old Skaven blood bowl team were purple and yellow, worked nicely

A very good month Graven, looks like the paint que is full again.

Slinky wrote:Don't see enough purple on miniatures in general, so I reckon the Marauders will look pretty swish. My old Skaven blood bowl team were purple and yellow, worked nicely

Cool, good to know. The mighty rhubarb and custards will rise again!

Yorkright wrote:A very good month Graven, looks like the paint que is full again.

I don't even want to think about how full it is tbh The study window gets replaced Monday... ish. I'm hoping to get some paint time Tuesday morning, as the boys are staying over at my folks' Monday night and I'm not getting them till Tuesday lunchtime.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Started, currently, are:
Batman (modern age)
Dollotrons (3)
Batgirl New 52

The Warriors (3)& Debbie

Doesn't mean that they're going to be finished next, but in theory, they're the most likely.

Ahoy chums,
So rather inevitably, as such things are want to, work on the house is taking longer than anticipated.
Still had a couple of hours spare today, no kids, and unexpectedly no builders so got on with some stuff. Apologies for the dodgy lighting, time and space were limited.
Sorted the Biologus Putrifier's base.

Not finished, but coming along well I feel. I also added a little nurgle's rot to the proboscis for added sheen and very pleasing it is too.

Finally got on with my Warriors and even made a start on Debbie:


Cracked on with some BMG also, getting over the hump:

Still freaks me out

Started my Wonderland gang

Going quite Disney/classic DC with the Tweedles, which also fits the McDonald's theme (they can be used with Joker also).

Started painting up the White Rabbit model as March Harriet.
despite the name White Rabbit has never been a member of the Wonderland gang, whereas March Harriet was effectively leader in Tetch's absence.
The model is actually a very good representation of WR but works equally well for MH. The game rules for her, on the other hand, are underpowered for WR but good for MH. Hence the choice of colour scheme. Of course I now need to resist the urge to convert convicts into Lion, Unicorn and Walrus...

And even got some bat on


Quite happy with how the cape in particular is coming along.

So again I don't know when I'll get more time to do anything. Study is basically out of action; wife's off work the next couple of weeks, we're away on hols for a bit, so don't expect much graven action. Still, I would like the above stuff finished this month. 13 more models, slow month, but given that I'm taking about the last week of the month only, don't think that's unreasonable.
Cheers chaps and chappettes
Graven

Got his friendly scroll carrier with him now

Warriors look ready for a rumble

Pyg looking very much like a disturbed individual in a pig mask. Are the dollotrons still bandaged up?

Dee and Dum look good in classic, but the sculpts look a little small? Can't recall much of Harriet, but she is a better fit for the Wonderland Gang.

And Bats looking suitably brooding. Bat logo plain bat or yellow background?

Excellent progress all around. Loving Batman with the cape that would get him caught in a jet engine (Edna From incredibles would not approve ).

Your plague guys are soooooo disgusting that if you play against someone I think you should tell them they have to remove the models they kill. You’ll win since they won’t touch them.

Pyg is my favourite from the current batch, a proper loony

Yay! Wonderland gang!

I really need to rewatch the Warriors movie. Great job there!

 kestral wrote:
I really need to rewatch the Warriors movie. Great job there!

....yeah....me too.....right after the movie Debbie was in .

monkeytroll wrote:Got his friendly scroll carrier with him now

Warriors look ready for a rumble

Pyg looking very much like a disturbed individual in a pig mask. Are the dollotrons still bandaged up?

Dee and Dum look good in classic, but the sculpts look a little small? Can't recall much of Harriet, but she is a better fit for the Wonderland Gang.

And Bats looking suitably brooding. Bat logo plain bat or yellow background?

Baffles me why the "real" model doesn't come with one as it's explicitly part of their fluff, but there we go.
Come out, come out, to playyyyy...
Yeah, bandaged dollies. I'd prefer comic ones, or some of the others (Farmhands, Deathwing or not-Robin) but you take what you can get. Besides, these dollies just act as extra wound tokens for Pyg. Hoping for other mechanics for other types.

Dum and Dee are indeed on the small side :/ glad MH looks the look

Yellow bat, classic Neal Adams 70s, baby!

Theophony wrote:Excellent progress all around. Loving Batman with the cape that would get him caught in a jet engine (Edna From incredibles would not approve ).

Your plague guys are soooooo disgusting that if you play against someone I think you should tell them they have to remove the models they kill. You’ll win since they won’t touch them.

Lol not sure that's a house rule other folk will get behind
Yes, that's a ridiculous cape. NO CAPES!

Slinky wrote:Pyg is my favourite from the current batch, a proper loony

Hand on heart, scares me more than any other mainstream villain.

aku-chan wrote:Yay! Wonderland gang!

Knew you'd be pleased. Wait till you see the plan for the bases...

kestral wrote:I really need to rewatch the Warriors movie. Great job there!

