Wow. This has been unfortunate. You may recall me stating at the beginning of our ToFG competish that one of the stated goals was to encourage army building without leading to burnout. Apparently we greatly overestimated our ability to stay focused. After 1 challenge completed the ToFG has ground to a virtual standstill. It's quite embarrassing, actually. I really can't say what caused the problem. I started off pretty strong, getting my Swordsmen assembled and primed before challenge 1 was even finished. I worked through a couple stages on a few guys to get a quick and repeatable scheme worked out that could get a figure basecoated and washed in about an hour. Then... nothing. I got out of the painting mood and couldn't jump start myself back into it. In the end I got 5 Swordsmen partially completed- basecoat, wash, no basing or highlighting. That's a pretty poor effort. Chris fared no better, but at least he had a 2 week hiatus in Singapore as an excuse. Cam I'm not sure even realizes he was supposed to be painting. Who knows what goes on with that guy.
The only member of our pitiful group to acquit himself well over the month was Justin, who managed to churn out 12 Chaos Warriors to a fair tabletop standard. He didn't finish the highlights, but he got all of them painted and washed and some basing work done, which was good enough for the terms of the second challenge. Check out my post on Justin's challenge 1 entry for all the details on painting the armor for the Chaos Warriors. Justin included a nice little freehand Nurgle banner with this unit- not too shabby J-bone. I happen to know that Justin is also currently working on a unit of Khorne Chaos Warriors, so I'll try to get some pictures of them and his recipe for red armor as well.
Our less-than-stalwart competitors will be attempting to get their units finished over the next few weeks so we can try and get this train back on track. In the meantime, I'll try and round up some pictures of our 40K armies and some other Warhammer related projects (Chris has a High Elf Dragon that I have seen him eyeing longingly on more than one occasion. Can his Lothern Sea Guard hold his attention?)
Brandon
Monday, October 25, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 2: Warriors of Chaos
Justin was over at my house last night and, fully confident that a mere digital image could not convey the exquisite detail he had lovingly lavished upon his model one brush stroke at a time, he brought a single Chaos Warrior with him to show me. Alas for you, dear reader, I am afraid you must suffer through just such a misfortune, perhaps even unto your dying day feeling a woeful sense of unfulfillment permeating your soul- a small, Chaos Warrior-shaped hole in the very fiber of your being.
As you can see, Justin has carried his armor technique from his Chaos Knights over to the Warriors and produced a great result. Over the Gretchin Green base, he washed Devlan Mud and then went 'Eavy Metal on us and used red to shade the green further. Someone with a more professional art background can explain the color theory better than I (or my layabout brother who claimed he couldn't remember much of the color theory course he took in college), but by using a complementary color, in this case red, for the shading, the contrast of the red and green makes the green look, um, greenier. Anyway, just look at the figure and you can see what I mean. I think the right knee is a great example. The underside of the knee looks like a very natural shadow to me.
Good work, Justin. Only 11 more to go.
Brandon
As you can see, Justin has carried his armor technique from his Chaos Knights over to the Warriors and produced a great result. Over the Gretchin Green base, he washed Devlan Mud and then went 'Eavy Metal on us and used red to shade the green further. Someone with a more professional art background can explain the color theory better than I (or my layabout brother who claimed he couldn't remember much of the color theory course he took in college), but by using a complementary color, in this case red, for the shading, the contrast of the red and green makes the green look, um, greenier. Anyway, just look at the figure and you can see what I mean. I think the right knee is a great example. The underside of the knee looks like a very natural shadow to me.
Good work, Justin. Only 11 more to go.
Brandon
Friday, September 10, 2010
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 2
Well we successfully put month 1 of the ToFG competition behind us, and now it is on to the second challenge full steam ahead. This month, we have elected to set the following rules for Challenge #2:
This challenge is worth 40 points total.
Fully assemble and paint one unit of troops from the Core section of your army book.
There are no painting quality points in this challenge (as of now), this is strictly a "get 'er done" challenge.
Deductions for non-completed models will be taken on a points/model basis.
The unit must contain a full command section, as listed in the army book.
The deadline for this challenge is October 9th.
This challenge will be a little more work, with 10 or more models to paint rather than 2, but there is less emphasis on the painting itself so hopefully people will be able to crank them out. This is always a fluid process, as this is the first time any of us has ever done anything like this so the rules are always subject to change.
The selections for this challenge, as I understand it, are:
Brandon- Swordsmen
Chris- Lothern Sea Guard
Justin- Chaos Warriors
Cam- Clanrats
Here is a sneak peak at my Swordsmen, ready for primer:
We'll have some more WIP shots as the challenge progresses through the month. This month I'll also be putting up some photos of our 40K armies as well, so it wont be all ToFG all the time.
Brandon
This challenge is worth 40 points total.
Fully assemble and paint one unit of troops from the Core section of your army book.
There are no painting quality points in this challenge (as of now), this is strictly a "get 'er done" challenge.
