Resurgence, brotherscott style

I have to admit I am very happy MK II Warmachine is here. The cards come out this week, and there is even a midnight release at the FLGS (Favorite Local Game Store). I will wait until Wednesday to get my Mercenary deck. Wait. I said Mercenary. What is going on with the Protectorate player? Well, I like Mercenaries as well.They offer a fun option, and when you win with Mercs, the victory just seems that much sweeter.

This is what I have come up with:

Magnus the Traitor (Most Wanted)

-Mangler

-Renegade (Zach)

-Renegade (Tom)

Steelhead Halberdiers (10)

Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (3)

24 out of 25 points.

The Renegades cost 1 less each, and since I have two units of Steelheads, the Halberdiers get Advanced Move, as well as being able to place a large base and two small based wreck markers prior to army set up and starting with Magnus’ upkeep spells on models in his battlegroup.

I have a pretty good idea of how this will all work, One Renegade will get Snipe (+4′ RNG), and the Mangler will get Temper Metal (+2 ARm, immune to continuous effects). Blur ends up on the Steelheads to protect them from ranged attacks, and the Heavy Cav will either back the Halberdiers up or provide a flanking force, depending on what I face across the table.  In the games I have played Magnus has held up reasonably well, but I know there are players and armies I am not going to like facing, so I do not think I have an over the top list, I just have options.

Moving up to 35 points, I am looking at filling out the Heavy Cavalry and adding a minimum unit of Boomhowler & Company. Since Resurgence is a Prime release event, only character and character units from Prime (Boomhowler & Co., Eiryss, Reinholdt, and Herne & Jonne) will be allowed in the 25 and 35 point levels. Not a huge advantage, but I am looking to their medium bases to block line of sight to Magnus, and for them to be more of a second wave/ bodyguard unit for the boss.

Up at the 50 point level, I fill out Boomhowler & Co., add Stannis Brocker, and a Mule. I think this gives me a lot of flexibility, and allows for me to play timed turns without a lot of rushing (limiting mistakes). The Mule is there to back up the Mangler, and to have a place for Snipe to go after the Renagades have shot their Obliterator Rockets.

We will see how it all shakes down on Sunday.

Magnus will forgo the Talon to include another Renagade to help Zach the Renegade.

Tom, the second Renegade, thus making the Renegades of Funk.

I could field a fully painted army if I can get Stannis and the Cavalry painted this week. No promises, but I will see what I can do.

Thanks for checking in-

brotherscott

Something just for fun

Once in a while it is nice to get back into the painting groove and do something for fun, or for an LGS painting contest. The theme for August is “Rhymes with Orange.” Yeah, OK. I have had my eye on the Reaper Skydiver for a while, and along with finishing the Farrow Bone Grinders (Hordes Minions- Privateer Press) recently, I sat down and finished this fairly simple model in a relatively short amount of time.

Just for fun, and to see how fast I can paint.

free fall

better shot of the base

Head on, I think I even got the eyes right...

The base was a lot of fun to do. I had many suggestions from friends and onlookers. Thanks guys… This way seemed the most rational, and having never jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, pure imagination as far as what one would see doing such a thing.

Thanks for checking in-

scott

Bone Grinders….

A few weeks back a fellow gamer, good friend, and very good painter approached me and asked if I would be willing to paint a small unit of Bone Grinders. He said he didn’t want to paint them, and had nothing in his collection painted by yours truly. Nothing special, no hurry, and he would finish the bases. I wanted him to have them by PAX, so I worked on them a little bit at a time over the last week or so.

Not much different between the Leader and the trooper models. I did give two of them orange arm bands to fit the paint scheme of the army they will be fielded in.

They were a lot of fun to paint, and have me considering picking up a unit.

Thanks for checking in-

scott

Two days in a row….

I did post a version of this on the Privateer Press forums. I figure it wouldn’t hurt to get something else up here on GhettoKore, since my summer job seems to be slacking (the pay kinda sucks, but I am having fun).

As part of a wedding gift a few months back, I offered to paint the groom’s Mariner, which he recieved as 1/2 of a wedding gift. The other half was a Shadowhorn for the bride. Jen already posted pics of El Cabra Loco, so I figured I should follow suit, and since the pics have been uploaded to the computer after staying in the camera for a few weeks, I think the “seasoning” time has been long enough.