Cheers, there's an anniversary edition just out packed in a vhs case

Theophony wrote:

 kestral wrote:
I really need to rewatch the Warriors movie. Great job there!

....yeah....me too.....right after the movie Debbie was in .

Might have had to double check that one for ... research

What would Barman be without a splendiferous cape to blow magnificently in the cold Gotham winds?

Think it was Black Panther who got asked about his causing problems once and he just pressed a button to retract it back into his suit.

Yes, was hoping for the red-haired dollies, maybe they'll do a Circus of Strange?

Lots of good work on display there graven. New bat looks really good.& you're right... excellent work on the cloak.

Good work all round.

monkeytroll wrote:What would Barman be without a splendiferous cape to blow magnificently in the cold Gotham winds?

Think it was Black Panther who got asked about his causing problems once and he just pressed a button to retract it back into his suit.

Yes, was hoping for the red-haired dollies, maybe they'll do a Circus of Strange?

Ah, the Amazing Barman, now there's a superhero we can all get behind Black Panther
That reminds me, once he's done and BTAS is done I'll have all the Batmen done!! I'm sure a group shot was requested.

Gitsplitta wrote:Lots of good work on display there graven. New bat looks really good.& you're right... excellent work on the cloak.

Thanks kindly

Dr H wrote:Good work all round.

Ditto!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Debating what to work on nex, after these guys are done. Any suggestions? Anything random folk would like to see?

Good stuff, but I got to say your batmans are always top notch.

Barman has a great cape, made of towelling so he can soak any spillage instantly. I have noticed that my stupid auto-correct (which insists that auto-correct itself should be anti-virus) keeps changing bat to bar (did that time too). However I think I may have been on my laptop when I posted that...in which case pure Freudian slip

Group shot of Batman in the Bat-verse would be cool. How many versions are there?

Bat is spot on. Your DC minis must be huge by now. give me a group shot.. Maybe a good shot vs Bad shot.

Concurring with others, a few group shots please!

Alright dudes?

Yorkright wrote: Good stuff, but I got to say your batmans are always top notch.

Thanks sir. No pressure

monkeytroll wrote:Barman has a great cape, made of towelling so he can soak any spillage instantly. I have noticed that my stupid auto-correct (which insists that auto-correct itself should be anti-virus) keeps changing bat to bar (did that time too). However I think I may have been on my laptop when I posted that...in which case pure Freudian slip

Group shot of Batman in the Bat-verse would be cool. How many versions are there?

16 I think. I don't own the promo alternate sculpt of Zurr-en-Arrh, that's all. I've not collected the alt sculpts generally, not that fussed, cool as they are. Got to be reasonable after all realised that I haven't yet painted Arkham Origins Batman either though, which is annoying he's going to jump up the queue

Solar_lion wrote:Bat is spot on. Your DC minis must be huge by now. give me a group shot.. Maybe a good shot vs Bad shot.

Like a shelf of shame shot? Will do. Yeah, my collection is fairly preposterous

Yorkright wrote: Concurring with others, a few group shots please!

Will do. There's going to be a massive reorganization of stuff soon, start of August most likely, going to order a couple of kr cases and go from there.

So home again, briefly, and time to tidy a couple of bits and bobs. Annoyingly, some of my washes dried really inconsistently because of the heat, so I had to redo some things. Sigh. Anyway...
Biologus Putrifier, finally.






All in all, delighted with the sticky bastard.

Realised that adding to my Wonderland woes, my Rabbit's face was miscast. Bit of GS recovery required!

So a bit more progress on them.

Oh, and a couple of additions to the motor pool.

The camper has a detailed interior and looks like it will be ace for Walking Dead. The ice cream van is getting Jokered.

Pyg and dollotrons done, I think.





As are the Warriors 3.




Particularly happy with the various base details, coke can, etc for warriors, bloody tools for dollies .

Debbie done.


Really struggled to get a remotely decent, or even indecent, pic of her.


And Batman might be done. Not sure.

So there we are. 10 more. 178 so far... The aim is to try to do 9 more in the last week of July, so equalling 2017's total.

The 9 to-do are:
Batman Arkham Origins (bugger...)
Batman Animated Series (not even based or primed!!)
Tweedledee
Tweedledum
March Harriet
... And 4 more
No guarantees but likely
Nightwing
Shazam!
Mad Hatter
Raven (also not primed, but the boys are hassling me )

Anyone care to take a guess at what the total for 2018 will be?

Adiós,
Graven

So who would win in a fight, Batman or the Warriors? I'm amazed to see the minis.

Batman's eyes need a bit of shading, if nothing else. Give him the approrpiate brooding look.

nice stuff man really like the warriors and the playmate...

Red Harvest wrote:So who would win in a fight, Batman or the Warriors? I'm amazed to see the minis.