Deductions for non-completed models will be taken on a points/model basis.
The unit must contain a full command section, as listed in the army book.
The deadline for this challenge is October 9th.
This challenge will be a little more work, with 10 or more models to paint rather than 2, but there is less emphasis on the painting itself so hopefully people will be able to crank them out. This is always a fluid process, as this is the first time any of us has ever done anything like this so the rules are always subject to change.
The selections for this challenge, as I understand it, are:
Brandon- Swordsmen
Chris- Lothern Sea Guard
Justin- Chaos Warriors
Cam- Clanrats
Here is a sneak peak at my Swordsmen, ready for primer:
We'll have some more WIP shots as the challenge progresses through the month. This month I'll also be putting up some photos of our 40K armies as well, so it wont be all ToFG all the time.
Brandon
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1 Final
Well all the entries have been turned in, all the votes have been counted, and the points have been awarded. Challenge 1 is officially over! We all had a good time dipping our toes into the Warhammer Fantasy universe, even if time seemed to pass much more quickly than we might have imagined. After adding up the points for completion and painting, here are how the standings, uh, stand, after the first challenge:
First place:
Brandon - 39/40 points
Second place (tie):
Chris - 37/40 points
Fictional Happy-Time Bonus Points awarded to Chris because his Noble was voted the best-painted model of the Challenge.
Second place (tie):
Justin - 37/40 points
Fourth place:
Cam - 34/40 points
As you can see, the standings are still very close and there is plenty of time left in the game for anyone to take control of the competition. Coming up later this week I'll announce the second challenge of the contest.
Brandon
First place:
Brandon - 39/40 points
Second place (tie):
Chris - 37/40 points
Fictional Happy-Time Bonus Points awarded to Chris because his Noble was voted the best-painted model of the Challenge.
Second place (tie):
Justin - 37/40 points
Fourth place:
Cam - 34/40 points
As you can see, the standings are still very close and there is plenty of time left in the game for anyone to take control of the competition. Coming up later this week I'll announce the second challenge of the contest.
Brandon
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: Skaven
n proper Skaven-y fashion, my models are bringing up the rear. Believe me when I say that I brought it down to the wire for these guys. I got both models completely painted and washed, although neither has any highlights (which is my favorite part!), and the bases leave a whole lot to be desired (they are literally covered in sand/dirt from the back yard, and not very well either).
Queek was a tough nut to crack with paint. The model is amazing, but there are a lot of details to deal with. I'm looking forward to getting the highlights on as I think it will really help bring out the color in the armor and gold.
My Warlock Engineer just barely made it. Again, highlights will help a lot, but I think the model needs a little blending done on the lighter sections as they look kind of chunky. Either way, he is ready to begin blasting his enemies with corrosive warp stone energy!
Putrid!
Cam
Queek was a tough nut to crack with paint. The model is amazing, but there are a lot of details to deal with. I'm looking forward to getting the highlights on as I think it will really help bring out the color in the armor and gold.
My Warlock Engineer just barely made it. Again, highlights will help a lot, but I think the model needs a little blending done on the lighter sections as they look kind of chunky. Either way, he is ready to begin blasting his enemies with corrosive warp stone energy!
Putrid!
Cam
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: Warriors of Chaos
Justin sent me the promised pictures of his Chaos Knights Champion and Standard Bearer this morning, so now it is both an honor and a privilege to pass those selfsame pictures on to you, the loyal reader. I've already laid out the blueprint for Justin's knights in a previous post, and not much has changed here. He has managed to completely paint the horse's skin for his Champion and he has also begun highlighting the model. While it is still not finished to the level he would like, it is still a sharp looking model.
Justin has also completed the base on this figure. He explained to me, "I tried to go with the miniature theory of if the model is dark then the base should be light, and vice-versa." A great tip, and one that can also be found, along with more tips and basing "recipes", in this helpful Games Workshop article.
Justin didn't get to spend as much time on his Standard Bearer as he would have hoped, but he was at least able to get it covered in paint and it definitely counts as being tabletop acceptable.
I think Justin has gotten off to a good start with his knights, and I am sure they will be a fearsome unit to behold once the whole lot of them are done.
Only one contestant left to cover before we wrap up Challenge 1 and award the final points. Up next: Skaven.
Brandon
Justin has also completed the base on this figure. He explained to me, "I tried to go with the miniature theory of if the model is dark then the base should be light, and vice-versa." A great tip, and one that can also be found, along with more tips and basing "recipes", in this helpful Games Workshop article.
Justin didn't get to spend as much time on his Standard Bearer as he would have hoped, but he was at least able to get it covered in paint and it definitely counts as being tabletop acceptable.
I think Justin has gotten off to a good start with his knights, and I am sure they will be a fearsome unit to behold once the whole lot of them are done.
Only one contestant left to cover before we wrap up Challenge 1 and award the final points. Up next: Skaven.
