keskiviikko 14. lokakuuta 2009
Small is beautiful
A quick post to put up two more "GUardsmen". Old GW (Citadel) "Space Dwarves" plastic minis, extensively remodelled to get more varied poses. Oldies, but definitively goodies. I am a squat fan, by the way...
tiistai 13. lokakuuta 2009
Beauty, the Beast, and friends...
Intensive blogging days... More old school IG for the IG army. Mostly old GW imperial guard from the 1980s. Great stuff, with lots of character. The ogryn impersonnates a Heavy Weapon team of two guardsmen. I picked the idea from somewhere, just cannot remember at the moment where from... Ah, anyway. There you go. Pictures are dark and blurry, sorry. I need better light...
And the army's big boss, Colonel Nathaniael Shatz.
This is one superb miniature. I hope I did it justice. The sculpt is just perfect.
More to come.
And the army's big boss, Colonel Nathaniael Shatz.
This is one superb miniature. I hope I did it justice. The sculpt is just perfect.
More to come.
maanantai 12. lokakuuta 2009
Where the wild things are...
In between painting ancient Greeks, I have been busy gathering an old school IG army as well. The idea was to pick everything vaguely sci-fish that is lying in my flat AND is not a Space Marines, and make an army of it for Warhammer 40k. That means quite a lot of old school IG, some tanks, and ... that:
I am the proud owner of a few of these old beastmen. I think they are old Grenadier or Ral Parha, and I bought them about 15 years ago. The series is now re-issued by a British company called Em4 miniatures. I do not know how they do that, but the sure thing is that I bought a lot of those. These are superb miniatures, with good detail and no flash. They remind me of Bob Olley's sculpting style. If it is indeed his handywork, then this is the very best he has done. I have often had difficulties with Olley's style, but this is just great.
Those guys will be added to the IG army as riflemen. The idea is to get an abhuman-human army, with ratlings, beastmen, ogryns and the like. Here is one more painted example, and a few waiting for paint.
I am the proud owner of a few of these old beastmen. I think they are old Grenadier or Ral Parha, and I bought them about 15 years ago. The series is now re-issued by a British company called Em4 miniatures. I do not know how they do that, but the sure thing is that I bought a lot of those. These are superb miniatures, with good detail and no flash. They remind me of Bob Olley's sculpting style. If it is indeed his handywork, then this is the very best he has done. I have often had difficulties with Olley's style, but this is just great.
Those guys will be added to the IG army as riflemen. The idea is to get an abhuman-human army, with ratlings, beastmen, ogryns and the like. Here is one more painted example, and a few waiting for paint.
Some ancient greek cavalry...
Then the Athenians, when they had learned that by inquiry, were coming to the rescue, even themselves, to Marathon and ten generals were leading them, of whom the tenth was Miltiades, whose father Cimon, Stesagores’ son, it had befallen to go in exile out of Athens from Peisistratus, Hippocrates’ son.
Herodotus
Ok, let's move on to Greek cavalry. My intention is to make an army for 490 BC, the period of the battle of Marathon. With an emphasis on the defense of Athens by the forces of mostly Athens and Platae.
At this time, Greek cavalry was an extremely limited affair, mostly with lightly armed skirmishers on light horses. Osprey and other sources show a very light cavalry, and I was tempted to represent mine as Thessalian light cavalry, as can be found in the Wargames Foundry ancient Greek range (BRWGA9: LIGHT CAVALRY). Those would be lightly armed horsemen wearing a specific headgear resembling a cow-boy hat. Osprey's "The Greek and Persian Wars" has a good depiction of what I want, plate G2. The plate depicts a Thessalian light cavalryman coming from the plains of Thessaly, in the North of Greece. These were mercenaries, and wore the typical chiton loincloth and a cloak. Armament was light, mostly javelins or spears. Their hat is particularly striking, with its wide brim and small crown.
With this in mind, I was not really satisfied with the various sets I had: Hat Thessalian cavalry, Zvezda or Hat Greek cavalry, etc. They tend to represent the cavalry of Alexander the Great during his conquests of Persia and the Caucasus. This armored, heavily armed cavalrymen often wore shields, which Greek cavalrymen of the Marathon period never used.
So I took the wonderful Zvezda horses (from the Alexander's cavalry set) and mixed them with Hat and Zvezda light infantrymen, plus a few bits and bobs. The results below:
You get the idea. As an aside, the Hat Alexander's light infantry set contains a wealth of material: I will most probably use those as well for Persian light subject infantry or mercenaries. A guy with a loincloth and a spear can be a Persian, a Greek, an Egyptian or something else all the same.
One problem is the saddles: Thessalian light cavalry rode bareback, without stirrups, but their horses had mouthpieces and reins. I was wondering about filing off the saddleclothes of the Zvezda horses, but Mr. Osprey told me that these cavalrymen sometimes used a piece of cloth called an ephippion to ride on. This is great, because the soft plastic these 1/72 figures are made of tends to melt or shred if you file it. This is messy business, and I was happy to let them as such.
I will do two units of those, counting as light cavalry in the Warmaster list. For heavy cavalry, always following Osprey, I will basically represent them as hoplites on horseback, without the shields.
Ok, more later.
Cheers.
PS. A few links on Greek cavalry and ancient Greek warfare taken from the Interweb. Between that and the Osprey books you already get a lot of information. I am ashamed as to how little I actually know about certain aspects of this period. Or, to be precise, I know more about the organization of Ancient Greek societies than about their military life. Well, never too late to learn.
Herodotus
Ok, let's move on to Greek cavalry. My intention is to make an army for 490 BC, the period of the battle of Marathon. With an emphasis on the defense of Athens by the forces of mostly Athens and Platae.
At this time, Greek cavalry was an extremely limited affair, mostly with lightly armed skirmishers on light horses. Osprey and other sources show a very light cavalry, and I was tempted to represent mine as Thessalian light cavalry, as can be found in the Wargames Foundry ancient Greek range (BRWGA9: LIGHT CAVALRY). Those would be lightly armed horsemen wearing a specific headgear resembling a cow-boy hat. Osprey's "The Greek and Persian Wars" has a good depiction of what I want, plate G2. The plate depicts a Thessalian light cavalryman coming from the plains of Thessaly, in the North of Greece. These were mercenaries, and wore the typical chiton loincloth and a cloak. Armament was light, mostly javelins or spears. Their hat is particularly striking, with its wide brim and small crown.