Batman's eyes need a bit of shading, if nothing else. Give him the approrpiate brooding look.

Good shout on Batman I'll address that on my return. The Warriors models are... Not... Strictly... Legit. But they are very cool. And the rule of cool always wins, right?

alabamaheretic wrote:nice stuff man really like the warriors and the playmate...

Fun to do, cheers. She's a bit of a nightmare so, again, may get a bit of tidying. Still, progress is progress.

I'm loving the progress on the Batman stuff, Graven. Also, the Warriors do look fun...are they for use as thugs in Batman games?

I'm currently working on minis and terrain for Ash Barker's Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse (28mm survival skirmish game), and am on the lookout for emergency type vehicles that fit with this miniature scale...they tend to be 1/43-1/48, or thereabouts...

Also, I've seen you and a few others on here turn their P&M Blogs into an ongoing shelf-of-shame, instead of the traditional sticking to one project and go at it until completion....this really fits my gamer ADD personality well, so I think I will be doing that on my Blog going forward. Just trying to decide the best way to make the individual projects easy to follow. Summaries on page one with links seems to be the best solution...

Debbie’s been done dude , yours just still looks good after you finished her (sorry PG blog ).

Pyg and company look great, so does bats .

Warriors, yes, rule of cool must prevail here. Are you going to try and paint their colors on the backs of their vests?

Bats looking nice and moody, but yeah, maybe hit those eyes up to get full brood on.

Bases for Pyg and follies are suitably wrong, as are they


Everything else looking smooth too


We eagerly await the final two Bats.

Fango wrote:I'm loving the progress on the Batman stuff, Graven. Also, the Warriors do look fun...are they for use as thugs in Batman games?

I'm currently working on minis and terrain for Ash Barker's Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse (28mm survival skirmish game), and am on the lookout for emergency type vehicles that fit with this miniature scale...they tend to be 1/43-1/48, or thereabouts...

Also, I've seen you and a few others on here turn their P&M Blogs into an ongoing shelf-of-shame, instead of the traditional sticking to one project and go at it until completion....this really fits my gamer ADD personality well, so I think I will be doing that on my Blog going forward. Just trying to decide the best way to make the individual projects easy to follow. Summaries on page one with links seems to be the best solution...

Sadly there are no generic thugs in BMG. However, the Devils Outcasts gang in Street Wars are closely modelled on the Street Demonz for BMG (which I own), so my SWNYC Outcasts gang has a whole lot of extra dudes also, there are BMG scenarios that need civilians, so they're useful for that.
Dollar stores (to use the foreign argot) are your friend. 1/48 or even, at true 28mm, 1/52, work well. The mantic accessory pack for Walking Dead is excellent, very reasonable, loads of great post apocalyptic scatter/objectives, and comes with 2 bashed cars and 2 dented pickups; the pickups have roof lights so I just chopped them off one and stuck them on one car to make Rick's cruiser.
Yeah, I did a sort of page one summary, though Gitsplitta is the master. I think a lot of us need the hobby ADD because just one project becomes a grind. I've seen that with BMG, and hence the big switch to Equally, I've still not mustered the energy to tackle wave 4 of TWD (and let's not talk about all those Dreadball teams!)

Theophony wrote:Debbie’s been done dude , yours just still looks good after you finished her (sorry PG blog ).

Pyg and company look great, so does bats .

cheeky boy and thanks!

Red Harvest wrote:

Spoiler:

 Theophony wrote:
Debbie’s been done dude

I thought it was that Dallas was done. By Debbie. Spoilered 'cuz it ain't a PG-13 or even an R reference.

Warriors, yes, rule of cool must prevail here. Are you going to try and paint their colors on the backs of their vests?

Possibly the guy who makes the game has done transfers for the official gangs. I'm trying to convince him to make a set of Warriors ones as a promotion
Once I've done Cleo, I'll try to get a shot of both girls with Randall St James (the Flashman - dealer/pimp) as well; although each player only needs one civilian and one Flashman, I want to be able to have two full sides, so a Warrior will likely do double duty, probably the guy by the barrel. Also I have another promo warrior already painted, might even do a full SWNYC group shot.

monkeytroll wrote:Bats looking nice and moody, but yeah, maybe hit those eyes up to get full brood on.

Bases for Pyg and follies are suitably wrong, as are they


Everything else looking smooth too


We eagerly await the final two Bats.

The only thing that puts me off is that this is bright shiny comic bats. But a bit of Nightshade probably wouldn't go amiss. Glad you approve, whilst I cave (batcave?) to bat-related peer pressure

I did a quick count. At present, I have 155 unpainted models:


Later
Graven

I think I may have more than that just in the 'partially built' section of my stuff. ....

Interested to note Black Orchid in there, constantly impressed by the range of characters that are represented.