Brandon
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: High Elves
The deadline snuck up awfully quick on my fellow TLoDH bros, who had to scramble to get paint on their models and finish what they could. Chris was able to complete his High Elf Noble, and it looks fantastic. The banner is what really puts this model over the top. There is a ton of detail modeled into it and I was really impressed with the way Chris was able to paint it. His highlights on the banner are great- very clean and fine brush strokes. I think my number one problem when painting is doing fine highlights, and Chris put on a clinic with this banner.
Unfortunately for Chris, he wasn't able to get his High Elf Prince completely painted, although he worked furiously this past weekend to get as much done as possible. As you can see, he got most of the figure painted, minus the base, and was able to get shading and some beginning layers going on a lot of it as well. It's very much a model that you wouldn't think twice about seeing on the table, but definitely not yet painted to the standard that he set with his Noble. This model also shows off Chris's armor washing technique well.
I'm sure this is a model which will look great when finished, although he better hurry because he has a unit of Lothern Sea Guard to paint this month and he is already short on time thanks to a 2-week jaunt to Singapore at the end of the month. Get painting, Chris!
I'll have a final shot of Chris's models in my wrap-up post as well.
Brandon
Unfortunately for Chris, he wasn't able to get his High Elf Prince completely painted, although he worked furiously this past weekend to get as much done as possible. As you can see, he got most of the figure painted, minus the base, and was able to get shading and some beginning layers going on a lot of it as well. It's very much a model that you wouldn't think twice about seeing on the table, but definitely not yet painted to the standard that he set with his Noble. This model also shows off Chris's armor washing technique well.
I'm sure this is a model which will look great when finished, although he better hurry because he has a unit of Lothern Sea Guard to paint this month and he is already short on time thanks to a 2-week jaunt to Singapore at the end of the month. Get painting, Chris!
I'll have a final shot of Chris's models in my wrap-up post as well.
Brandon
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: Empire
Well, the deadline has come and gone and Challenge 1 of the LoDH Tale of Four Gamers has come to an end. I'll be posting updates on everyone's finished (or perhaps unfinished!) models and then I'll have a wrap-up post with some final comments and the scoring for Challenge 1. Only Justin has yet to turn in his pictures, although he assures me has has taken said pictures and only has to find the cord to connect his camera to the computer in order to send them to me. A likely excuse, Justin! I should have expected as much from a well known ne'er-do-well such as him.
I don't have much of an update for my Captain of the Empire, as he was pretty well finished earlier this month. I did, however, finish basing him- my first model ever to have paint on it's base!
I had a bit of a rough time with the lighting while taking these pictures. I'm not an experienced photographer by any stretch of the imagination, so I apologize if the details aren't as clear as they might possibly be.
Here is my finished General of the Empire on warhorse, a model I am pretty proud of. For his armor, I tried a bit of a NMM effect while using metallic paint, so it's really metallic-non-metallic metal. Weird, I know. I think it worked out pretty well, although I'm afraid the pictures don't show it as well as they could. I used a base of Chaos Black and Boltgun Metal and then layered it by adding in amounts of Mithril Silver until I was using pure Mithril. I think it looks great in person and has exactly the high-polished look that I think a General of the Empire, especially one from Averland, should have.
This angle doesn't show off much of the armor, but I wanted to show off the cloak which I was also proud of as it required many, many layers of yellow to paint. It's not Golden Demon quality, but I was concerned that I didn't have enough yellow in the model to really scream out "Averland!" and the cloak took the model all the way up to 11 (which, as the great philosopher Nigel Tufnel points out, is one more than 10).
There you have it- Challenge 1 completed! I'll have another picture of both models included in my forthcoming wrap-up post.
Brandon
I don't have much of an update for my Captain of the Empire, as he was pretty well finished earlier this month. I did, however, finish basing him- my first model ever to have paint on it's base!
I had a bit of a rough time with the lighting while taking these pictures. I'm not an experienced photographer by any stretch of the imagination, so I apologize if the details aren't as clear as they might possibly be.
Here is my finished General of the Empire on warhorse, a model I am pretty proud of. For his armor, I tried a bit of a NMM effect while using metallic paint, so it's really metallic-non-metallic metal. Weird, I know. I think it worked out pretty well, although I'm afraid the pictures don't show it as well as they could. I used a base of Chaos Black and Boltgun Metal and then layered it by adding in amounts of Mithril Silver until I was using pure Mithril. I think it looks great in person and has exactly the high-polished look that I think a General of the Empire, especially one from Averland, should have.
This angle doesn't show off much of the armor, but I wanted to show off the cloak which I was also proud of as it required many, many layers of yellow to paint. It's not Golden Demon quality, but I was concerned that I didn't have enough yellow in the model to really scream out "Averland!" and the cloak took the model all the way up to 11 (which, as the great philosopher Nigel Tufnel points out, is one more than 10).
There you have it- Challenge 1 completed! I'll have another picture of both models included in my forthcoming wrap-up post.
Brandon
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Impress Women! Wow your friends! Be a savvy Internet Gentleman!