With this in mind, I was not really satisfied with the various sets I had: Hat Thessalian cavalry, Zvezda or Hat Greek cavalry, etc. They tend to represent the cavalry of Alexander the Great during his conquests of Persia and the Caucasus. This armored, heavily armed cavalrymen often wore shields, which Greek cavalrymen of the Marathon period never used.
So I took the wonderful Zvezda horses (from the Alexander's cavalry set) and mixed them with Hat and Zvezda light infantrymen, plus a few bits and bobs. The results below:
You get the idea. As an aside, the Hat Alexander's light infantry set contains a wealth of material: I will most probably use those as well for Persian light subject infantry or mercenaries. A guy with a loincloth and a spear can be a Persian, a Greek, an Egyptian or something else all the same.
One problem is the saddles: Thessalian light cavalry rode bareback, without stirrups, but their horses had mouthpieces and reins. I was wondering about filing off the saddleclothes of the Zvezda horses, but Mr. Osprey told me that these cavalrymen sometimes used a piece of cloth called an ephippion to ride on. This is great, because the soft plastic these 1/72 figures are made of tends to melt or shred if you file it. This is messy business, and I was happy to let them as such.
I will do two units of those, counting as light cavalry in the Warmaster list. For heavy cavalry, always following Osprey, I will basically represent them as hoplites on horseback, without the shields.
Ok, more later.
Cheers.
PS. A few links on Greek cavalry and ancient Greek warfare taken from the Interweb. Between that and the Osprey books you already get a lot of information. I am ashamed as to how little I actually know about certain aspects of this period. Or, to be precise, I know more about the organization of Ancient Greek societies than about their military life. Well, never too late to learn.
- Some wikipedias on Ancient Greek warfare and Miltiades, the Greek commander in Marathon.
- A superb website full of black and white pictures related to Greece and especially ancient Greek sites. You will also find there the writtings of Herodotus, especially his depiction of the battle of Marathon. Very inspiring stuff...
- Robert E. Gaebel's "Cavalry Operations in the Ancient Greek World" and a book review of it giving you a good road map through the book
- A forum entry with drawings of hoplite shields' symbols (very useful for painters)
- And, because I can, the best book I have read so far on Ancient Greek civilization: L'aventure grecque, Pierre Leveque. Yes, it is in French.
sunnuntai 11. lokakuuta 2009
Something old, something new...
New projects here, after a long and pleasant summer hiatus. I even got to play my robots once, in a 750 pts tournament over a week-end. It was the first time I played since April, so needless to say I was beaten several times during the week-end. Good games, though.
However, there has been much else going on in the last weeks: Imperial Guard for Warhammer 40k, Greeks and Persians for Warmaster Ancient, a group of Mongoose Publishing ducks for Runequest (a commercial link, sorry, I didn't find them from Mongoose's website), some Gauls and Romans for playing with GW's Lord of the Rings ruleset... Finally, an army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle... a special, odd one... green, for the most part. With robots. And giant constructs... Niak niak niak...
But let's start with Greeks and Persians for Warmaster Ancient Battles, the "operational" system of Warhammer Historical for 6-15 mm. I used to play Warmaster Fantasy version with Dwarves, and appreciated it a lot. The rules' most important notion is command: each leader has a command value, and you test for the capacity of these leaders to have their orders followed by their troops. Without orders the troops can act instinctively, fleeing, assaulting, etc. The game system is one of the best Games Workshop produced, and certainly one of the most elegant. It has problems, for example with recoils (troops under fire do not die easily, but they tend to get distressed and recoil. This is often very messy when you have lots of units together in a tight spot) and like Warhammer it tends to end up with a big bash in the middle of the field. It is a good game though, very well presented and easy to grasp. It is also a one-book game system: no need to buy codices or army books: lists, rules, everything fits in one book.
The Ancient and Fantasy versions share lots in common, but have a few differences. Especially, the historical version limits the number of orders you can give to the same unit or groups of units, hence limiting the number of time this unit will be able to move in the same turn. The historical version also gives a bigger role to skirmishers. Of course it still is a GW-product, so the "historicity" of the lists for example is more often than not debatable. But in the same way as in Warhammer Ancient Battles, the designers are very clear on that: the point is to play Warmaster with an historical feel, not to "re-enact" historical battles or aim at more than general accuracy. If you are ready to keep the little historian in you repressed for a few games, this is a very rewarding way to play with historical toy soldiers. It pays its respect to historical accuracy without letting it get in the way of a good game.
For me, it was mostly an excuse for taking a few plastic toy soldiers out of the cupboards. I have a long history with plastic 1/72 soldiers. These are the first "miniatures" i owned, and I still have extremely fond memories of a set of Vietnam era US Marines I bought back as a teen. Excellent stuff. Since then two companies especially have been putting out superb sets: Zvezda from Russia and Hat, an English company. I had Greek hoplites from both, so of we went for the Greek-persian wars.
Painting is very straightforward (references Vallego or Citadel). Black undercoat, then main colors Dark Fleshtone, Brazen Brass, Bleached Bone, Dark Green, etc. Dark basic colors. Then on that a first highlight color, then a second on the edges and tops. For white for example: Bleached bone, then pure white. For fleshtones: dark fleshtone, then dark fleshtone + bronzed flesh, then bronzed flesh.
I am preparing two 1000 points armies for the battle of Marathon period, one Persian and the other Greek. The models take the paint very well. Zvezda's miniatures have no flash to be mentioned, Hat a bit more. Zvezdas are a bit more ... chunky, big than the Hats, which are thinner. But they mix very well. The Hats do not have the spears included, but I did some with bristles from an old sweeper: works very well. The Hat figures have their shields in odd positions, but this is minor. For about 7 euros I get a box with, either 36 Zvezda hoplites, or 48 Hat mercenary hoplites. These are superb miniatures, with no flash, well sculpted, and easy to assemble. Enough said.
They are based on 60 mm * 20 mm strips of plasticard. Basing is also very simple: some joint filler paste, glue then sand in patches. Then the paint: basecoat GW Snakebite leather, then heavy drybrush with bleached bone and drybrush with pure white. Finally some static grass in patches. This makes a suitable dry looking landscape. Remember if possibe to paint light-colored bases, it makes the miniatures themselves appear bigger. A dark base will "suck" the color of the mini.
