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I took a break from painting those Crossbowmen to finish off my Maelstrom's Edge set. I've had about 8-10 models to finish for the Medge set for a long time. It was well past time I finished them. (Huge photo dump )
It got a bit rushed toward the end. A test: I won't point out which ones, but if you notice I have to go back and put some time into them Now for the hard part, tearing people away from playing 40k at the LGS to play this...
In other news... A month or two ago, FFG announced that they are cutting their partnership with 40k. Which means ffg games in the 40k universe will be discontinued as off feb 2017. This isn't particularly good news, as I did (probably still do) enjoy the conquest card game. I dont see anyone playing Conquest anymore, which sucks, so I decided to sell my Conquest stuff. I'm going to take a chunk of the money I got from all my conquest stuff and buy the Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower game. So that's going to be my next project. Painting all my RnF dark elves makes me want to have a nice painting project that I can stop & go on - and Silver Tower will be that.
Untill next time, Z
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2016/10/31 15:46:31
Love the black/white/purple guys. Shame about conquest, it seemed a fun game. Silver tower looks to be a great painting project; lots of varied things to to in there.
I like the whites paired with purples. Makes it seem very high tech!
Like you said, FFG is splitting with GW. Does that mean the Deathwatch RPG campaign stuff is getting cancelled too? I still haven't bought those. It looked really fun IMO.
If you can't believe in yourself, believe in me! Believe in the Dakka who believes in you!
Definitely one of the best Merge sets that I have seen painted up. I really like the yellowy/orange scheme on the Contractors. The off white dudes are cool too, must have been a right pain to paint.
@WarbossDakka: Yeah, everything FFG does in the 40k/fantasy universe is going OOP in Feb. Grab it while you can.
Thanks for the comments on the MEdge stuff.
Another shelf in my cabinet that is fully painted. Although, I doubt I'm going to find someone to play it with. I will keep trying, however!
Finished off the Xbowmen for Ninth Age!
Not the most flattering angle, but the best of a terrible batch of pictures. Will most likely retake a few next time I'm set up for pictures.
I'm excited.
To build. To paint. To play.
I've already started to put the heroes together. Man, they are incredible models. I laughed out loud when building the dwarf - he has a multipart beard!
I'm not sure what's next with my Fantasy stuff. I'm on a build/base/prime spree at the moment. Fixing up the bits and pieces that have broken and magnetising the stuff that isn't yet.
I'll probably paint some light cavalry, and bide my time before my next block of troops.
Made a start!
I'm pretty happy with the skintone. Going to go back to the fur, I dislike it. Really light brown fur, or black fur? I think at the moment, it's too close in colour to the flesh and leather boots and it just gets lost in those colours.
I had some 9th age supply drops today / yesterday. I'm able to bash out a bunch of magnetised movement trays - will probably do that today.
Take care!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/11/11 13:11:27
Nice start on the chief there. Love the face and the scar.
I agree that the fur is a little to close to the skin/boots tone. If you are going with black hair, I’d got a a light beige on the fur. You could probably get by with just drybrushing it over what you have now to lighten them up considerably. My main concern at that point would be if you go too far, you might stray into the bleached bone shade that presumably the skulls (all over him) are going to be painted. Another option would be to take it red. A vermin fur/roan shade of reddish brown.
Ok, so I dont really know why I haven't updated this recently. A combination of reasons most likely.
But nevertheless, here is one big update to catch you up on the past month of my hobbying.
As promised, the better pics for the Crossbow men.
There are another 8 dudes off to the side, but they're basically the same as this.
I'm not sure what supply drop I made reference to in the last post. But I've got a bunch of new stuff since then.
First things first, the Tower Guard. Probably the best unit in the Dread Elves army book. Then blend other infantry with no problems what so ever.
Next up is some Fast Cavalry. I've had these guys for months now. I decided to paint them as they are almost always used in the games I play. The Dark Raiders distract and get in the way, while the Dark Acolytes (Warlocks) usually fill the role of wizard for my army.
And finally, the last of my new paint. The Kraken!
I really, really enjoyed painting this bad boy. I sat down to built it one quiet saturday afternoon, and I had to force myself to stop painting it that night. I worked on it all day! I made the finishing touches the morning after, and I love it!
That's it for the new paint. But I do have another chunk of WiPs.
That's a Hydra, more fast cav and harpies.