My instructions were to paint the Mariner anything but red. The couple has “verdi” in their name, the Mariner is a nautical ‘jack red for Port, green for Starboard…  so green it was. Being nautical also meant a decent amount of brass, and maybe some tarnish. Being a sailor at one time, I know good sailors don’t let their vessels fall into bad repair, even if they are pirates. Bad repair means it will not work when you need it to. Also, one of the groom’s favorite ‘casters in Broadsides Bart. How could I not follow this through?

Without further ado:

It was a lot of fun to paint, and makes me wonder why so many of my own ‘jacks are not painted.

The story does have a happy ending, as the groom was pleased with his new Mariner.

Thanks for checking in-

scott

Another brother scott posting-

OK, it may have been too long already, but I am seemingly busy (mostly playing games and holding on to the top spot on the Call to Arms Tour ladder). I have been painting and making terrain as well. I even have some commission work done, and managed to finish the Trencher unit in June. I haven’t (obviously) been keeping up in the blogosphere, though I have been taking pictures and getting a few articles ready for publication here.
I admit that I have been pretty lazy about actually getting any writing done, but in the next few days I will be posting updates and goings on for last month or so.
We will start with an easy one today:

A few folks have mentioned their Sili-coil tanks get pretty dirty and they aren’t able to get the coil out to properly clean the tank and the coil. Clean water and a clean tank are very important for keeping brushes clean and making sure our paints stick to the models without any extra, well, stuff.
I let my tank get this dirty on purpose. I painted a few things and let it sit for about a day or so.

OK, it isn’t filthy. Just has some floaters and not any real color. It bothered me to let this sit.
First thing is to rinse the tank out. I use the hottest water my hands can stand.
The trick is to flip the coil upside down. I manage this by pressing on one side of the coil. I have rather large hands, so getting a finger on the other side and flipping the coil can be tricky (it is also trickier trying this with one hand and using a camera in the other. Two hands do work best).

Since the coil is a corkscrew of sorts, spin the coil out of the tank, you will need to use a little pressure to get the main part out of the tank. Don’t worry too much about bending the coil up, it goes back into shape pretty easy. Also, do watch out for the ends as they are sharp and can poke you.

I take a regular nylon brush and scrub the coil, and using hot water and dish soap, scrub out the tank. Rinse the tank and coil thoroughly, and if you are not going to use it right away, let it air dry.

Putting a coil tank back together is the reverse of taking one apart. It might be tricky at first, but after a few times it will become part of the routine. I have two tanks at my desk, one for metallic paints and one for regular acrylics. I take them apart and clean them about once a week as a precaution (and if I got lazy or tired and didn’t rinse them out after a session).

To keep the tanks from getting truly nasty, change out your water often and rinse them after each painting session. I have even started using a clean water container to double rinse my brushes between paints. It does seem to make a difference.

On a side note, I wasn’t able to hold onto the top spot in the Call to Arms league, and my Khador playing 15 year old son took top honors and played really well. I did manage to take second and win a medal, but at the moment I do not remember what it was. So much for the hard work.

Maybe something to help when pinning…

I picked up the Privateer Press P3 video a while back, and watched it as I sat and painted. Well, OK, I watched while my paint dried.

One of the assembly tricks suggested when pinning was to use “blue tack” or “sticky tack” to align the holes  for easier line up. I thought I would share that here as well. Sticky Tack can be found at hardware and department stores for the most part, and it is pretty inexpensive. It is used to hang posters (where you can’t use nails or don’t want to use tape) and temporarily hold things together. Good stuff.

I was asked very kindly (and I offered) to assemble a unit of Steelhead Halbardiers to avoid frustration on the part of the owner of said models. I had done this before, and it would be my 3rd time doing so.

I assembly lined everything, putting legs and bodies on bases and figuring out which parts were going to go to which models. If you haven’t assembled Halbardiers, they come in many pieces and can be a royal pain to get together. Some of the bodies are apart from the legs, only 2 of them have join markings, and I pinned those with ease. The other 4 models do not have any markings, and can be a challenge to get the pins lined up. The other alternative is to green stuff the models together and use the ZAP CA (the pink bottle) to get in the cracks and make a good join. This was not the case for me. I pinned them.

Using the trick mentioned in the P3 video, it became much easier.

I drilled the hole in the torso of the model, then rolled up a small ball of sticky tack and put it between the legs and torso of the models and pressed them together (much like you would green stuff). One quick note is that you want to wet the side with the hole already drilled, or it will stick everything together and you will lose the location you want to drill. The stuff really sticks things together, though it is temporary.