Following the instructions of the Warmaster Ancient rulebook, I enlarged the bases a bit to accomodate these bigger 20 mm. This means I will have difficulties to play these armies against other Warmaster-based armies on 40 mm * 20 mm bases. But this is not a problem as I don't intend to play these armies much outside friendly Persian-Greek fights.
Enough for today. Lots more where they come from, though... The only problem I met with Zvezda and Hat is with Greek Cavalry. I heavily modified the Zvezda Alexandrian cavalry set using Hat and Zvezda greek light infantry in order to reproduce the very light cavalry that was used by the Greeks in front of the Persian army. I will show those later.
For the information, I used three Osprey books (Ancient Greeks, Persian Army, and the Greek-Persian wars). The Ancient Greeks book is particularly useful, and beautiful too. Angus Mac Bride was definitely the best military illustrator of his generation. There is a vibrance in his drawings, real life, something lacking from the more academic illustrations of the two other books.
In the list of links, you will find the Plastic Soldier Review website and both Zvezda and Hat sites. PSR is an excellent website, full of information and updated at a staggering pace.
Yep, more on that and other projects later. Just a little hint as to the green mystery army...
LEFT! NO! RIGHT! YOU STOOPID!
Cheers.
However, there has been much else going on in the last weeks: Imperial Guard for Warhammer 40k, Greeks and Persians for Warmaster Ancient, a group of Mongoose Publishing ducks for Runequest (a commercial link, sorry, I didn't find them from Mongoose's website), some Gauls and Romans for playing with GW's Lord of the Rings ruleset... Finally, an army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle... a special, odd one... green, for the most part. With robots. And giant constructs... Niak niak niak...
But let's start with Greeks and Persians for Warmaster Ancient Battles, the "operational" system of Warhammer Historical for 6-15 mm. I used to play Warmaster Fantasy version with Dwarves, and appreciated it a lot. The rules' most important notion is command: each leader has a command value, and you test for the capacity of these leaders to have their orders followed by their troops. Without orders the troops can act instinctively, fleeing, assaulting, etc. The game system is one of the best Games Workshop produced, and certainly one of the most elegant. It has problems, for example with recoils (troops under fire do not die easily, but they tend to get distressed and recoil. This is often very messy when you have lots of units together in a tight spot) and like Warhammer it tends to end up with a big bash in the middle of the field. It is a good game though, very well presented and easy to grasp. It is also a one-book game system: no need to buy codices or army books: lists, rules, everything fits in one book.
The Ancient and Fantasy versions share lots in common, but have a few differences. Especially, the historical version limits the number of orders you can give to the same unit or groups of units, hence limiting the number of time this unit will be able to move in the same turn. The historical version also gives a bigger role to skirmishers. Of course it still is a GW-product, so the "historicity" of the lists for example is more often than not debatable. But in the same way as in Warhammer Ancient Battles, the designers are very clear on that: the point is to play Warmaster with an historical feel, not to "re-enact" historical battles or aim at more than general accuracy. If you are ready to keep the little historian in you repressed for a few games, this is a very rewarding way to play with historical toy soldiers. It pays its respect to historical accuracy without letting it get in the way of a good game.
For me, it was mostly an excuse for taking a few plastic toy soldiers out of the cupboards. I have a long history with plastic 1/72 soldiers. These are the first "miniatures" i owned, and I still have extremely fond memories of a set of Vietnam era US Marines I bought back as a teen. Excellent stuff. Since then two companies especially have been putting out superb sets: Zvezda from Russia and Hat, an English company. I had Greek hoplites from both, so of we went for the Greek-persian wars.
Painting is very straightforward (references Vallego or Citadel). Black undercoat, then main colors Dark Fleshtone, Brazen Brass, Bleached Bone, Dark Green, etc. Dark basic colors. Then on that a first highlight color, then a second on the edges and tops. For white for example: Bleached bone, then pure white. For fleshtones: dark fleshtone, then dark fleshtone + bronzed flesh, then bronzed flesh.
I am preparing two 1000 points armies for the battle of Marathon period, one Persian and the other Greek. The models take the paint very well. Zvezda's miniatures have no flash to be mentioned, Hat a bit more. Zvezdas are a bit more ... chunky, big than the Hats, which are thinner. But they mix very well. The Hats do not have the spears included, but I did some with bristles from an old sweeper: works very well. The Hat figures have their shields in odd positions, but this is minor. For about 7 euros I get a box with, either 36 Zvezda hoplites, or 48 Hat mercenary hoplites. These are superb miniatures, with no flash, well sculpted, and easy to assemble. Enough said.
They are based on 60 mm * 20 mm strips of plasticard. Basing is also very simple: some joint filler paste, glue then sand in patches. Then the paint: basecoat GW Snakebite leather, then heavy drybrush with bleached bone and drybrush with pure white. Finally some static grass in patches. This makes a suitable dry looking landscape. Remember if possibe to paint light-colored bases, it makes the miniatures themselves appear bigger. A dark base will "suck" the color of the mini.
Following the instructions of the Warmaster Ancient rulebook, I enlarged the bases a bit to accomodate these bigger 20 mm. This means I will have difficulties to play these armies against other Warmaster-based armies on 40 mm * 20 mm bases. But this is not a problem as I don't intend to play these armies much outside friendly Persian-Greek fights.
Enough for today. Lots more where they come from, though... The only problem I met with Zvezda and Hat is with Greek Cavalry. I heavily modified the Zvezda Alexandrian cavalry set using Hat and Zvezda greek light infantry in order to reproduce the very light cavalry that was used by the Greeks in front of the Persian army. I will show those later.
For the information, I used three Osprey books (Ancient Greeks, Persian Army, and the Greek-Persian wars). The Ancient Greeks book is particularly useful, and beautiful too. Angus Mac Bride was definitely the best military illustrator of his generation. There is a vibrance in his drawings, real life, something lacking from the more academic illustrations of the two other books.
In the list of links, you will find the Plastic Soldier Review website and both Zvezda and Hat sites. PSR is an excellent website, full of information and updated at a staggering pace.
Yep, more on that and other projects later. Just a little hint as to the green mystery army...
LEFT! NO! RIGHT! YOU STOOPID!