The Harpies are particularly frustrating to do. They are from Avatars of War. Fantastic quality, and the plastic is amazing to work with. But the joins (between the wings and body particularly) are very small. Took a while for them to stick, and they look very fragile. I forsee some wings breaking off soon. But worse than that, they don't have flying bases(!). Their sprues have the vine pattern along it (imagine a tree trunk with vines growing around it), and that is what the AoW pictures have as their flying stands. That in itself isn't terrible, but there is no place to connect the stands to the model! I've had to drill holes in the model and top of the sprue to fit a metal rod between the two to hold them together.
No idea how it will look at the end. Hopefully not too bad.
That's about it for The Ninth Age progress. The Silver Tower is still on my table. Making very slow progress on it. The Gaunt Summoner has 1 layer of blue down. And the Chieftain is almost done.
There are a handful more details that I want to pick out on him before I call it. My boardgaming group have decided to put Silver Tower on the table when we're done with Arcadia Quest. I hoping to have at least the hero characters finished by then.
That's about it, the past month. The rest of this afternoon, I'll probably prime the Hydra. I know that beauty is going to be the next thing I paint. Maybe I'll get some Silver Tower done, too.
Thanks for checking in!
Z
Love it! The guys look great ranked up, the fast cav exudes speed, and the paint work on the kraken is amazing.
The one thing I need to be critical about is the join lines on the monster. It really catches the eye where the body halves meet and the heads join. Not sure how easy those would be to GS/file, but I feel sometime might want to be done if you do another, or a similar model.
The harpies look fun. Why are those posts there? Not from a practical POV, but you have sticks coming out of the ground on a regular basis, which is a little odd thematically. It looks like an old fence line, or grove of trees that have been cut down. If this was 40k, I’d say put scraps of barbed wire on them. That way it would look like part of an old fortification that engineers had cleared to allow troops to pass. I’d just like to see them be a little something more then just a way to elevate the birds. Tie into the base better.
Thanks guys!
On a whim, I decided to scroll down on the home page, and found a pic of my IF Land Speeders there. Woo! The pic has a painting and coolness rating of 8 and 8.5 respectively.
@Nev. You are right about the join lines. But honestly I dont think I'm going to fix it for the next one (already primed, so its a step back). It's noticable from a front on look, but at anything more than 1 foot away it gets lost in the folds of the skin. I appreciate the criticism, though.
Pic below is of the harpies from AoW. No flying stem, per se.
I think I'll put some slate down to bulk out the base a bit more, hopefully make it look less 'stick out of the ground'.
You're definitely right about the bases, it seems they used sticks/trunks instead of stands for the sake of using them. Maybe a bit of a mound around them will make them seem less bland.
If you can't believe in yourself, believe in me! Believe in the Dakka who believes in you!
2016/12/15 23:05:25
Subject: Charting Zambro's Hobby - The Big Update!
Hey guys, Hope everyone is doing ok!
It's the big day tomorrow, and I've just sat down to have some hobby time. I've still got to wrap presents, but I'll do that later with a beer near by. For now, my sights are set on these 10 fellas.
For the most part, it's a paint-wash-highligh job. Which I'm ok with, seeing as there are another 20 to go for the unit. As long as it goes on clean, they'll look good on the TT. Just have to get the hair, face and gold parts then they're good.
I'm also eyeballing the Silver Tower Chieftain. He's been WiP for too long now. Time to get him finished and have done with it.
Over the next few weeks, I want to spend a lot of time hobbying. I'm aiming to get those Corsairs all done by the New Year - mainly for a bump in number of models painted this year. Also to get them out of the freaking way! (They were part of my original Dark Elves purchase, almost a year ago...). Followed by some Silver Tower Characters.
Plus, some games would be awesome too. There is a 'fun', 'casual' 1 day 40k event with my club next week too with a trophy for the winner. It appears that everyone has agreed on fluffy lists (woop woop!) with a mandatory written fluff piece briefly explaining the army / theme. I'm really tempted to dust off the IF and go. The only problem is the £5 entry cost (covers trophy and goes to the club). While in itself it's a fairly insignificant amount, I didn't enjoy 40k last time I played, and I dont want to go and not enjoy it and spend money on it (even if it is only a fiver). We'll see what happens. Maybe thinking up a story and writing it will inspire me to go.
Happy Christmas, everyone.
I hope you have a good few days!
Much love, Z
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/12/24 18:46:28
Aye, I've got similar last minute plans for wrapping presents. In other news, those cloaks look fantastic, especially for such a quick and dirty process.
As for that tournamemt, it should be alright as long as the lists stay "fluffy". There's bound to be one guy bringing a wraith host claiming it is fluffy, but as a majority people can stay sensible. Of course don't force yourself to do it, after all it's a hobby not a chore.