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Brandon
Brandon
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: Skaven
Well hello! Let me introduce myself: my name is Warlord Cam Ratpainter, and I'm here to give you the low-down on the Skaven army in the TLoDHFAWHFBToFG. As soon as we made the decision to explore the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, I quickly noticed that Warlord Queek Headtaker was by far the coolest looking mini of all the armies, so I settled on the Skaven army. Naturally, the army will be Clan Mors, with Queek laying waste to all in his path. With that in mind, it's important that I try to make Queek look like as much of a BA as possible to better strike fear in to the hearts of my enemies.
I'm a bit behind in the competition, but I'm hoping to make a strong showing to finish out these last few days. My Warlock Engineer is only primed at this point, but I do have Queek completely based (it took forever!). So the plan at this point is to get the WE based as quickly as possible, and then dual-highlight the models at the same time. Anyway, on to the Q-man.
I really like the red armor that Queek is typically portrayed in. Because I'm cheap, I don't use GW paints (I use a set of acrylics), and therefore have to mix my paints each time to get the desired colors. I'm happy with the red I created, and later on I'll be adding some fiery highlights to really make the armor pop. The gold will be a challenge, as NMM always is, but to be honest I'm just not a big metal paint person.
While fooling around with paint mixing, I made a light, almost powder blue that I decided to use for Queek's accent cloth under his armor. It felt like a gamble, but I really like the way it contrasts with the deep red of the armor.
I went for a pretty bleached-bone white for the skeletons on Queek's trophy rack. I think it's maybe a little against the norm for a rat to not be grimy, but I like the idea of of Queek valuing his trophies so much that he keeps them shiny and polished, to better taunt his enemies.
So there's Queek. He needs some work, but I'm feeling good about his progress. Now if only that pesky Warlock Engineer would get some paint on him!
Cam
I'm a bit behind in the competition, but I'm hoping to make a strong showing to finish out these last few days. My Warlock Engineer is only primed at this point, but I do have Queek completely based (it took forever!). So the plan at this point is to get the WE based as quickly as possible, and then dual-highlight the models at the same time. Anyway, on to the Q-man.
I really like the red armor that Queek is typically portrayed in. Because I'm cheap, I don't use GW paints (I use a set of acrylics), and therefore have to mix my paints each time to get the desired colors. I'm happy with the red I created, and later on I'll be adding some fiery highlights to really make the armor pop. The gold will be a challenge, as NMM always is, but to be honest I'm just not a big metal paint person.
While fooling around with paint mixing, I made a light, almost powder blue that I decided to use for Queek's accent cloth under his armor. It felt like a gamble, but I really like the way it contrasts with the deep red of the armor.
I went for a pretty bleached-bone white for the skeletons on Queek's trophy rack. I think it's maybe a little against the norm for a rat to not be grimy, but I like the idea of of Queek valuing his trophies so much that he keeps them shiny and polished, to better taunt his enemies.
So there's Queek. He needs some work, but I'm feeling good about his progress. Now if only that pesky Warlock Engineer would get some paint on him!
Cam
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: Chaos Knights
Today I got Justin to send me some pictures of his WIP Chaos Knights Champion and Standard Bearer for this month's challenge. From the outset, Justin planned to paint a basecoat only on both models before adding any additional layers of shading or highlighting. That way he would have fully painted models that counted as complete for the competition and could take his time painting them up to a higher standard later. Games Workshop uses this technique in a lot of their online tutorials, I think primarily because it is easier to create an article with a progression of pictures of the whole model rather than individual pieces. How does Justin's "(Not Very) 'Eavy Metal" technique measure up? Let's find out.
As Justin is painting an army devoted to Nurgle, we can expect to see lots of Nurgly colors throughout- lots of earth tones in greens and browns. These Chaos Knights are no exception. Justin wanted to carry the Nurgle theme right down to the horses themselves and paint them to look rotting and diseased. While he is only sticking to basecoating at this point, he has painted two legs of the horse up through the highlights so he could nail down his painting blueprint. He started with a basecoat of Khemri Brown and highlighted the legs with increasing amounts of Bleached Bone until he reached a pure Bleached Bone final highlight. If you look carefully you can see where he has painted very fine veins of Regal Blue over the legs so that the horse's flesh looks kind of sickly. The final step is a liberal wash of Gryphonne Sepia.
Justin says the key to painting veins is to remember that veins stem from the heart, so they should always branch out towards the extremities and never towards the center of a model. Justin isn't a doctor, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I would believe whatever he says.
All of the armor was painted with a 2:1 mix of Boltgun Metal and Gretchin Green. I think it looks really good. It's got a richness to it (is that the word? richness? fullness? saturated? someone help me out here) without being bright and un-Nurgle-like. The accent trim and chainmail were painted with a simple coat of Tin Bitz. Here is another shot where you can see the veins painted on the front left leg of the horse. Note how he appears to have failed a panic test against a Terror-causing lampshade.