Hmmm....I hear you on Bats, but even through the 70's he had a brooding look around the eyes I feel. A shade around them helps make the white lenses pop a touch. Only version that wouldn't benefit from similar treatment would be Adam West era.... All personal preferences of course.

Warriors need a train car...just sayin Looks great!

Thanks for the advice Graven, I’ve checked out Git’s P&M Blog and will be taking some of his great pointers and applying them to my own Blog.

155 unpainted minis?! That is totally doable. I can’t even make a rough estimate on my Vault of Shame yet...but I hope to get a realistic view in the next couple of weeks as I inventory things and add them to my to-do list.

Keep chipping away at them, you are doing great!

monkeytroll wrote:I think I may have more than that just in the 'partially built' section of my stuff. ....

Interested to note Black Orchid in there, constantly impressed by the range of characters that are represented.


Hmmm....I hear you on Bats, but even through the 70's he had a brooding look around the eyes I feel. A shade around them helps make the white lenses pop a touch. Only version that wouldn't benefit from similar treatment would be Adam West era.... All personal preferences of course.

Funnily enough West was my first Batman mini.
Black Orchid - yes, but there'z still a few classic roster gaps, notably Man-Bat, and classic evil magic users like Felix Faust or Morganna Le Fey. I like getting new/obscure characters and bundling them with fan favourites is smart. A bigger issue is that you get free agent saturation (just 2 "special" characters are allowed per team, usually) in BMG; there's only one hero team and, whilst lots of villain teams, there's serious paralysis of choice.

dsteingass wrote:Warriors need a train car...just sayin Looks great!

Lol so true. My mate Iain (who created the game) has an amazing L-train board with warriors theme so it's there in spirit

Fango wrote:Thanks for the advice Graven, I’ve checked out Git’s P&M Blog and will be taking some of his great pointers and applying them to my own Blog.

155 unpainted minis?! That is totally doable. I can’t even make a rough estimate on my Vault of Shame yet...but I hope to get a realistic view in the next couple of weeks as I inventory things and add them to my to-do list.

Keep chipping away at them, you are doing great!

Ooh! My first ever rollover! Manage to recover your comment though I'm cheating slightly. I'm not including "board game" pieces, which includes puppet wars minis.

I know that actually it's not a huge amount by most folks' standards, but still

Good job on the Biologus, looks legit.

Like Pyg and the dollotrons.

Good job on the warriors and cheeky Debbie.

and the latest Batman is looking good.

Cheers on all counts old son.

On me holidays in Majorca, very nice. What's a guy to do but chat to random folk reading white dwarf by the pool eh? Had a good blether, talked weathering powders, and scored his copy of WD when he left haven't seen a WD since the SoB codex issues. It's a pretty thick tome for £6, and that's a fair price given the state of print media industry right now (sorry, ever the teacher you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you cannot get them to shut up...)
Whilst I might not buy it regularly, I'm actually surprised that I would consider buying it occasionally if there was stuff of interest. The painting step by steps are decent, the batreps illustrate the gameplay, and the showcase stuff is shiny. I don't really look at AOS stuff, for instance, and I hate the gw site, so looking at the Lord of Blights was interesting and gives me some pesky ideas also. I hadn't really twigged, either, that my colour scheme is eerily like that of the csm on the cover of The Lost and The Damned.
So an interesting read, as it turns out even if it is a glorified catalogue

I haven’t picked up a copy of that rag in years. It sounds like they may have finally turned a page sort of speak and gotten better again. I have about 100 copies in my collection that I haven’t looked at in years.

Have fun on your holiday .

Cheers mate
Also, the mighty nerdfest is having another nerdacademy contest:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/760377.page
The theme is More than meets the Eye - something painted, essentially as something from another faction - and I have an idea:
A single Primaris marine that's fallen to big Papa Nurgle. I mean I don't own any but...
So I need to get a stock intercessor mini. Because I convert everything, this will be unconverted, not reposed, nothing more than some scratching or other damage - but mostly going to force myself to really go for it in the paint job. Fallen smurf, lost to
That sound ok?

Later
Graven

Sounds like a plan, Graven'.
You could have the blue fading and turning green in places, collecting dust and oozing goo from joints and cracks.
I agree with keeping it stock though, convert it too far and you've just built a plague marine and not a primaris painted as a plague marine.

60+ metal Sisters and various other Echesiarchy... 3 guard platoons, and 12 Necron warriors and 10 Praetorians... and that's not even to my orks (which is just a disgrace)...
You are doing damn good with less than 200 models unpainted.
Did you see the trailer for Shazam! today? Makes me super interested in that character.
Graven... you keep doing you, because you is pretty awesome.

Dr H wrote:Sounds like a plan, Graven'.
You could have the blue fading and turning green in places, collecting dust and oozing goo from joints and cracks.
I agree with keeping it stock though, convert it too far and you've just built a plague marine and not a primaris painted as a plague marine.