The sticky tack in the middle

When I separated the pieces, I was left with a small indent where the hole needed to be, and was able to get the pin holes aligned without much of  a problem. Another note is that you want to start the hole and then remove the blue stuff. It will stick to your pin bit and the metal you drill out of the hole, making it unusable for the next model. That is the other beauty, you can re-use the same piece for as many models as you need to pin. Pretty cost effective.

now I know where to drill

What isn’t obvious in the picture above is that I got the torso backwards. I noticed this after I had drilled my hole. Luckily, this was the second model out of the four, and I was able to use the technique on the next one to get the pin holes to line up.

The rest of the assembly went fairly quick, and I had thought about pinning the arms and heads,  but decided instead to green stuff and ‘pink’ glue them, which does hold up well in most cases.

I went on to assemble a Gnarlhorn Satyr using the blue tack method to align my pin holes and had no more troubles all day.

Hope this helps someone out there. The P3 video is pretty good overall, kind of nice to see that I have learned some things over the past few years. I am anxious to see what they bring us in volume 2.

Thanks for checking in-

scott

Terrain, part deux

OK, a little later than promised, but here is what I have been doing with the water and forest terrain pieces I left off with last time. I had to let these season just a little bit and get the materials I wanted to use. I left off with the forest pieces at a real easy spot- I had cut them out, shaped them and gave them a once over with some green camouflage spray paint. I wanted to make these a little different, so I added dirt flock first, followed by dark green static grass. This becomes the part where I start feeling a little like Bob Ross (the “happy trees” painter). These are my forests, so the dirt will live where I want it to, and the grass will go on around it.

Dirt flock on a 6" x 8" forest.

Dark Green static grass, 6" x 8" forest

I left off here to let the glue dry and set the static grass. I will add undergrowth for the next step and then lay on a coat of Matte Varnish to help protect the pieces. Remember, there are 4 each of these, 4″x6″ and 6″x8″. I am only showing one for ease of demonstration. The end result will look something like this:

Almost done...

Where the forest pieces were easy, the water terrain pieces have become a little more labor intensive. Of course, this is all personal choice, and I am trying to deliver a quality product to the client.
After letting the paint dry, I ran a bead of tacky glue around the edges of the water feature that I had painted brown, and where I wanted my little islands to be.

Tacky glue.....

I then put down a layer of basing material for my dirt. Since I am using railroad modeler’s water effect, I need something to keep the water in and on the piece.

4 water terrain pieces, basing material glued in place

After the basing material dries, I am ready to add bigger rocks, flock, and static grass, pretty much in that order.

bigger rocks added

rocks and flock

... and finally static grass.

After everything had dried, I threw 2 coats of matte varnish on the water pieces. “Why?” you may ask, well, after laying down the water effect the last time I did this, I shot 2 coats of matte varnish and a coat of Dullcote and completely ruined the water effect. Even gloss varnish didn’t help. Those were the ones I donated to the LGS’ terrain stock, and I wanted to see what I could do for fairly cheap.
OK, back to work. I let the pieces dry in the warm sun ( I am glad summer is close), so they were good and dry. I should stress that working with the “water” should be done in a well ventilated area, and follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Here comes the tricky part...

The “water” is almost like glue, but pours pretty quick. I very carefully poured a small amount all around the piece, making sure not to get on the basing material, and hopefully not getting too much on the piece. I rotated and flipped the pieces around to get good coverage, and filled in where needed with a toothpick. This stuff will shred a paintbrush, and the toothpicks were more accurate for what I needed. The end result of this step looks something like this:

after water effect, I had to get the light in there as a reflection.

The only thing left to do is to let the water terrain pieces sit for 24 hours for the effect to set up.
As far as the forests go, I have some rocks and undergrowth to get down and I will be able to seal them. Since my client is a Circle player, I am going to make one of the bigger forests up to fit his faction. A fire ring and autumn flock are on the agenda for that piece.
I will post completed pictures either Tuesday or Wednesday, I am looking to deliver the pieces Wednesday.

Thanks for checking in-

scott

Terrain?