Justin followed this same procedure for painting the unit's Standard Bearer. He plans to freehand a Nurgle icon onto the banner, but that feature probably wont make it in under the deadline for this challenge. I'll be sure to post pictures of the finished model when he gets it done though.
It looks like Justin's strategy is going to pay off and he will be able to turn in two "completed" models to fulfill the challenge requirements. I think this is one unit that will look great when the rest of the knights have been painted up and I'll be sure to post pictures of the fully painted unit when they are done. Well, three of the four contestants have made some real headway towards finishing the challenge, but where is our intrepid Skaven companion? Has he done anything at all? Is he done already? Is he laying in wait in the vast subterranean passageways of the Under-Empire planning our demise? Stick around because Cam himself- the man, the pig, the legend- should be along shortly to give us an update on his progress.
Brandon
As Justin is painting an army devoted to Nurgle, we can expect to see lots of Nurgly colors throughout- lots of earth tones in greens and browns. These Chaos Knights are no exception. Justin wanted to carry the Nurgle theme right down to the horses themselves and paint them to look rotting and diseased. While he is only sticking to basecoating at this point, he has painted two legs of the horse up through the highlights so he could nail down his painting blueprint. He started with a basecoat of Khemri Brown and highlighted the legs with increasing amounts of Bleached Bone until he reached a pure Bleached Bone final highlight. If you look carefully you can see where he has painted very fine veins of Regal Blue over the legs so that the horse's flesh looks kind of sickly. The final step is a liberal wash of Gryphonne Sepia.
Justin says the key to painting veins is to remember that veins stem from the heart, so they should always branch out towards the extremities and never towards the center of a model. Justin isn't a doctor, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I would believe whatever he says.
All of the armor was painted with a 2:1 mix of Boltgun Metal and Gretchin Green. I think it looks really good. It's got a richness to it (is that the word? richness? fullness? saturated? someone help me out here) without being bright and un-Nurgle-like. The accent trim and chainmail were painted with a simple coat of Tin Bitz. Here is another shot where you can see the veins painted on the front left leg of the horse. Note how he appears to have failed a panic test against a Terror-causing lampshade.
Justin followed this same procedure for painting the unit's Standard Bearer. He plans to freehand a Nurgle icon onto the banner, but that feature probably wont make it in under the deadline for this challenge. I'll be sure to post pictures of the finished model when he gets it done though.
It looks like Justin's strategy is going to pay off and he will be able to turn in two "completed" models to fulfill the challenge requirements. I think this is one unit that will look great when the rest of the knights have been painted up and I'll be sure to post pictures of the fully painted unit when they are done. Well, three of the four contestants have made some real headway towards finishing the challenge, but where is our intrepid Skaven companion? Has he done anything at all? Is he done already? Is he laying in wait in the vast subterranean passageways of the Under-Empire planning our demise? Stick around because Cam himself- the man, the pig, the legend- should be along shortly to give us an update on his progress.
Brandon
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: Empire General
Yesterday I posted pictures of my (nearly) finished Empire Captain with Battle Standard. Once he was done, I turned my attention to my General on a warhorse. When modeling the General, I really didn't spend any time worrying about whether or not his wargear would be WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Coming from 40K, WYSIWYG is typically, if not a huge deal (nobody wants to be That F'ing Guy), at least encouraged wherever possible. Most gamers are ok with proxies in a friendly match, but no one is that excited about playing against your Tactical Sergeant counts-as Marneus Calgar. In Fantasy, I just don't see how it is possible to be WYSIWYG with your characters without having a ton of individual models you can swap out as needed. With the differences in magic items available to them, it just wouldn't be practical to have one Captain modeled with the Sword of Striking, and have to swap out for another Captain if you want to take the Hammer of Judgment. Long story short- I'm not concerned about whether or not my General or Captain are holding the right weapons. That being said, I just modeled my General in a way that I thought looked cool. I gave him a lance, because number 1, it's baller, and number 2, I figured at some point in the future if I wanted to have a BSB on a warhorse I've got a stand in ready to go. I didn't attach that weird baby ribbon thing that comes in the kit. It creeps me out a bit, to be honest. I gave him a pistol in his other hand, again, just because it looked cool. I have some other bits and bobs that I want to put on later, like a sword in a scabbard and his cloak, but I don't think those will make it in to this challenge.
In this picture you can see that I started from the ground up with this model. I painted the horse first and then worked outwards in the various layers of cloth, chainmail, and armor. The yellow I painted like I did for all the yellow on my Captain. I started with a layer of Snakebite Leather, to give the Yellow a lighter base to cover than the black. Then I painted Golden Yellow completely over the basecoat before giving the area a wash of Ogryn Flesh. Next I layered Golden Yellow back on, leaving the wash in the recesses. Finally I highlighted with Sunburst Yellow mixed with a little bit of Bleached Bone.