Yeah, reconciling these two things will be the challenge.

Anpu-adom wrote:60+ metal Sisters and various other Echesiarchy... 3 guard platoons, and 12 Necron warriors and 10 Praetorians... and that's not even to my orks (which is just a disgrace)...
You are doing damn good with less than 200 models unpainted.
Did you see the trailer for Shazam! today? Makes me super interested in that character.
Graven... you keep doing you, because you is pretty awesome.

Thanks, you make me feel better
Really enjoyed the Shazam trailer. Aquaman too.

Hola peeps
So I'm back, and gearing up for 3 weeks of fun with the kids - but I'll be sure to get done some proper geeking out too.
Starting as we mean to go on, getting the other Poxwalkers started:

And progress on plaguebearers:

Plus some modifications to the duplicates:

Hate milliput but no GS to hand. Turns out that milliput is Krieg Khaki coloured do love the old metal plaguebearers. Wish I had more than ten still, there's always the plastic kit I guess, which will give me bits to kitbash a couple extra (because multiples of 7!)

Not much else to show - anniversary today. 12 years with Mrs Graven. We don't do gifts, though had a nice lunch.

However, did by chance get this from Knight Models today:

Um, my shelf of shame may have grown...
Hey ho,
Graven

By chance, indeed. Pretty good luck, I'd say!

Happy aniversary! Congrats to both of hoy!

And nice progress too!

Congratulations.....she is obviously a saint

Dark metal bats? Looks like the bat-a-thon photo finish has just been put back....

OOOOO CROC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright gang?

Littletower wrote:By chance, indeed. Pretty good luck, I'd say!

Happy aniversary! Congrats to both of hoy!

And nice progress too!

Thanks, thanks and more thanks

monkeytroll wrote:Congratulations.....she is obviously a saint

Dark metal bats? Looks like the bat-a-thon photo finish has just been put back....

Well evil bats don't count for batquestI reckon

alabamaheretic wrote:OOOOO CROC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah. Need to decide which head though. Leaning towards crocodile Waylon rather than regular comic Waylon.

Busy doing prep work. Lots of cleaning, building and priming.


Started work on my next Dreadball team, Veer-myn team I'm calling Industrial Disease.

Team Captain

And a Jack (which will be the scheme for most)

Bases aren't set in stone yet, just marking the threat zone. Pretty happy though. The plan is to enslave #1 son to do the armour: bloodletter glaze, drybrush averland sunset, sponge VJ gunmetal view and drybrush edge yellow (whatever it's called today). Then I'll hazard stripe, block in the fur colours for him to wash, and do the lenses. That way he's learning techniques and I'll gradually give him more and more to do. They're going to be his team, so he gets some ownership on the paint job. Plus, these are good techniques to learn for his XWing ships.
Likewise, #2 is going to drybrush the neobots team light grey, and I'll block the armour in blue (his choice of colour) for Blue Streak, which will be his new team.

And yes, that's BTAS, Raven, Uncle Dudley and Foxy Cleo primed also. Forge Fathers (Squats), Zees (Space Apes), cheerleaders and other staff all in just now, halfway done.

It's funny, it doesn't feel like I've done that much, but actually not bad.
Hospital tomorrow :( I've had a persistent wracking cough for 6 weeks, so because I'm over 40 I have to get checked for lung cancer. Fun. It won't be anything, it's just a precaution and I'm glad of it, but still. Dr reckons it's just a naso-pharyngeal infection, she just wants to be safe, so I'm full of steroids, antibiotics and antihistamines. God bless public healthcare.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Speaking of plague...


These should all be done by the end of the week, means I need to set foot in a GW to get more Earthshade but hey pick up a primaris while I'm there and try to crank him out for nerdfest's contest .
Till anon
Graven

Darkseid. Can't wait to see that one done.

^ DARKSEID IS.

Yeah, and compared to the nightmare of the metal version, he's a wee dream.

Meanwhile, yet more (more) plague progress:


Nearly there!


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Automatically Appended Next Post:
All that's left is Earthshade on the bases and judicious application of various technical paints. Doable tomorrow, off into town with the boys to see Lego Wonders of the World exhibition... and pop into GW.
All remaining KM cleaned up, only to discover I'm missing a body for one of the Swat they were very apologetic but their QC really is shocking.
Remaining dreadball teams, coaching assistants etc all primed and the commentators washed and built (real actual resin... yuck ) - fine but had to hold in a clamp to dry.
Not much else to show. Spent the day having limited success stripping a century of paint off all the window fittings with nitromors. Fun.
Graven

It has begun!

So, to begin, painted as a stock smurf. Now, to let papa corrupt him...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And using typhus corrosion (what else? ) To mark the area to be corrupted.

