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So I've been recovering from my trip. Friday at noonish my training location was evacuated because of a massive gas leak. Then I was trapped at the Providence, RI airport Friday night... all those tornadoes in Maryland meant I was camping in the airport instead of traveling home. But, I got home safe finally, though I was exhausted. I can't wait to go back up to RI for maybe a weekend away, this time minus evacuations and weather SNAFUs.

Zygrot24 wrote:Very good tutorial with great pictures.

Zygrot, thanks, I'm glad you liked the tutorial! It was fun to take the pics, then scroll through them to see the progress.

RiTides wrote:Well, I have partially failed in my task to lure Gyps away from doing her own stuff and to paint mine . But I will get to see them in person later in the month, so that will be cool!

And who knows

Looking forward to more, what are your next models to paint going to be? If you want to stick with Vandalands (YES) I could either ship or drop off to you however many Shrew Hussars you've ordered from Cyporiean, and you can just give me yours when they come in.

This would be very cool from my point of view, because then I would get to see them painted up before you move on to other factions, thus giving me a blueprint for how to paint / have painted / etc all of the types of models I have

LOL let's see how I'm doing for branching out into painting your stuff. If I keep powering through things fast like this I may be done faster than I thought. I didn't mention, but if I do paint yours, the basing wouldn't be a problem. I have so much basing junk whatever I did for you wouldn't even make a dent.

Hmm, I'm not sure when my Hussar/Cabineers are due. I know some goodies from Florida should be coming soon-ish IIRC. But if the Hussars end up being a little while, we may just need to do a trade like you mentioned (brilliant idea, BTW)

Cyporiean wrote:You two should goto the Dropzone soft opening next weekend and show off Brushfire.

Yeah I'll probably go to the opening. I was able to get my other half to play some Brushfire using the quickstart rules this weekend. We were able to throw down a 2' x 3' flocked mat and some terrain, and played Vandalands vs. Axony warband boxes. We were arguing about the rules until we realized I actually have two different variants of the quickstart rules.... and the book I was using is first printing, so we may not have the most up to date info. Either way, we found it fast and fun to play.

As for what I have been working on... all 7 Mouse Conscripts at once. I didn't get far today, but here is a WIP shot

This is just the red and some Shadow Grey for base coats... I had to pick out the colors for the mice themselves, and I think I'm going to paint them like the little field mouse I caught and had as a pet a couple years ago. His name was Fergus, and he looked like this guy...

You find some great pictures for inspiration . Progress is looking good!

Just let me know if you end up wanting me to bring the Shrew Hussars when we end up gaming . Cool that you got a game in with your husband, I'm hoping my wife might get interested once I paint mine, too (i.e. because the models are adorable / etc).

A local player also just emailed the warmachine group about Dropzone, so there's starting to be some buzz. Be sure to post up how it is if you do get to go check it out.

@RiTides, will do for Hussars and Dropzone.

Back to painting! Here is a test model for the Mouse Conscript paint...



Of course I need to base him, but I like how his face turned out. The hands are a little weird looking, so I was thinking about scrounging up some arrows-in-hand from my Goblins or something...

1) The face is amazing! Looks just like the inspiration picture

2) I totally agree about putting something in the "carebear" hand.

Other than that, I think it's the best mouse conscript I've seen. From my few demo games, they also seemed devastating in-game.

RiTides wrote: From my few demo games, they also seemed devastating in-game.

Like the Otter Ashigaru, they are fantastic until a gentle breeze hits them.

Thanks RiTides!

So I pulled out my night gobbo bits and threw this on. I had to chop off the arm and glue on the hand. Sorry about the poor pic, I wanted to get this up before crashing for the night.



I'm still working on base coating the rest of the conscripts. I think my tutorial will be of the sword-and-board configuration...

Brilliant paint job! And i really like subtle conversion.

Thanks Casey! So it took longer than I expected, but I finally completed the paint on the Mouse Conscripts... basing to be done!