I decided to paint the horse's armor gold, as befits a General of the richest army in the Empire. I started with a basecoat of Shining Gold and Scorched Brown. I then washed the armor with Devlan Mud and layered Shining Gold followed by Shining Gold and Mithril Silver mixed. As you can see in this picture, the overall effect was a little more like bronze than gold.
I remedied this by later painting on a layer of Burnished Gold which has more yellow pigment in it. For the armor decorations, I wanted them to look like the metal itself was colored, rather than having been painted over. I mixed a little Boltgun Metal into Chaos Black for the basecoat, and then added increasing amounts of Codex Grey for the highlights after washing the basecoat with Badab Black. I followed the same process for the yellow lettering using Golden Yellow and Shining Gold. Does the effect work? I'm not sure, to be honest. The yellow didn't really preserve the metal flakes in the paint as well as the black did, so I think that was a wasted effort. I'm not displeased with the black, but I don't know if it looks as good with the golden armor underneath it. I'll see how it looks once the entire model is finished.
5 days to go and I'm almost there. Will anyone else join me at the finish line? Stay tuned for more.
Brandon
In this picture you can see that I started from the ground up with this model. I painted the horse first and then worked outwards in the various layers of cloth, chainmail, and armor. The yellow I painted like I did for all the yellow on my Captain. I started with a layer of Snakebite Leather, to give the Yellow a lighter base to cover than the black. Then I painted Golden Yellow completely over the basecoat before giving the area a wash of Ogryn Flesh. Next I layered Golden Yellow back on, leaving the wash in the recesses. Finally I highlighted with Sunburst Yellow mixed with a little bit of Bleached Bone.
I decided to paint the horse's armor gold, as befits a General of the richest army in the Empire. I started with a basecoat of Shining Gold and Scorched Brown. I then washed the armor with Devlan Mud and layered Shining Gold followed by Shining Gold and Mithril Silver mixed. As you can see in this picture, the overall effect was a little more like bronze than gold.
I remedied this by later painting on a layer of Burnished Gold which has more yellow pigment in it. For the armor decorations, I wanted them to look like the metal itself was colored, rather than having been painted over. I mixed a little Boltgun Metal into Chaos Black for the basecoat, and then added increasing amounts of Codex Grey for the highlights after washing the basecoat with Badab Black. I followed the same process for the yellow lettering using Golden Yellow and Shining Gold. Does the effect work? I'm not sure, to be honest. The yellow didn't really preserve the metal flakes in the paint as well as the black did, so I think that was a wasted effort. I'm not displeased with the black, but I don't know if it looks as good with the golden armor underneath it. I'll see how it looks once the entire model is finished.
5 days to go and I'm almost there. Will anyone else join me at the finish line? Stay tuned for more.
Brandon
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: High Elf Noble
Chris is almost finished with his High Elf Noble carrying the Battle Standard, and not a minute too soon as he only has 5 days left to paint his mounted Prince. Chris has gone for the classic blue and white High Elf colors with his army, which should give him a crisp, bright army that really stands out on the table. To continue that crisp, clean feeling into the silver armor, Chris washed Asurmen Blue over a Mithril Silver basecoat before drybrushing Mithril back over the top. The bit of blue left in the recesses gives the armor a cold, sterile feeling really appropriate to the High Elves. In these WIP pics you can see the effect:
Also notice the really bright colors he has gotten on the shield. Chris managed this by highlighting Golden Yellow with Sunburst Yellow and Skull White and Enchanted Blue with Ice Blue and Space Wolves Grey. In these last pictures, you can see the final highlights on the shield and also how he painted the gems. If you're going to play High Elves, you gotta know how to paint gems! Chris painted his gems with layers of Mechrite Red, Red Gore, Blood Red, and Skull White.
If you look carefully, you can even see that Chris has painted the eyes of his Noble blue, a very clever piece of work that required the use of a toothpick as a painting implement. They say the face is the most important part of a model, but its also one of the most difficult sometimes. Great work, Chris!
Be on the lookout for more from Chris as the deadline approaches.
Brandon
Also notice the really bright colors he has gotten on the shield. Chris managed this by highlighting Golden Yellow with Sunburst Yellow and Skull White and Enchanted Blue with Ice Blue and Space Wolves Grey. In these last pictures, you can see the final highlights on the shield and also how he painted the gems. If you're going to play High Elves, you gotta know how to paint gems! Chris painted his gems with layers of Mechrite Red, Red Gore, Blood Red, and Skull White.
If you look carefully, you can even see that Chris has painted the eyes of his Noble blue, a very clever piece of work that required the use of a toothpick as a painting implement. They say the face is the most important part of a model, but its also one of the most difficult sometimes. Great work, Chris!
Be on the lookout for more from Chris as the deadline approaches.
Brandon
Monday, August 30, 2010
Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1: Empire Captain
As you can read in my ToFG Month 1 post, I have decide to start an Empire army. After reading the army book and flipping through the really cool Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire book, I decided to paint my army in the colors of the Averland province. I liked the look of all the Handgunners and artillery available to the Empire and while I really like the fluff for the city of Nuln, I didn't want to do an all out Nuln army (playing Blood Angels definitely had a little to do with this- I'm tired of painting red!). I also thought that the Black and Yellow of Averland looked great together and their reputation as the richest province in the Empire would give me opportunities to really bling out my characters and special units/war machines.