Cheers.
tiistai 23. kesäkuuta 2009
Jenova is back...
A small note for all my imaginary friends.
Following a long leave of absence, Danish paintmeister Jenova is back online and painting. Great news, great indeed. Jenova runs now the old website, a blog, and a twitter account. The old website has good tutorials, a gallery, and a host of advice, examples, etc. Inge/Jenova paints mostly women, in a subdued, smooth style with earthly colors (greens, browns, dark reds, etc). I have always been particularly impressed by her skintones, both humans and others like the soldiers of her Dark Age army.
About 6 years ago, when I started painting again after a long hiatus, one of the first websites I found was Jenova.dk. I liked the painting style and the color palette. There was also a certain kindness in the writing that made the site very welcoming. That was refreshing after checking pages on pages of ego-shocked painting supremos or nerds with no social skills. It was a pitty to see a few years ago that she had stopped updating and obviously had withdrawn from the all painting thing. So, good to see that she took the brushes again. Go check her work, this is great stuff. And good luck to her for the coming back!
Following a long leave of absence, Danish paintmeister Jenova is back online and painting. Great news, great indeed. Jenova runs now the old website, a blog, and a twitter account. The old website has good tutorials, a gallery, and a host of advice, examples, etc. Inge/Jenova paints mostly women, in a subdued, smooth style with earthly colors (greens, browns, dark reds, etc). I have always been particularly impressed by her skintones, both humans and others like the soldiers of her Dark Age army.
About 6 years ago, when I started painting again after a long hiatus, one of the first websites I found was Jenova.dk. I liked the painting style and the color palette. There was also a certain kindness in the writing that made the site very welcoming. That was refreshing after checking pages on pages of ego-shocked painting supremos or nerds with no social skills. It was a pitty to see a few years ago that she had stopped updating and obviously had withdrawn from the all painting thing. So, good to see that she took the brushes again. Go check her work, this is great stuff. And good luck to her for the coming back!
maanantai 8. kesäkuuta 2009
Some more random pictures of the army...
All the army on the shelf
The boss and the big robots on the shelf
The Scouts/flying bots. Big gun behind is the heavy bolter.
Big robot/dreadnought number 1. Flames need to be reworked at some point. Too much black and yellow, it seems strange. The first idea was to go for a sort of sickly green flame effect, Alien mystery gun style. In the future, maybe.
Big bot number 2 and...
... his little friend. Comment from my daughter: he must be a baby, since he has diapers. Quite so.
One of the land speeders. Extraordinary little things in game terms. Multi-melta is ace, heavy flamer useful more often than not, all that in a skimmer. I had a pinch of bad consicence because my ... constructions are slightly smaller than GW's stock models. To compensate, I tried to be generous with my opponents' lines of sight.
One of the rhinos, the one with the open hatch. This was a treat to do. works visually very well, better than what the picture gives away.
And squad 2, the red heads. Red technic was very straightforward: the ubiquitous Charred Brown, then Charred + Terracotta, then Terracotta. Done. For this like for the bone heads, I did scratches and bumps by leaving the darker color show in some places. Then you go on the edges of this darker zone with pure white or a lighter version of your highlight color. Gives the "trompe l'oeil" effect you want.
On these big pictures, you see just how quick the army was done... Everything but 4 models from the bone head squad was painted in this feverish friday afternoon and night before the tournament. I might come back to this army and, for instance, re-work the metallic areas. Sometimes...
Next time, a bit of fluff, and we will be departing for new shores.
All the army on the shelf
The boss and the big robots on the shelf
The Scouts/flying bots. Big gun behind is the heavy bolter.
Big robot/dreadnought number 1. Flames need to be reworked at some point. Too much black and yellow, it seems strange. The first idea was to go for a sort of sickly green flame effect, Alien mystery gun style. In the future, maybe.
Big bot number 2 and...
... his little friend. Comment from my daughter: he must be a baby, since he has diapers. Quite so.
One of the land speeders. Extraordinary little things in game terms. Multi-melta is ace, heavy flamer useful more often than not, all that in a skimmer. I had a pinch of bad consicence because my ... constructions are slightly smaller than GW's stock models. To compensate, I tried to be generous with my opponents' lines of sight.
One of the rhinos, the one with the open hatch. This was a treat to do. works visually very well, better than what the picture gives away.
And squad 2, the red heads. Red technic was very straightforward: the ubiquitous Charred Brown, then Charred + Terracotta, then Terracotta. Done. For this like for the bone heads, I did scratches and bumps by leaving the darker color show in some places. Then you go on the edges of this darker zone with pure white or a lighter version of your highlight color. Gives the "trompe l'oeil" effect you want.On these big pictures, you see just how quick the army was done... Everything but 4 models from the bone head squad was painted in this feverish friday afternoon and night before the tournament. I might come back to this army and, for instance, re-work the metallic areas. Sometimes...
Next time, a bit of fluff, and we will be departing for new shores.
keskiviikko 27. toukokuuta 2009
And now, pictures of the army itself. I did not find the time to take a pic of the whole army arrayed on a nice table, but that will be for my next game at the club. Pics are a bit big and not so good, apologises for that.
First things first, the Boss, Mr Flying Brain.
As I said before, a nice cheap toy and some wires.
Tactical squad 1: robots!
Heavy and special weapons
Normal grunts
The same in situ
The ride of the squad. I changed the design for the Rhinos and Predators. The initial, cupola kind of design, was too big. Also, the shop was out of vents the size I wanted. So I fell back on another sort of plumbing hardware...
Painting is very straightforward. Army Painter's skeleton bone sprayed on the thing. Gives a nice, even coat. Then a wash of Vallejo Smokey Ink in the recess and in places where dust, grease and such would collect. Then drybrush GW Bleached bone, then white. It is important to put your drybrush strokes in the direction the vehicle is going to go. It gives and impression of movement, like if the strokes had been caused by flying. Then you take various colors, white, yelloew, amber, terracota, black. Lots of water, and you put a dot or a line on the surface. With a dry brush, you immediately pull this color, also in the direction of the vehicle's movement. That breaks the basic color, makes it more lively, and puts these movements strokes you want. Difficult to explain, but it is a basic model scales technic.
Ok, more later, I need to work.
First things first, the Boss, Mr Flying Brain.
As I said before, a nice cheap toy and some wires.
Tactical squad 1: robots!