Here is a detail shot of a swordmouse

They look quite disciplined! Adding the quiver to the mouse' hand was a nice touch, and mixes them up a bit. The real challenge would be to make a left-handed archer, or a right-handed swordsman

I think this was still quite fast! Do you have a faction and point level in mind for when we play in 2 weekends' time? I had assumed Vandlands vs Vandalands, but at this rate you might have a few options to choose from for your own.

Looks great!

RiTides wrote:They look quite disciplined! Adding the quiver to the mouse' hand was a nice touch, and mixes them up a bit. The real challenge would be to make a left-handed archer, or a right-handed swordsman

Yes, true.

RiTides wrote:I think this was still quite fast! Do you have a faction and point level in mind for when we play in 2 weekends' time? I had assumed Vandlands vs Vandalands, but at this rate you might have a few options to choose from for your own.

I have no idea! I've only played once, and that was using the starter rules and warbands. If you have a preference, I'm good with anything. Really I could just bring everything I have, and hey, if other people want to try it out, well...

Edit - And, thanks Cyporiean!

These keep getting better. The face on that sword mouse is A+.

Thanks Zygrot. They turned out better than I expected. The painting was really surprising... I'll write up the tutorial and you'll see what I mean.

Basing, done! I did paint around the base rims, but not until after I took these pics.

Lancers!


Next is either Juan de Brisica or the Capybara Capitan.

I've been reading the RPG and I think I'm going to try to freehand a white rose onto Juan's shield... And also include white flowers on his base.

Basing looks great, nice and varied... looks like they just marched out of a forest.

The lancers are probably my favorite models of the entire range, other than the hamster berserkers... that'll be a really nice group together with the archers.

Did you have to do any pinning for the long tails or the like?

No pinning at all. Things seem to hold together really well. I actually have been carrying the lancers around by their tails with no problems. I'm not sure how long that will last!

Here are some more detailed shot of the lancers... and also the rose on Juan's shield. I was going for the classic iconographic English style rose. But I'm not sure if this is coming through correctly. If it is no bueno, I can start over and do a modern blooming white rose bud...






Automatically Appended Next Post:
After further review and input, the previous rose was looking more daisy like. Here is take 2!

I like the take 2 rose much better! It looks great

Thanks RiTides! I put some blue behind it to try to make it stand out more. I'm not 100% on the execution. I wanted a bit more depth, but I think for now I'll need to leave it be.

Well, it has been a long week. I've finally completed Juan! Now that I'm looking in these pics, the helmet is not translating well. The helmet is an animal face shape with some frills on the head. I painted the frills gold. But they just aren't clear. I'll have to go back and turn them steely, that would be better. The helm has eyeglass / safety goggles so I painted the lenses green to make them contrast a bit.



Next is the Capybara Capitan, then on to Aquitar!

My Aquitar warband was one of the first things I bought for Brushfire. I primed them white because I wanted nice bright clean colors. So I painted them with basecoats, then washed with Devlan Mud... but the mud was bad, or my rinse water was. The wash turned whitish-grey in the pool areas where it was supposed to be darkest. Plus, paint wouldn't stick well to the flat areas. The whole models looked dingy, ugly, poor. I was so upset I actually had to walk away from the models. I got sidetracked, and now here we are! So I am now soaking the poor things in my stripping stuff. Hopefully by tomorrow they'll be ready for re-priming.

Juan looks great, and not just saying that because he is one of my characters.

He is a PITA to photograph though with that pose, you did a great job getting him on film

Thank Cyporiean! I'm debating another scheme altogether for colors on him. I like green and white for some reason... Probably that white rose thing sticking in my head.

Today I finished El Capitaine. I was going for eye-popping bright on the red/yellow stripes. My special task was to differentiate the yellow of the pants/shirt from the leopard fur. Let us see if it comes through in the photos!

Well, if you want to go for the 'Official' colors for Juan, it'd be mostly White Armor and Shield, with black under that and Red on the boots.





