Thursday, September 28, 2017

Oldhammer Army Challenge

Iannick (Of Marauders and Citadels) and Chris (Blue's Marauding Miniatures) have issued a challenge in the Oldhammer in the New World Facebook Group to build 1000-point armies in six months. The goal is basically to paint at least 200-points per month with one mulligan if you fall short. All of the rules are yet to be set out, but it seems a leisurely pace to me and while I've never participated in one of these painting challenges, even with my busy schedule I should be able to manage 200-points. It is set to kick off in November and it looks like we have at least one of every choice from the Warhammer Armies book!

So what to paint? I have unpainted armies of Dwarves and Slann. In the end the choice was really easy...

Clarence Harrison I'm in... Slann or Dwarves... I'll decide by November. I have unpainted armies for both.

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Darrin Stephens You would paint some killer Slann

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Iannick Martin Has to be Slann! We don't have them yet!

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Tom White Please paint slaan!

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Iannick Martin Clarence, the board of directors discussed your situation, and a decision has been reached : it's Slann or you're out.

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Ben White SLANN!!! MAKE LUSTRIA GREAT AGAIN!!!!

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Clarence Harrison LOL... Slann it is!

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Iannick Martin Fantastic. I believe we will have at least one of (each of) the Old School armies

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So, yeah, that settles that! I have quite a collection of Slann with many in their original blisters. At the moment my pile of lead includes...

Hero (the only Alligator Warrior I managed to get so he is unique in the army and works perfectly)
Wizard (on a litter)

Bull Slann Riders x8
Eagle Warriors x18
Jaguar Warriors x8
Venom Tribe Warriors x11
Spawn Band Warriros x30
Slann Animal Handler w/6 War Hounds

I also have ten Human Slave Warriors, though not the oldschool sculpts. These are Wargames Foundry models from one of the ancient ranges (I forget which) that really look the part and will make a better looking unit than ten monopose minis.

So far I've managed to paint exactly ONE since I've started buying them a year ago...


Now I'll need to hold off until the challenge starts, but it will give me time to sit down and figure out some point values and make a plan. Up until now, collecting the army has been purely purchases of opportunity. I've never bothered to price out the minis points-wise or figure out magic items, etc. but I think I'm around 1300 points without standards, instruments, any 5th level unit champions (I would include these in elite units), or magic items of any kind. The range never had many models so I'll have to convert all of my standard bearers and any other characters I decide to field. Again the pace of the challenge will make this easy. Six Bull Slann Riders with Shields and a standard is 231 points (and light armor which is probably a must for such pricy troops adds another 24 points). Boom! One month done. While I'm at it, I'd paint the other two which is close to 300 points. The hero and wizard are easily another 200 points, even with modest 10th-level characters.

Off to plan the subjugation of the dry skins!

Friday, September 15, 2017

Rogue Trader Female Warriors

Two more models for the collection - Jayne and Gabs!

Female Warrior Jayne

Female Warrior Gabs

I haven't decided if these are Daughters of the Emperor or renegades who acquired power armor. In Rogue Trader, renegades were not necessarily spawns of chaos, nor was power armor the sole property of the Adeptus Astartes.

I'm not thrilled with how the checks turned out which is why I didn't bother painting them on the top of the thigh plates too as in the originals. I'm pretty good at such patterns, but trying to paint checkerboard freehand along a curve is a nightmare. I may just black these out and paint a simple single pattern of gold and white or something. but they are done for now.

Eight models to go...

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Rogue Trader Imperial Scout

This is a model I actually started over two years ago. It was suppose to be part of an Oldhammer Legacy Warband project I was taking part in. I could have painted this in a couple of days, but because the deadline for the project was so far away, I kept putting off finishing it.

Then my wife passed away on June 27th, 2015. Of course, I kinda stopped everything related to the hobby for a while. Even when I returned to painting, the model just sat on the desk. Somehow I couldn't bring myself to finish the damn thing.

Well, that came to an end yesterday. Pretty much all it needed were the metallics and a couple of highlights and I decided it was time to finish this.


Obviously this is one of the instances where I chose to deviate from the original model color scheme. I also did some minor conversion work, replacing the left hand which held a flamer pistol with a sword taken from a plastic eldar (a harlequin I think) which reinforced the fact that this guy was sporting a shuriken pistol and obviously hanging out with treacherous aliens (or maybe at least killing them).

More minis on the way - I primed the rest of the set this afternoon and hope to get a couple more finished by the weekend.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Rogue Trader Space Amazon

It's been a stupid long time since I've actually painted any Rogue Trader stuff (or much of anything really). I've been busy with real life (for some reason I keep getting bills in the mail and I have to have a real job to keep up with them) and working on another book, Beneath the Lily Banners: The War of Three Kings (due out this fall). This weekend I walked into my studio and looked at the mess on the painting table and spotted one of the RT Adventurers sitting there already primed...

Governess Celene

For me this is one of the iconic models from the era. All it took was a few hours work. Hopefully this gives me the incentive to get back on this project. There's another model from this set on my desk that's been half finished for two years - maybe I'll paint that today.

My foray through the Rogue Trader Adventurers set has alternated between my own color schemes and trying to duplicate the studio collection from the 80's. In this case, I decided to try and capture the scheme from the original painting by John Blanche (of course).

This was challenging because of all of the textures. For the most part I had to be content with just a hint of these details because the areas were so small. The stockings were painted by painting the legs bare, then adding several layers of 2:1 washes of Lhamia Medium and Nuln Oil. These were carefully applied so as not to let them puddle as I didn't really want the recesses any darker - I handled the shading with the skin tones. Then I went back in with black and painted the top of the stocking trim and added a hint of the patterns from the painting. Finally I went back with my flesh tones and tried to portray a few rips in the fabric. The leopard print sleeves, zebra stripped loin cloth, and polka dot kerchief were all painted with a small Citadel Articifer layer brush that I reserve for such work. I'm pretty happy with the results!

I've got the Imperial Scout and pair of Female Warriors (power armored hellions named Jayne and Gabs) lined up next and I hope to find the time (sigh... and motivation) to add them to the completed pile this week. I'm only about a dozen models short of finishing the set and I could have them all done by the end of the month.

Hold my beer...