Heavy and special weapons
Normal grunts
The same in situ
The ride of the squad. I changed the design for the Rhinos and Predators. The initial, cupola kind of design, was too big. Also, the shop was out of vents the size I wanted. So I fell back on another sort of plumbing hardware...
Painting is very straightforward. Army Painter's skeleton bone sprayed on the thing. Gives a nice, even coat. Then a wash of Vallejo Smokey Ink in the recess and in places where dust, grease and such would collect. Then drybrush GW Bleached bone, then white. It is important to put your drybrush strokes in the direction the vehicle is going to go. It gives and impression of movement, like if the strokes had been caused by flying. Then you take various colors, white, yelloew, amber, terracota, black. Lots of water, and you put a dot or a line on the surface. With a dry brush, you immediately pull this color, also in the direction of the vehicle's movement. That breaks the basic color, makes it more lively, and puts these movements strokes you want. Difficult to explain, but it is a basic model scales technic.
Ok, more later, I need to work.
maanantai 25. toukokuuta 2009
Tadam! At long last, some time to put stuff online. This time, report on the gaming part, next time the painting/conversion aspect of things.
It came two weeks ago, and yes, I was ready. Good news. Most of the army was, of course, painted the night before, this dreadful and sleepless Friday night. On the other hand, I made it and the army was ready on Saturday morning. I made my way to the venue, and there started socializing with other freeks, for the most part as sleep-deprived as I was. Slightly under the weather, I composed myself for the first game...
And followed a great tournament. A few pictures here, along with the website of the organizing club, Ordo Aboensis (in Finnish).
So. The list. I kept the list I exposed before, only with the Master of the Forge on a bike, and without Telion. I was told it is a "Marine Mech" list. Yeah for Marine Mech, then.
Let's get one thing out of the way: I am not a good player, especially not a good tournament player. I play rarely, with a few friends in narrative campaign-style, low pressure, laid-back games. I "have been" into Wh40k for a number of years, mind you, and a win never hurts. But even if, let's be honest, I might be in a bad mood after losing a game, playing is actually more important than winning. My best game in the last months was with a marine list against Sisters of Battle. It ended in a close combat between the two force commanders, on the very last turn. My SM boss died, game over for me. Yet, fantastic game, good laughs, good times.
So I was not too optimistic with a list I didn't know, an edition I had played maybe twice, and a tournament environment with good local players. As it came up, "local" meant from all Finland: players from as far as Oulu, Tampere, and a sizeable delegation from Espoo, a suburb of Helsinki. A nice selection of people, with nice armies, and some really good players. I was already preparing myself for defeat after defeat.
I quickly came to realize, though, that the list Stelek wrote is extremely solid. I played it with a few things in mind and a bit conservatively (too conservatively at times) and it is very forgiving for sloppy tacticians like me. Vehicles are difficult to bring down, something I realized only while playing. Speeders are gold on a silver plate with diamonds. Melta gunnery is wonderful anti-tank, and the Heavy flamer is just wonderful as a complement. Scouts in ruins with cloaks and the Master are not going anywhere. And Space Marines are solid enough that you can make a few mistakes and get away with it. I felt a bit like a 4-year old manipulating a laser sword: a sharp, solid, sophisticated instrument, which I certainly did not use to its full potential.
The games tought me a lot about 5th edition. Those things in 9 quick talking points.
First scrap was against Necrons, and against an opponent who, to my amazement, understood French. So we did the game half in French, half in Finnish. Last thing I expected, and a great start.
I won the game quite largely, against an army that certainly suffers from its codex being so out of date. Confession time: I doubted the efficiency of the Predators in the list. Was I wrong! 6 Heavy Bolter and 2 Auto cannon shots per turn if you do not move. Put in three of these things, and it is a lot of shots. That kills people, no matter how much 3+ saves you have. The preds formed a firing line position and concentrated fire on one aisle of the Necron army, killing his destroyers very quickly. Preds are also difficult to bring down. That was point 1: preds are killy and resilient.
Then point 2: dreadnoughts are great fun in hand to hand combat against necrons. 2 dreads made it to his lines, killed a Destroyer-Lord and a squad of Necrons. More importantly, tied a part ofhis army for several turns far away from objectives. Then point 3: tac squads stay in Rhinos, and go out only if necessity dictates. Mostly when you have to put firepower on an enemy squad at short range: 16 bolters, 1 bolt pistol, and a Melta gun. Then they get in again.
One thing with Necrons: they won't die, no matter what. This We'll be back roll is a pain, let's be clear. After a while you should find tricks (shoot things that strayed from the main battle line, isolated warriors or destroyers, kill those pesky tomb spiders, etc). Yet, they are still very resilient to shooting. CC is another matter...
Second game was against a black templars/drop pods/Vindicator army, and a very friendly opponent. Came point 4: against drop pods, form a castle. I bunched up in a corner while the Speeders ran in front to kill his Vindicators. But I made a mistake and openned up between 2 Rhinos, just a few inches in turn 2. My opponent, a good player, was in my lines the next second. Then it was damage-control on my side: putting everything I had to bear on his three tactical squads, a b*** Brother-captain who seemed to never be willing to die, and a Venerable dreadnought. All that while his commander and assault squad spent 4 turns trying to kill a Predator: sheer luck on my side, because they focused on the Predator while I could deal with the dropped troops without having to worry about them. My Pred would have died one or two turns earlier, I was all good and dead.
On a sidenote, killing drop pods in a Killpoint mission is cool: they die easily to Speeders and get you one killpoint per pod... I ended up winning a super, tight game. His was the eternal problem of drop pod armies: how to kill enough on the drop so that the rest of the army is not going to slaughter you with return fire? As the owner of a drop pod army myself, I learned also on that.
Third game was even more interesting. I had a very good player in front, who ended up winning the tournament. Sharp guy, who played... with the exact same list as I had! He got it from the same source, Stelek's blog! Funny. He had a few different things (ML on the scouts, 4 speeders, no bike on the Master), but mostly he played differently. More aggressive, with a better understanding of the movement tricks and the philosophy of the game: covering your dreadnoughts with rhinos, GW dreads have their weapons higher than Rhinos so can fire above, etc. I was not used to that 5th edition "Always see, always cover save" stuff. We played a seize ground-spearhead. I never managed to contest his objective, but he was quickly near mine and I was on the defensive. There was a big vehicle bash in the middle, and he tried to go around with his speeders. I shot them all down with the Predators, but one. That one ended up contesting my objective. Win to him. So, point 6: concentrate fire on fast moving things that can contest, like Speeders. And point 7, cover your dreads with your rhinos.