The Empire is perhaps the only army that can be built entirely in plastics, and GW's Empire General kit is a must-have for any aspiring Elector Count. For under $25 you get 2 General or Captain figures, one mounted, and the option for a Battle Standard Bearer along with several different armament options. Really good value in my estimation. For the contest I decided to assemble a mounted General and a Captain on foot with the Battle Standard.
For my Captain on foot, I decided ahead of time that I wanted to go for a high quality tabletop standard figure. I wasn't going to spend a lot of time blending, or doing time consuming techniques like Non-Metallic Metal. What I wanted was a model with clean lines and moderate levels of shading and highlighting that would look great on the table leading my army to war. Here he is after I got the main figure basecoated and applied a wash and then layered the basecoat color back over leaving the darker colors in the recesses.
I added a layer of highlights to the Captain and then painted the Battle Standard. The Battle Standard was a breeze to paint, the wings are great for drybrushing. With the main focus of the Standard being the skeleton, I wanted the wings to have a decayed, rotting feel to them. I based them white, then washed devlan mud all over and drybrushed them once with bleached bone and then a second, lighter drybrush of skull white. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. For the robes on the skeleton I simply based the whole area in codex gray and then gave it a liberal wash of badab black and highlighted the edges with codex gray. The most time consuming part by far was painting the yellow and black banner, yellow is every bit as annoying to paint over black as red is. Here is the finished product (minus the all important base).
I'm very pleased with the overall figure. I think I was able to get a model that will look great with my army and I was able to paint it over the course of a about a week giving myself lots of time to work on my mounted General. Stay tuned for a WIP post on my General as well as updates on the other challengers as well.
Brandon
The Empire is perhaps the only army that can be built entirely in plastics, and GW's Empire General kit is a must-have for any aspiring Elector Count. For under $25 you get 2 General or Captain figures, one mounted, and the option for a Battle Standard Bearer along with several different armament options. Really good value in my estimation. For the contest I decided to assemble a mounted General and a Captain on foot with the Battle Standard.
For my Captain on foot, I decided ahead of time that I wanted to go for a high quality tabletop standard figure. I wasn't going to spend a lot of time blending, or doing time consuming techniques like Non-Metallic Metal. What I wanted was a model with clean lines and moderate levels of shading and highlighting that would look great on the table leading my army to war. Here he is after I got the main figure basecoated and applied a wash and then layered the basecoat color back over leaving the darker colors in the recesses.
I added a layer of highlights to the Captain and then painted the Battle Standard. The Battle Standard was a breeze to paint, the wings are great for drybrushing. With the main focus of the Standard being the skeleton, I wanted the wings to have a decayed, rotting feel to them. I based them white, then washed devlan mud all over and drybrushed them once with bleached bone and then a second, lighter drybrush of skull white. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. For the robes on the skeleton I simply based the whole area in codex gray and then gave it a liberal wash of badab black and highlighted the edges with codex gray. The most time consuming part by far was painting the yellow and black banner, yellow is every bit as annoying to paint over black as red is. Here is the finished product (minus the all important base).
I'm very pleased with the overall figure. I think I was able to get a model that will look great with my army and I was able to paint it over the course of a about a week giving myself lots of time to work on my mounted General. Stay tuned for a WIP post on my General as well as updates on the other challengers as well.
Brandon
The Tale of Four Gamers - Challenge 1
As I stated before, the release of Warhammer Fantasy's 8th edition and the "Tale of Four Gamers" feature on www.games-workshop.com prompted the Legion of Doomed Husbands to issue their own army building challenge. Unfortunately for us, none of us really have time to build and paint an entire battalion in a month like the GW guys did, so we settled for a little smaller gauntlet being thrown.
Before I get into the challenge, I thought I would lay out the philosophy behind the competition. All of us had a lot of interested in the Fantasy game and wanted to get started on an army. I think we all also had in the back of our minds the memory of starting our 40K armies and how it was easy to get burned out on trying to build an army as fast as you can. Consequently, our Tale of Four Gamers contest is based around three main goals:
1. Build a functioning Warhammer Fantasy army- obviously we all want to play the game so the object should be to make that a possibility
2. Spread out the cost of buying a new army- we all have families in various stages of growth and we are all fairly conscious of where our hard-earned dollars are going. By expanding our armies in stages, we keep the month-to-month costs lower.
3. Keep the drudgery of building and painting the army to a minimum- painting one or two boxes at a time keeps you from staring at a mountain of plastic and wondering how you will ever get it done.