I had a request from a local gamer for some of the terrain I built for the last C2A tour. He wanted 4 each of the 4″x6″ and 6″x8″ forests, and the 4″x8″ water feature.
I thought I would document some of the progress and a little of the “how to” involved. These are pretty simple, and I learned some things after the first set I made, so these are going pretty quick.
I picked up a few sheets of sheet styrene (.75mm is fairly sturdy and easy to cut with household scissors) and cut out the pieces I was going to need for the appropriate size of terrain. I ended up with 4 extra pieces of 4″x6″ cards that I will use for more terrain for the LGS, probably wait until I know what will be needed for the new tour. I then rounded the corners and added some curves to get them looking like this:

4"x8" water feature, before paint

The next step for the water features was to throw a blue foundation coat on one side.

Blue foundation coat

I then took a brown foundation around the edges where I intend to glue down the basing material.

Brown foundation around the edges.

Throwing down the base coats

The next step was to lay down a coat of Cygnar Blue Base where the deeper water will be, and Meridius Blue in the shallow parts. I allowed for the basing material I will be putting in as islands.
At this point I am letting the paint dry. The intent is to build up the basing ballast around the edges enough so I can use a water effect to give the terrain a little realism. I will of course add flock and bigger rocks to give some variation and personality to the pieces.

The forests are pretty easy as well. Having already cut them out to the needed sizes, I rounded the corners and added curves much like the water features.

4"x6" forest terrain, ready for paint.

Here is something that I learned from last time using foundation green paint, it doesn’t cover well, and I get bored painting the same thing. So I got creative (and I didn’t want to paint 8 pieces of green terrain), and went to the local hardware shop and picked up a can of camouflage green spray paint. It wasn’t raining today, so I headed outside, laid down some newspaper, and proceeded to paint the quick and easy way.

Painted forest bases.

The next step will be to apply flock to the forests. I will be using a mixture of static grass, dirt and underbrush looking flock, and some bigger rocks.
I will either work on this tomorrow (I am itching to get some MKII games in) or over the weekend, but I will update my progress and hopefully have some finished product to show off.

Thanks for checking in-

scott

Getting caught up, and getting on board…

Well, here it is, the end of March. I haven’t been good about posting WIP because I haven’t been feeling the urge to paint. I think the painting bug is back. The key is variety for me. The commission Cygnar Trenchers and ‘jacks have been my bane this last month, I did manage to finish the Sharpshooter and may even have the rest of the unit done by tomorrow, which would probably make the Kenny very happy. I need to get more ‘jacks done for him, and I am glad he is a patient client.

I did manage to get something started and to the inking stage pretty quick, like yesterday. I was able to pick up a 3rd Nomad for fairly cheap ($10), and decided the theme for them will be ‘old cars’, namely the ’55- ’57 Chevrolet Nomads. I started ’57 yesterday, here is where he sits currently:

Nomad

… and the Trenchers:

Kenny's Trenchers

Just to change things up and make the Nomad look a little dirty, I used the Citadel Devlan Mud wash, and was pretty happy with it overall. Badab Black may have been a better choice, but I am not going back and doing it again.

The other part of this is about going Merc for Summer Rampage. I am all for it. Of course, I think I have just about everything Merc one can have, and I am especially full of Pirates and Privateers, though I have a fondness for running 4 Star, and sometimes even Searforge contracts (since I do have Brun & Lug).

The last Summer Rampage was a lot of fun, and I am glad that Privateer reduced the number of tours in the Call to Arms League so we as players could recover and not suffer from burnout. Four 5 week tours and a Summer Rampage plus the rest of the organized play and events makes it a lot easier to hit the proverbial gaming wall. I am glad they made it 3 tours this year, plus Summer Rampage, and then this coming month is the Mark II BETA, so we will have our hands full. The beauty of Summer Rampage and playing mercs will be that I will have a good amount of time to paint my Mercenary forces, as long as I can keep up on the Band of Bodgers II Circle army I am painting.

Hey, well…..

So March has come in like a Lion, as far as being healthy. The snow was interesting, but it hadn’t slowed me down near as much as catching the crud. My youngest picked up a case of strep, and it looks like after fighting the crud, I may have picked it up. As you might be able to guess, I have been sleeping a lot more than painting. I am glad I went light on models for the painting challenge. The trenchers still need highlights, but I managed to get a few more base coats down on the Cygnar ‘jacks. Still haven’t touched the Protectorate stuff, but they have been patiently waiting in the case to be finished.

I will write/ post more as I get to it. No promises.

Oh, yeah, the Bastions are f*ing awesome. 2 units for me please.