Fourth game was against sisters. Exorcists a go go, three rhinos full of girls, canoness, seraphims. Here came point 8: the Master on bike should be used to protect the scouts on the objective, but also to zoom up and contest. By some miracle, he and two dreadnoughts made it through the board and contested my opponent's objective, killing stormtroopers and two Exorcists in the process. I won, but that was tight. Also, Preds, again, are good at killing: about 10 sisters, Seraphims, rhinos, whatever... He did not even try to take them down, and the damage was massive.
Last game was a bit strange. Two SM shooty army in a Annihilation game, with spearhead. He had longer-ranged weapons than I did (Las cannons, MLs), and in a way I did not manage to hide or get within melta range of his own guys. That was a sort of ping-pong match with him ending up with more KPs. Strange game, I didn't really know what to do. A better grasp of the covering tactics (Preds cover Rhinos, Rhinos cover Dreads, Dreads cover each other, etc) would have helped, but I did not manage to unlock the situation.
Point 9, though: Speeders in reserve should avoid coming through deep-strike. That was just silly from me, because I had the possibility to bring them from the board's edge and zoom towards him. Instead, the randomness of deep-strike deprived my guys of good firing positions and they got picked up one by one. Deep-strike should be reserved to drop pods. Loss for me, yet a good game against one of the club's regular.
In the end, a cool tournament, 3 wins 2 loss, nice tables, perfect organization, good opponents, a few nice chats, pizza, etc. Great week-end.
Ok, so that's it. Next time pictures of the army and a few more nudgets. Then it will be time for something completely different...
It came two weeks ago, and yes, I was ready. Good news. Most of the army was, of course, painted the night before, this dreadful and sleepless Friday night. On the other hand, I made it and the army was ready on Saturday morning. I made my way to the venue, and there started socializing with other freeks, for the most part as sleep-deprived as I was. Slightly under the weather, I composed myself for the first game...
And followed a great tournament. A few pictures here, along with the website of the organizing club, Ordo Aboensis (in Finnish).
So. The list. I kept the list I exposed before, only with the Master of the Forge on a bike, and without Telion. I was told it is a "Marine Mech" list. Yeah for Marine Mech, then.Let's get one thing out of the way: I am not a good player, especially not a good tournament player. I play rarely, with a few friends in narrative campaign-style, low pressure, laid-back games. I "have been" into Wh40k for a number of years, mind you, and a win never hurts. But even if, let's be honest, I might be in a bad mood after losing a game, playing is actually more important than winning. My best game in the last months was with a marine list against Sisters of Battle. It ended in a close combat between the two force commanders, on the very last turn. My SM boss died, game over for me. Yet, fantastic game, good laughs, good times.
So I was not too optimistic with a list I didn't know, an edition I had played maybe twice, and a tournament environment with good local players. As it came up, "local" meant from all Finland: players from as far as Oulu, Tampere, and a sizeable delegation from Espoo, a suburb of Helsinki. A nice selection of people, with nice armies, and some really good players. I was already preparing myself for defeat after defeat.
I quickly came to realize, though, that the list Stelek wrote is extremely solid. I played it with a few things in mind and a bit conservatively (too conservatively at times) and it is very forgiving for sloppy tacticians like me. Vehicles are difficult to bring down, something I realized only while playing. Speeders are gold on a silver plate with diamonds. Melta gunnery is wonderful anti-tank, and the Heavy flamer is just wonderful as a complement. Scouts in ruins with cloaks and the Master are not going anywhere. And Space Marines are solid enough that you can make a few mistakes and get away with it. I felt a bit like a 4-year old manipulating a laser sword: a sharp, solid, sophisticated instrument, which I certainly did not use to its full potential.
The games tought me a lot about 5th edition. Those things in 9 quick talking points.
First scrap was against Necrons, and against an opponent who, to my amazement, understood French. So we did the game half in French, half in Finnish. Last thing I expected, and a great start.
I won the game quite largely, against an army that certainly suffers from its codex being so out of date. Confession time: I doubted the efficiency of the Predators in the list. Was I wrong! 6 Heavy Bolter and 2 Auto cannon shots per turn if you do not move. Put in three of these things, and it is a lot of shots. That kills people, no matter how much 3+ saves you have. The preds formed a firing line position and concentrated fire on one aisle of the Necron army, killing his destroyers very quickly. Preds are also difficult to bring down. That was point 1: preds are killy and resilient.
Then point 2: dreadnoughts are great fun in hand to hand combat against necrons. 2 dreads made it to his lines, killed a Destroyer-Lord and a squad of Necrons. More importantly, tied a part ofhis army for several turns far away from objectives. Then point 3: tac squads stay in Rhinos, and go out only if necessity dictates. Mostly when you have to put firepower on an enemy squad at short range: 16 bolters, 1 bolt pistol, and a Melta gun. Then they get in again.
One thing with Necrons: they won't die, no matter what. This We'll be back roll is a pain, let's be clear. After a while you should find tricks (shoot things that strayed from the main battle line, isolated warriors or destroyers, kill those pesky tomb spiders, etc). Yet, they are still very resilient to shooting. CC is another matter...
Second game was against a black templars/drop pods/Vindicator army, and a very friendly opponent. Came point 4: against drop pods, form a castle. I bunched up in a corner while the Speeders ran in front to kill his Vindicators. But I made a mistake and openned up between 2 Rhinos, just a few inches in turn 2. My opponent, a good player, was in my lines the next second. Then it was damage-control on my side: putting everything I had to bear on his three tactical squads, a b*** Brother-captain who seemed to never be willing to die, and a Venerable dreadnought. All that while his commander and assault squad spent 4 turns trying to kill a Predator: sheer luck on my side, because they focused on the Predator while I could deal with the dropped troops without having to worry about them. My Pred would have died one or two turns earlier, I was all good and dead.
On a sidenote, killing drop pods in a Killpoint mission is cool: they die easily to Speeders and get you one killpoint per pod... I ended up winning a super, tight game. His was the eternal problem of drop pod armies: how to kill enough on the drop so that the rest of the army is not going to slaughter you with return fire? As the owner of a drop pod army myself, I learned also on that.