Crucially, none of which can be seen from the front of the model, more than meets the eye, yaddayaddayadda


And he's now had some GS work. All you can see is the edge of a sculpted skull and U...

Side with skull insignia


Side with chapter badge


And rear


I'd started to powder weather but realised I really want to get sculpting with him...
Fun to do, and I think making decent progress.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Meanwhile, the Plaguebearers are... done!


As are... the Poxwalkers!


And all together

And because you need multiples of 7, and what if you turn a marine into a poxwalker...

Because papa nurgle's work is never done
Later
graven

Liking the hidden corrosion

Nice poxmarine too.

Good work on all the Nurgle-i-ness.

Well hello again my fairly lovelies,

monkeytroll wrote:Liking the hidden corrosion

Nice poxmarine too.

Lol thought you'd like the kitbash. The big tidy has begun, started digging out bits for you sunshine

Dr H wrote:Good work on all the Nurgle-i-ness.

Ta

A funny old month in the end. Didn't get done what I expected this month, but such is gamer ADD

July (33)
Biologus Putrifier
Debbie
Warriors (3)
Pyg and dollotrons (4)
Batman Modern Age
Veer-Myn Captain
Veer-Myn Jack
Plaguebearers (10)
Poxwalkers (10)

and my entry for nerdfest09's More than meets the Eye Contest... The 7th Smurf!


Many more pics below

Really happy with how this guy's turned out. Lots of use of technical paints, powders and a lot of blending/highlighting techniques on the "regular" side of him to get him quite GW-standard scheme looking. The reverse is much more me

Got a great mail drop from Mantic, with the new Nameless starter (space-cthulhoids) and Outbreak rules for Deadzone:



We have giant crabs, tiny critters and everything in between. 18 models in a mix of resin and plastic, for a ridiculously reasonable £25.
Aesthetically, I love the Nameless. I freely admit AoS with its crazy Sea Elf critters made me smile, but somehow it's far more... logical here. I can't quite explain why but they just fit sci-fi setting better, somehow. Maybe I read too much Aquaman, but these models pulse with character. Also, I plan on using one of the little Scuttlers for a pitch invasion in Dreadball at some point.
The models are well cast, with few appreciable mould lines on either the plastic or the resin. The single piece plastics are dynamic enough, and the material feels solid, not at all rubbery.
In game terms, well, I'm new to this so, really, what do I know? From my first impressions, they seem like a very focused army, really suited to the new player (I know I keep saying that, but it’s true): to be honest, I have previously found Deadzone tricky to get my head round, whereas the Nameless just seem to make sense to me. Clearly defined battlefield roles, evocative sculpts, and a range of tactics: exactly what I’m looking for to get into a game.

Also a look at their new resin big critters for KoW
Abyssal Chroneas (demon of fire and shadow):

Winged Slasher (wyvern with orc rider)

Now I have had some minor issues with Mantic resin in the past, some warping - nothing that boiling water and a clamp wouldn't fix, and not Forgeworld levels of horror, but still - but I'm pleased to say the resin pieces are really neat and shapely (oooh), minimal flash or pitting. Everything is very clean, logical and lines up well with minimal filling in order.
I honestly can't say which model I like more. On the one hand the Abyssal is glorious, treading the fine line between distinctively characterful and universal; an exciting prospect to paint, above all. The Slasher on the other hand is just a great, iconic piece that would sit proudly at the centre of any greenskin horde. I think that the Slasher just edges it out for me, but only just; something about it speaks to the wee lad who played Orcs 25+ years ago, I think.

Also got the jumbo Terrain crate, Dungeon Depths

That's a lot of fantasy scatter.

Enjoying the summer.
Had a great, day-long game of DCU with the boys yesterday. 50 levels (not quite a maximum size game, which is 60, but still their biggest yet) with Rifts (closing world-eating magic portals) as the scenario
Heroes (Kid#1): Raven, Cyborg, Impulse (Kid Flash), Arsenal (new Green Arrow), Ravager, Starfire, plus our custom Beast Boy chicken token.
Villains (Kid#2): Sinestro, Enchantress, Killer Croc, Reverse Flash (Zoom), Deathstroke.
Lovely terrain thanks to lovely Camk.




Lots of fun, villains just edged it at the end. Highlights included Ravager dealing with her daddy issues and Sinestro throwing Killer Croc at Starfire for the win!

So, on to August. Dreadball minis, and too many Batmen
Later
Graven

Great, well done - Very productive month in the end then

Love the perverted Ultramarine, excellent idea there!

Excellent job on The Smurf Turns, great interpretation


Seems like a pretty good month, especially considering holiday.....even if it ended up a different list to planned

Some of those Nameless look like they have potential, may have to look at that set sometime.

Looks like a fun game was had on a nice board.