The Capy Capt looks good, very the very bright stripes will end up standing out from his troops. You might want to darken his hands and snout a bit to match Capybaras.

Hmm, White armor on Juan would be very easy. I could also paint the red areas white, especially on the shield. And red shoes are just awesome...

Those are a lot better capybara pics than what I found. I will definitely revisit El Capitaine's fur colors!

Edit- stupid autocorrect


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on progress to date... we're about half way to my original deadline. Here is where we are as of today!

Axony - Complete
- Warband (Heavy Brigadier, 2 Bull Regulars, 1 Kernish Terrier)

Vandalands - Complete
- Warband (rat lord, 1 hamster berserker, 3 rat raiders)
- Hamster Berserkers (4 hamsters)
- Rat raiders (4 rats)

Mare-Civitas - Complete
- Warband (Capybara Capitaine, 3 Lancers, 2 Mouse conscripts)
- Mouse Conscripts (5 mice)
- Exemplar - Juan of Brisica

Aquitar - in progress
- Warband (Mole Tactician, Badger at Claw, 3 Weasel Fusiliers)
- 5 mongoose legionnaires
- 2 gopher engineers

Ribenguo - not started yet
- 1 Kunoichi
- 5 Otter Ashigaru
- 5 Fox shinobi
- 5 Tanuki Samurai

The reason I'm doing this... this weekend I got more Brushfire goodies! For the new stuff, I'll have to set another target date. Probably end of August so I can be ready for the (as currently expected) September Scyzantine release. I'll want to be all clear with mammals when the reptiles arrive!

Adding to the queue:
Terrier Squad (5 terriers)
Devon Rex Squad (5 Devons)
Bull Reg Squad (5 Bulls)
Fusilier Squad (5 weasels)
Hussar Squad x 3 (9 kiwis + their shrew riders)
Civitan Marines Squad (3 capybara)
Badger-At-Claw Squad (5 badgers)
Vandalands warband #2
Aquitar Warband #2

Phew that is a lot of minis. Fortunately I am arranging them all on my bookshelves as I complete them.

I hope you might consider slipping a shrew hussar or 2 in ahead of some other models... really looking forward to seeing what you do with them!

Juan is fantastic, although I think your comment about making the frills of the helmet silver is a good idea.

My wife is going to come for our game this weekend . I may actually have her play and just coach her through / act as rules guide (I've only had a few demos but will try to go through the rulebook later this week).

I'm afraid she has to do some Aquitar next, as they will be on display at Gencon.

Aquitar is coming along very quickly... I may be done Weds unless I totally choke.

RiTides I do have a Hussar built and ready to paint next. I couldn't resist. I mean, technically I can't call him a Carabineer, but he's still Aquitar-ish enough. Then I'll move over to the Aquitar Mongoose Legionnaires...

I'm looking forward to meeting Mrs. Tides! Mr. Gyps is planning on helping and/or playing, too. BTW, we won't be able to make it to the store till around 2ish (Sat morning errands, ugh). I hope that is OK?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here is WIP of the Badger-at-Claw... I've only been detailing the face so far.

So I got nothing done last night. I have really been flummoxed by these Aquitar models. If I go too bright, the colors look flat. If I overshade, the colors look dingy. Ugh.

I've decided I'm going to wetblend in all the shadows and highlights for the blue areas. That will take longer, but may get me over this hump. Since the blue seems to draw the eye the most, I'm hoping it will do the trick. I am also going to do some weathering on the badger claws... Make 'em look mean.

You Badger makes mine look like Gak!

Beautiful minis man, top notch work.

Agreed these look fantastic. I wish money wasnt so tight, so I could afford to jump into this game with both feet

KingCracker wrote:Agreed these look fantastic. I wish money wasnt so tight, so I could afford to jump into this game with both feet

Only $35 to get started

Dont remind me If I didnt have summer taxes lingering around the corner Id probably hop to it.