Have a good Christmas mate!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/12/24 18:59:14
If you can't believe in yourself, believe in me! Believe in the Dakka who believes in you!
2016/12/28 13:34:59
Subject: Charting Zambro's Hobby - Now with a side of Corsairs! (And Silver Tower...)
Hello everyone!
Hope you had an enjoyable past few days.
I have gotten a lot done. Finished up 20 corsairs. Here they are:
I'm feeling a little burnt out on these fellas, honestly. I played a few games yesterday with the list that I want to take to the event in February. I really liked the list, and as these guys aren't in it, they take a lower priority to what I want to take that isn't finished (5 Harpies, 5 Fast Cav, Lord & BSB - and maybe 2 more chariots).
Also, first Hero for Silver Tower finished!
Happy he is done. He was sitting on the WiP shelf for too long.
I just finished priming the last 16 minis for the Silver Tower set. So everything is primed and ready to go. Just have to throw some hours into painting it.
I now have Descent: Journeys in the Dark and some expansions for it. Its one of my favourite games to play! I'm going to start painting some of the Lieutenant figures for it, and as soon as I pin down my friends for a campaign, I'll be painting their Hero figures too!
I have 1 (possibly 2) games of T9A lined up for tomorrow evening. Against Orcs and Goblins and possibly a rematch against Beast Herds. Fingers crossed I do alright. I'm still in the stage of "new game system, new army, getting spanked (almost) every game".
Hobby wise, it's been an interesting year for me. I stopped playing 40k, gone back to Fantasy (T9A) and I tried (and failed) to get MEdge on the rotation at my LGS. Not to mention the board games I've been playing on the side, too!
I went back through the list of everything I've finished painting this year, and took some pictures.
The 40k stuff:
Fantasy:
MEdge:
Misc. (3 Descent lieutenants on the left, 8 minis for Spectre Ops on the right)
I finished these 3 Descent minis this past weekend.
And a brief list of the stuff that I dont have anymore for one reason or another:
Tyranid Get Started boxset
Bunker & Comms link
EC marines & praetor
238 minis of various sizes (ranging from GEQ to vindicators to bunkers).
I'm quite happy with that number, actually. Especially when I had a 4 month break while I was away over the summer.
I've spent a total of £1386 on hobby related stuff in 2016. That's about £200 less than I spent in 2015. Which is good. I averaged £115 monthly on hobby purchases (my self imposed, absolute max is £150/month). So I'm happy on that front. Unsupprisingly, Fantasy was the biggest spend, at 38%. Followed by hobby related stuff (paint, brushes etc.) then 40k. At 28% and 22% respectively. Conquest and other board games came in at less than 10% each.
I also kept a reasonably good track of the games I've played. In 40k, I finished this year with a 11:14:1 win:loss:draw. And in The Ninth Age, I have 13:18:3 win:loss:draw. I'm happy with those numbers.
But enough about last year, here are my goals for this year to come. I've been thinking them over for the past week or so. I'm fairly happy with them being achieveable.
1. Finish painting Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower.
2. Paint the Heroes, Lieutenants and Master Monsters for Descent: Journeys in the Dark.
3. Before making any purchases, paint an equivalent number of models already owned.
4. Have a hobby budget of £100 a month.
5. Participate in 4 Ninth Age events.
6. Finish my Imperial Fists battle company.
7. Update my blog atleast once a week.
Rationale:
Spoiler:
1. It's not a primary game for me. And I know if it isn't something I focus on, it'll slip into a corner somewhere and I'll forget about it. It took me a month to get around to finishing the Darkoath Chieftain, that sort of speed isn't sustainable for a 52 mini set. And with 52 miniatures in the set, if I average 1 a week, it's done by next year.
2. I want to play Descent as much as possible. It's one of my favourite games. But it has way too many miniatures to paint, so I settled on the important ones to try and finish.
3. This one keeps me honest, making sure I finish more than I buy. I'll be keeping track of numbers of models I finish, and deducting from that when I get more.
4. I wasn't far off this one this year, anyway. I think it's a responsible move to reign in spending a little bit. But I'm making a little caveat: If I sell hobby related stuff, I can recycle that money into the hobby guilt free.
5. I love T9A at the moment, and I'm preparing to do a Team Tournament the first weekend of Feb. I'd love to do more, and a goal of 1 event per quarter is more than achieveable.