Third game was even more interesting. I had a very good player in front, who ended up winning the tournament. Sharp guy, who played... with the exact same list as I had! He got it from the same source, Stelek's blog! Funny. He had a few different things (ML on the scouts, 4 speeders, no bike on the Master), but mostly he played differently. More aggressive, with a better understanding of the movement tricks and the philosophy of the game: covering your dreadnoughts with rhinos, GW dreads have their weapons higher than Rhinos so can fire above, etc. I was not used to that 5th edition "Always see, always cover save" stuff. We played a seize ground-spearhead. I never managed to contest his objective, but he was quickly near mine and I was on the defensive. There was a big vehicle bash in the middle, and he tried to go around with his speeders. I shot them all down with the Predators, but one. That one ended up contesting my objective. Win to him. So, point 6: concentrate fire on fast moving things that can contest, like Speeders. And point 7, cover your dreads with your rhinos.
Fourth game was against sisters. Exorcists a go go, three rhinos full of girls, canoness, seraphims. Here came point 8: the Master on bike should be used to protect the scouts on the objective, but also to zoom up and contest. By some miracle, he and two dreadnoughts made it through the board and contested my opponent's objective, killing stormtroopers and two Exorcists in the process. I won, but that was tight. Also, Preds, again, are good at killing: about 10 sisters, Seraphims, rhinos, whatever... He did not even try to take them down, and the damage was massive.
Last game was a bit strange. Two SM shooty army in a Annihilation game, with spearhead. He had longer-ranged weapons than I did (Las cannons, MLs), and in a way I did not manage to hide or get within melta range of his own guys. That was a sort of ping-pong match with him ending up with more KPs. Strange game, I didn't really know what to do. A better grasp of the covering tactics (Preds cover Rhinos, Rhinos cover Dreads, Dreads cover each other, etc) would have helped, but I did not manage to unlock the situation.
Point 9, though: Speeders in reserve should avoid coming through deep-strike. That was just silly from me, because I had the possibility to bring them from the board's edge and zoom towards him. Instead, the randomness of deep-strike deprived my guys of good firing positions and they got picked up one by one. Deep-strike should be reserved to drop pods. Loss for me, yet a good game against one of the club's regular.
In the end, a cool tournament, 3 wins 2 loss, nice tables, perfect organization, good opponents, a few nice chats, pizza, etc. Great week-end.
Ok, so that's it. Next time pictures of the army and a few more nudgets. Then it will be time for something completely different...
maanantai 27. huhtikuuta 2009
Hello.
Slow blogging for a few days, time for me to paint a bit. I "tested" the army sunday, and was properly thrashed by a nurgle army and its pet Plaguereaper... So... Army list will evolve a bit. more on that later.
The Boss, just a small picture:
As of my list's current version, he is a Master of the Forge on a Bike, with a conversion beamer... Typical flying space brain, made from a toy bought 2 euros. The Eldar on the base is the only GW model in this army.
Slow blogging for a few days, time for me to paint a bit. I "tested" the army sunday, and was properly thrashed by a nurgle army and its pet Plaguereaper... So... Army list will evolve a bit. more on that later.
The Boss, just a small picture:
As of my list's current version, he is a Master of the Forge on a Bike, with a conversion beamer... Typical flying space brain, made from a toy bought 2 euros. The Eldar on the base is the only GW model in this army.
perjantai 24. huhtikuuta 2009
Lunchbreak Oi!
Today, army list, and a few before/after pictures of the flying saucers (FLYING SAUCERS! I could say those words for ever...).
Army list (Space Marines codex):
Master of the Forge
Scouts (5) 4 snipers 1 heavy bolter Camo Cloaks
Telion
Dreadnoughts MultiMelta/Heavy Flamer (3)
Tactical squad (10 marines) MeltaG/Missile Launcher
Rhino strom Bolter Search Light
Tactical squad (idem)
Land Speeder Heavy Flamer/Multimelta (3)
Predator AutoCannon/Heavy Bolter sponsons (3)
for 1500 points
Confession time: it is not my list. I found it on the website of M. Stelek, and I just ripped it off. This is the worst case scenario: you find a list you like, you use it for a turnament without the slightest idea about its playing style, etc. Not gonna work...
Anyway, the list allows me to make a lot of funny things (preds, dreads, etc), so I took it. It also seems fairly intelligent, based on vehicles (that are harder to bring down in 5th edition, or so they say), with a nice core holding your objective and a lot of threats for your opponent to consider. Land speeders are quick and good tank hunters, or heavy flamer toting anti-cover saves monsters. The predators make me wonder a bit, because of cover saves. But they unleash such a massive firepower for such a small cost... I have a second list for later, a dread/drop pod list.
Now with all these vehicles, I have been busy turning construction materials into ... hum... FLYING SAUCERS!
Ok, so what is this?
Indeed, the cap from an exhaust vent, with an "inside metallic spring closing system". No less. Bought from a DIY shop. A few euros.
But the truth is that, under this mild-mannered shell hides the alien menace, cunningly disguised:
"Rhinos":
And a "Predator":
See? Just close the cap with cardboard, add a round bit of plasticard (or in my case the plastic covers for some electric components), and stick some guns. For the Rhinos, the guns are a bit of plastic rod and the upper half of a New Year's Eve round explosive charge, the kind you detonate in the street to please your drunken friends and annoy your neighbors. The cycle of life being what it is, I used to be a drunken friend, I am now an annoyed neighbor ;-) Those I found on the sidewalk on January 1st. Remember, modelist: on the first day of the year, always look on the floor. The opening ramp for the second Rhino was a bit of work. I just cut a piece of the cap I had used and added a flight of stairs with mesh and plastic rods from the trusty bits box. After that, I inserted a strong metallic wire through the flight of stairs, and had it coming out at the lower extremity of the ramp. So now the ramp touches the base of the mini and also acts as a support for the all vehicle. It wil be clearer on the finished pictures, I swear.
The predators used the same technique. The sponsons metallic guns are from Hydra, nice alien-looking stuff:
So we have the vehicles. The dreadnoughts? Stock minis from monsieur Beauchamp:
I just added a Heavy Flamer hose and the flames sculpted with green stuff.