Slinky wrote:Great, well done - Very productive month in the end then

Love the perverted Ultramarine, excellent idea there!

Cheers, blame nerdy, his contest got me thinking

monkeytroll wrote:Excellent job on The Smurf Turns, great interpretation

Seems like a pretty good month, especially considering holiday.....even if it ended up a different list to planned

Some of those Nameless look like they have potential, may have to look at that set sometime.

Looks like a fun game was had on a nice board.

The Nameless are great but unfortunately now I really want their team for Dreadball. I'm very grateful to Cam for the excellent board, it's fab and the fact that you can wreck/lob scenery about in DCU meant it was perfect (as well as atmospheric for our magical-rift themed game). Yeah, lists are never quite the same, are they?!

Which reminds me, list of shame time:


I am my own worst enemy.


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And, starting as I mean to go on:




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Cloth and accents will be yellow, but the rest is done with washes. Another one I want the kids to be able to do.

Lots of cool stuff on the horizon, it seems. Love the look of that DCU battle.

Much fun was had. Time consuming, but well worth it.
As for the horizon, well, I'm now at 201 minis this year - best crack on!


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Speaking of which, test scheme for the Marauder team, the War-auders (Wario/Waluigi inspired)


Enlisted the kids to do the wash layer on these, the Veer-Myn and the Neo Bots:

Unimpressed cat is unimpressed.

Wow so much has happened since I last checked in! Love all the nurgle stuff, especially that perverted/ corrupted Ultramarine. When with Rowboat get on the side of the good guys?

DCU stuff looks so cool I may see if I can get one model and give it go too.

looking forward to seeing what you do with your Namless and the Terrain Crate

I am impressed even if unimpressed cat isn’t. Cats are by definition unimpressed with everything we human servants do except use our opposable thumb s to open the cans of food.

The lavender color is definitely an eye catcher.

Nurgle smurfs are a redundancy as Ultras are a plague on the marine history already.

... and the machine churns on...

Yorkright wrote: Wow so much has happened since I last checked in! Love all the nurgle stuff, especially that perverted/ corrupted Ultramarine. When with Rowboat get on the side of the good guys?

DCU stuff looks so cool I may see if I can get one model and give it go too.

Cheers mate. DC is a great game, a good balance of fluff and crunch, and you never need more than half a dozen models to play. With the new resins that much cheaper, it's a good to time to get in Basically, pick your favourite characters, and go from there. It's pretty balanced, no-one breaks the game (apart from Bat-Mite, but he's a promo anyway), points are well balanced (and they've tweaked the ones that aren't) and nothing's unstoppable because there's counters to pretty much everything (Ravager, who's neutral, can negate abilities, Dr Fate can do it for heroes, and there's an evil character who can too). My next challenge is to build a proper Parademon invasion force, now I have Darkseid, Steppenwolf and 6 parademons (3 resin, 3 metal) - parademons have the Horde rule which means that they're non-unique. The kids don't know it yet but my next big game planned with them is Apokolips Rising!

JoeRugby wrote:looking forward to seeing what you do with your Namless and the Terrain Crate

Love the Nameless. LOVE THEM. Like, might actually spend money on some more

Theophony wrote:I am impressed even if unimpressed cat isn’t. Cats are by definition unimpressed with everything we human servants do except use our opposable thumb s to open the cans of food.

The lavender color is definitely an eye catcher.

Nurgle smurfs are a redundancy as Ultras are a plague on the marine history already.

Eye Catcher good, eye catcher bad?

Gitsplitta wrote:... and the machine churns on...

Quantity, if not quality, baby!
Started the horrible process of tidying up. Bought some Feldherr boxes, and things feel a bit better, but my god is it tedious Still, progress.

Found this:

Seriously over-packaged for a tub of cherries. Still, got to be useful for something, right?

Wow, it does look like something you would get charged a fiver for on a terrain MDF site

You're right, there must be something that can be done with it...

You need a Blackgate Penitentiary to go with Arkham surely? Looks like a good start to the yard right there.....

Lol so true. Tbh I'm thinking about making it into a dice tray. A necessity when gaming with kids

Is that really a pdf crate? Sheesh. We get everything in ziplock bags hereabouts, except those nice clemenulos. The come in 3mm plywood crates.

That table looks excellent. Cam really does good work, eh?

Happy belated anniversary.

The Veer-Myn attracted kitty's attention eh?

Ah, one last thing, this shelf of shame bit. Stop. Until your production drops into single digits, like mine , you cannot rightfully claim any shame.

Yeah, a £5 box of (really beautiful) cherries. Preposterous.
Cam is a freaking genius, a true treasure of dakka.
Yeah, she was totally after my mees-es!
Ok, ok. It's actually more so I can keep track of stuff myself, tbh.