6. I thought long and hard about this one... I've always wanted a battle company, and I'm half way there right now. I'm going to stick with it, and make it a goal to put more Imperial Fists across my paint desk this year. And when I'm ready to come back to 40k, I can take my 5th Company Marines to WAR!
7. I got a little be lax with this one this year. Time to get back on track with that.
There are my goals sorted. And recently painted minis shown. That's it for me tonight.
Will update again later in the week.
Good work! 238 minis is a massive amount of effort.
Sounds like you have a plan for the upcoming year. Have you crunched the numbers to see how many minis you have to do? How many more marines for the company, how many are left in silver tower/descent? How much more do you have for your fantasy army? Just want to make sure your numbers are in the ballpark for what you did this year. You don’t want to pledge to paint 400 minis, when you didn’t get close to that this year.
Might also be a good idea to budget out the fists if there is a lot of stuff you need to buy for them. Should also earmark some funds for rules/codexes.
Happy New Year. Should be fun to see what works its way across your desk this year.
Nevelon wrote: Sounds like you have a plan for the upcoming year. Have you crunched the numbers to see how many minis you have to do? How many more marines for the company, how many are left in silver tower/descent? How much more do you have for your fantasy army? Just want to make sure your numbers are in the ballpark for what you did this year. You don’t want to pledge to paint 400 minis, when you didn’t get close to that this year.
Might also be a good idea to budget out the fists if there is a lot of stuff you need to buy for them. Should also earmark some funds for rules/codexes.
Didn't consider actually working out the numbers... 51 left in the WQ:ST. 55 IFs (30 tactical marines, 15 assault marines and 10 devastators). 28 Descent minis. It's doable, based on numbers from last year. Not sure where I stand if I factor in my Dark Elf army. Still doable, I hope.
Good point on factoring in cost, too Nev. I ventured onto the GW website today for the first time in a while. Spotted the Skyhammer Tactical Squad. Pretty good saving on the DP (or Rhinos, if you go for the BA/DA deal - you get an upgrade sprue for that chapter too). If this set is still around when I'm looking to add to the Marines, I'll get it. Estimated cost to finish the battle company: £190rrp. Call it £150 if I go to discount stores. Not too bad, if that is all I'm looking to do over a year.
Progress time:
I threw together a new BSB on foot today too.
The one I had from Mierce Miniatures, while amazing in itself, has some problems. Notably, it's disproportionate to GW Dark Elves. And the banner arm is ridiculously fragile, to the point where I stopped using the mini so I didn't need to constantly repair it. It's obvious which mini it is in this picture:
So I went through my Hydra, Dark Riders and Warlocks sprues and came up with this:
Angle and lighting are not very flattering, but it's pretty cool, imo. The body standing on the rock is the Hydra's handlers, warlock's weapon and dark riders banner. Should fit in with the army much better, along with being a lot more sturdy!
The Cardiff Team Tournament is in a month (first weekend of February), and I need to sort out my army for it. So for the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be working on my Fantasy things to get it done. I'm super excited! Our club has 3 teams of 4 going. It'll be a really good couple of days!
Here is the army that I'm taking:
It's noticable what needs to be done. The harpies need to get finished and put on their bases. The Fast Cav. needs to get finished and I need a movement tray for them. Movement trays for the skirmishers. Paint the BSB and General. And get a 7 by 3 movement tray for the Tower Guard block.
Not a massive amount, but enough to need to sit down and sort it sooner rather than later.
I've started putting washes down on the horses. Should be able to paint the rest of it after another 2-3 washes.
Oh, and I retook some a picture of the BSB.
A much better angle.
The list submission is on the 15th. I'm 99% sure this is the list I'm going with. I've had maybe 4(?) test games so far, with another couple lined up on Sunday. And a practise 'mini-event' sometime before Feb where us and another team are coming together to practise the team pairings and play.
Something about fantasy armies all ranked up on display just looks better then 40k. Probably because they are supposed to look good like that. 40k just ends up being an pic of the units you plan on putting down; fantasy is an army shot. You could see the whole thing rolling across the field as-is.
I might have said it before, but I’m amazed how far the Dark Elf range has come over the years. My best friend played them back in 5th edition, so I saw a lot of them across the table. These new sculpts are very nice, and you are doing them justice.
)
Ultramarines, 3rd Co. and friends, 16k+ 
4k 
4k Points
If you can't believe in yourself, believe in me! Believe in the Dakka who believes in you! 
The pic has a painting and coolness rating of 8 and 8.5 respectively.
Legion: Dark Angels 
