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

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


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

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

Till later, happy hobbying!

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

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

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


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



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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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

OK baby is getting fussy better goooo-


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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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


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

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

Then it's Enforcer time baby. Happy hobbying!

Thanks!

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

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

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

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

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

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


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






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


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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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






And here's that missile launcher enforcer:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till then, happy hobbying folks!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy hobbying!

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

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

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

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

Happy hobbies!


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













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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

I've already made my own rough attempt:


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

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

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


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

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

Happy holiday hobbying folks!

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

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

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

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

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

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


Loka Chess piece (these still varied, I believe)


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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


It's a very Infinity Christmas

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

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


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


Ok guys, happy holidays again, and happy hobbying

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

I think a yndij swarm may be fun/viable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Did you hear that?

BRAINSTORM

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

AHEM!

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

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


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


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


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


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

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

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

Happy hobbying and goodnight




Automatically Appended Next Post:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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