Hola

Enslaved children to do the washes on the Dreadball teams:


Whilst I'm adding some details, I'm not going to crazy - I want the kids to have a sense of ownership, plus want to get them on the pitch soon as
Slightly alarmed at how the Dreadball teams have spiralled out of control going to need storage case of their own You might notice ANOTHER team at the left-hand edge of that pic. Yup Matsudon, sumo space dragons. Of course. they're going to get a camoshade first, I reckon. I've also got the Revenants coming too, essentially Borg, made from other teams - lots of opportunities for customs and kitbashes.
As I'm running low on space, did a bit of a bit juggle and a tidy and feel like my workspace is more organised. Picked up a couple of Feldherr boxes (one for the Nurgle, one for the walking dead), they're great things.

Tempted to get another one for Batman stuff as space is rapidly running out there. Again, it's more organisational than anything else.
Need to get stuff built, but can't prime anything for the next week as I have a batch of ale a-brewing in the garage. It's a fair trade-off
Only one more week of summer left hard life being a teacher.
Results day on Tuesday, so that'll be the morning and then Ant-Man & The Wasp in the afternoon to celebrate/commiserate (delete as applicable) - wife's managed to get a cheeky half-day. Not much else planned, maybe Teen Titans Go to the Movies, probably a wee Dreadball tournament with the kids. #2 son is desperate to play "his" Neobots, 'Blue Steel', so I'm going to try to get him to finish them this weekend. #1 is still set on playing the Yndij, 'Forest Fliers', who are all painted anyway (although I'm going to redo the threat hexes with the semi-standardised traffic light coding that's commonplace, apparently).
Till sometime soon
Graven

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Lol so true. Tbh I'm thinking about making it into a dice tray. A necessity when gaming with kids

Dress it up with some towers on the corners and details on the outside, and it can still go on the table as an impassable terrain piece...

insaniak wrote:
Dress it up with some towers on the corners and details on the outside, and it can still go on the table as an impassable terrain piece...

I've been thinking for a while about such things generally. Until my kids started gaming, I never saw the point in dice towers and trays. I'm starting to think they're a necessity generic urban near future needs to be the look, I reckon, as I would like something that's an in-keeping for bats as 40k. Urban Gothic I guess. Or, you know, a restaurant called Holy Bat Guacamole.
Sorry I'm a bit sporadic at the moment. The perils of having to parent
Still, been getting some Dreadball on with the boys, lots of fun.

So, I've been doing the key tokens for Dreadball, plus the Medi-Bot because it was within reach and I had an idea for it.

That's the Strike (score) tracker, Referee and Eye in the Sky (turn) tracker. Weird using metals again. Don't use them for BMG, and only fleetingly the 40k stuff. But the younger wanted a very difficult specific look for his Neobot team, so I broke them out again - and, to be fair, they do suit the dB aesthetic I think.

Speaking of which, the Neobots, Blue Steel:

I did some touching up here and there but it's nice that the wee fella can see his hard work. He went a bit overboard on the silvers so I had to do some tidying up.
As for the base edges, I've decided to do something a bit different. The consensus in the dB community is that you traffic light the threat zone (front 3 hex edges), typically Red for Guards, Orange for Jacks and Green for Strikers. The new bases have 5 ridges along the thread edges, and I'm toying with just marking the ridges, then further marking the centre of the front edge with a single blue line for a captain, and possibly the centre of the other edges purple for Keeper (specialist Guards). Given that it it's about clarity for novices, I don't know whether that's better or not. For example, the captain is front and centre in the above pic, but the blue isn't that different to the green. Might do white instead.
Also, more progress on Veer-Myn, plus a couple of other bits built:

Looking forward to playing these, bit more of a finesse team (read: designed to spend the game fouling), I suspect they'll be mine. Also built the cheerleaders, found both my squat teams (giving one to a mate) with enough bits left over to make their MVP, and 7 unbuilt Corp humans for a bare-bones but playable team, plus filled some gaps etc.

Not done much BMG of late. Did make progress on my Wonderland gang.

Not done yet, and basing idea is still unfinished. Added in my spare High Security henchman as a Cheshire Cat thug: you can give 3 goons Alice-themed masks, and giving this guy climbing claws and Stealth is beyond terrifying when he can already start anywhere on the board after everyone else is setup. Plus his existing restraint worked well as a grin, I think.
I've started Arkham Origins Batman. No pics yet, I need to see if the idea will work: working up from very pale grey, shading and washing. Going for a very monochrome bat this time.

On the subject of the Bat, I need your opinions. I'm going to run a contest, probably when I hit page 300, probably with a BMG prize (starter set or similar) as you've all followed my bat antics so loyally and supportively.
My initial thoughts are something with quite an open format, called I am The night or The Shadow of the Bat or something. That covers everything from AoS undead, Malifaux nightmares, Wayne (dice) tower, and everything in between.
Thoughts?

Back to school Monday

Graven