As for the scouts, again, stock Hydra and a few components added to represent heavy weapons:
I have also simplified the color scheme in order to save time:
All Valejo:
Charred Brown (a great color, excellent covering and good base)
Desert yellow
Bonewhite
White for the edges
I try to go for a style where the large, flat surfaces are treated not so much through blending than through a mix of blending and weathering. I "create" chips, lines, and movements on the surface that are not sculpted. For example, in the test mini, I added lines from his eyes in order to give him a sort of threatening gaze. It is difficult to explain. Check Steve Dean's website for good examples of that technique. It makes the figurines very lively, and is quite significantly quicker than smooth blending. Another thing in my case is that smooth blending is way out of my league.
The technique needs to be clean, though, and well-thought. I still struggle with basically any aspects, but I might be slowly getting there... I also need to find a nice touch for the energy rod thing of their guns.
For the bases, I decided to go for a Red Planet Mars type of sand-gravel. I also found in a construction site these large, shunky pieces of slate that I will use as a repetitive motive in the army's bases. For the basic robots, everything is very straight: PVC glue, then sand. Do not buy sand in a modelling shop, this is ridiculous. Get some somewhere, it is free and will be less even, with the odd pebble or bigger chunck. This is good, it makes it more lively.
The sand is primed black, then given a coat of Charred Brown+Terracota, then drybrushed Terracotta, then drybrushed quite heavily bonewhite, terracotta+white or light grey, whatever is at hand at the moment. The question is whether to put the sand before or after painting the mini. In that case, when there is a clear division between the mini's feet and the base, I base after painting the mini.
Ok, and the shape of things to come. Heavy weapons:
More electric components behind... Land speeders, just so you know...
Ok. Next time, maybe a little story and ... the Boss, mister alien robot menace himself.
Today, army list, and a few before/after pictures of the flying saucers (FLYING SAUCERS! I could say those words for ever...).
Army list (Space Marines codex):
Master of the Forge
Scouts (5) 4 snipers 1 heavy bolter Camo Cloaks
Telion
Dreadnoughts MultiMelta/Heavy Flamer (3)
Tactical squad (10 marines) MeltaG/Missile Launcher
Rhino strom Bolter Search Light
Tactical squad (idem)
Land Speeder Heavy Flamer/Multimelta (3)
Predator AutoCannon/Heavy Bolter sponsons (3)
for 1500 points
Confession time: it is not my list. I found it on the website of M. Stelek, and I just ripped it off. This is the worst case scenario: you find a list you like, you use it for a turnament without the slightest idea about its playing style, etc. Not gonna work...
Anyway, the list allows me to make a lot of funny things (preds, dreads, etc), so I took it. It also seems fairly intelligent, based on vehicles (that are harder to bring down in 5th edition, or so they say), with a nice core holding your objective and a lot of threats for your opponent to consider. Land speeders are quick and good tank hunters, or heavy flamer toting anti-cover saves monsters. The predators make me wonder a bit, because of cover saves. But they unleash such a massive firepower for such a small cost... I have a second list for later, a dread/drop pod list.
Now with all these vehicles, I have been busy turning construction materials into ... hum... FLYING SAUCERS!
Ok, so what is this?
Indeed, the cap from an exhaust vent, with an "inside metallic spring closing system". No less. Bought from a DIY shop. A few euros.
But the truth is that, under this mild-mannered shell hides the alien menace, cunningly disguised:
"Rhinos":
And a "Predator":
See? Just close the cap with cardboard, add a round bit of plasticard (or in my case the plastic covers for some electric components), and stick some guns. For the Rhinos, the guns are a bit of plastic rod and the upper half of a New Year's Eve round explosive charge, the kind you detonate in the street to please your drunken friends and annoy your neighbors. The cycle of life being what it is, I used to be a drunken friend, I am now an annoyed neighbor ;-) Those I found on the sidewalk on January 1st. Remember, modelist: on the first day of the year, always look on the floor. The opening ramp for the second Rhino was a bit of work. I just cut a piece of the cap I had used and added a flight of stairs with mesh and plastic rods from the trusty bits box. After that, I inserted a strong metallic wire through the flight of stairs, and had it coming out at the lower extremity of the ramp. So now the ramp touches the base of the mini and also acts as a support for the all vehicle. It wil be clearer on the finished pictures, I swear.
The predators used the same technique. The sponsons metallic guns are from Hydra, nice alien-looking stuff:
So we have the vehicles. The dreadnoughts? Stock minis from monsieur Beauchamp:
I just added a Heavy Flamer hose and the flames sculpted with green stuff.
As for the scouts, again, stock Hydra and a few components added to represent heavy weapons:
I have also simplified the color scheme in order to save time:
All Valejo:
Charred Brown (a great color, excellent covering and good base)
Desert yellow
Bonewhite
White for the edges
I try to go for a style where the large, flat surfaces are treated not so much through blending than through a mix of blending and weathering. I "create" chips, lines, and movements on the surface that are not sculpted. For example, in the test mini, I added lines from his eyes in order to give him a sort of threatening gaze. It is difficult to explain. Check Steve Dean's website for good examples of that technique. It makes the figurines very lively, and is quite significantly quicker than smooth blending. Another thing in my case is that smooth blending is way out of my league.
The technique needs to be clean, though, and well-thought. I still struggle with basically any aspects, but I might be slowly getting there... I also need to find a nice touch for the energy rod thing of their guns.
For the bases, I decided to go for a Red Planet Mars type of sand-gravel. I also found in a construction site these large, shunky pieces of slate that I will use as a repetitive motive in the army's bases. For the basic robots, everything is very straight: PVC glue, then sand. Do not buy sand in a modelling shop, this is ridiculous. Get some somewhere, it is free and will be less even, with the odd pebble or bigger chunck. This is good, it makes it more lively.
The sand is primed black, then given a coat of Charred Brown+Terracota, then drybrushed Terracotta, then drybrushed quite heavily bonewhite, terracotta+white or light grey, whatever is at hand at the moment. The question is whether to put the sand before or after painting the mini. In that case, when there is a clear division between the mini's feet and the base, I base after painting the mini.
Ok, and the shape of things to come. Heavy weapons:
More electric components behind... Land speeders, just so you know...
Ok. Next time, maybe a little story and ... the Boss, mister alien robot menace himself.
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