With those goals in mind, we started out our competition slowly. Here is our challenge for month 1:
1. Competitors will have until Saturday, September 4 to completely assemble and paint 2 character models from their chosen Warhammer Fantasy army range. For the purposes of the competition, "character model" refers to any single Lord or Hero choice, or a Champion and Standard Bearer model from any Core, Special, or Rare unit.
2. Models should be photographed and photos sent to me for distribution (and also to post here on the blog)
3. This competition is worth 40 points total, 20 points per model. 75% of a model's total possible points will be awarded for completion, including basing (always a speed bump for me!), and the remaining 25% will be awarded based on quality of paint job as determined by the other 3 competitors.
With the rules laid down, we each chose our armies and characters and got to work. The lineup is as follows:
Brandon- Empire army of Averland- General of the Empire and Captain of the Empire with Battle Standard
Cam- Skaven Clan Mors army- Warlord Queek Headtaker and Warlock Engineer
Justin- Warriors of Chaos army of Nurgle- Chaos Knights Champion and Standard Bearer
Chris- High Elf army of High Elfiness- High Elf Prince and High Elf Noble with Battle Standard
The deadline is almost on us and we have all been working hard to get our models knocked out. I'll be posting some individual competitor updates with WIP pictures soon.
Brandon
Before I get into the challenge, I thought I would lay out the philosophy behind the competition. All of us had a lot of interested in the Fantasy game and wanted to get started on an army. I think we all also had in the back of our minds the memory of starting our 40K armies and how it was easy to get burned out on trying to build an army as fast as you can. Consequently, our Tale of Four Gamers contest is based around three main goals:
1. Build a functioning Warhammer Fantasy army- obviously we all want to play the game so the object should be to make that a possibility
2. Spread out the cost of buying a new army- we all have families in various stages of growth and we are all fairly conscious of where our hard-earned dollars are going. By expanding our armies in stages, we keep the month-to-month costs lower.
3. Keep the drudgery of building and painting the army to a minimum- painting one or two boxes at a time keeps you from staring at a mountain of plastic and wondering how you will ever get it done.
With those goals in mind, we started out our competition slowly. Here is our challenge for month 1:
1. Competitors will have until Saturday, September 4 to completely assemble and paint 2 character models from their chosen Warhammer Fantasy army range. For the purposes of the competition, "character model" refers to any single Lord or Hero choice, or a Champion and Standard Bearer model from any Core, Special, or Rare unit.
2. Models should be photographed and photos sent to me for distribution (and also to post here on the blog)
3. This competition is worth 40 points total, 20 points per model. 75% of a model's total possible points will be awarded for completion, including basing (always a speed bump for me!), and the remaining 25% will be awarded based on quality of paint job as determined by the other 3 competitors.
With the rules laid down, we each chose our armies and characters and got to work. The lineup is as follows:
Brandon- Empire army of Averland- General of the Empire and Captain of the Empire with Battle Standard
Cam- Skaven Clan Mors army- Warlord Queek Headtaker and Warlock Engineer
Justin- Warriors of Chaos army of Nurgle- Chaos Knights Champion and Standard Bearer
Chris- High Elf army of High Elfiness- High Elf Prince and High Elf Noble with Battle Standard
The deadline is almost on us and we have all been working hard to get our models knocked out. I'll be posting some individual competitor updates with WIP pictures soon.
Brandon
First Post - Welcome to the Legion of Doom... -ed Husbands
Hello and welcome to the Legion of Doomed Husbands Blog! The Legion of Doomed Husbands is a Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40K gaming group based in Cypress, Texas (with an Austin satellite). Why the Legion of Doomed Husbands? Well for one it sounds mildly scary, especially if you just read the first bit. But also, all the members of the Legion of Doomed Husbands are husbands and we are all doomed by a growing addiction to tiny plastic men worth more than their weight in gold (and thereby doomed to be mocked by our wives for "playing with dolls"). So it's not just a catchy moniker.
I've wanted to start a blog ever since we got into the hobby about a year ago. I thought it would be a fun way for us to share our heroic miniature exploits with others so that we don't have to endure their rolling of eyes in a face-to-face situation. I hope to use this blog to post army updates, battle reports, painting tips, and various other Warhammer related miscellanea.
So who are the Legion of Doomed Husbands? Well there is me, Brandon, your humble guide through these various misadventures. I am currently playing a Blood Angels army in 40K and have just started an Empire army in Fantasy. Joining me on the blog is my brother Cam, our Austin outcast, who plays an effeminate but feisty Eldar army in 40K and a newly started Skaven army in Fantasy. Next we have Chris who plays Chaos Space Marines and is starting a High Elf army. Last, and possibly least, depending on whether or not I like him at any given moment, we have Justin, the proud owner of a ramshackle Ork horde and recent devotee to the Warriors of Chaos.
You may have noticed that we all are currently in the beginning stages of collecting a Fantasy army. With the release of 8th edition this summer, we thought it would be a great time to jump right in to "the thinking man's Warhammer." Encouraged by the recent "Tale of Four Gamers" feature on the Games Workshop website, we decided to hold our own Tale of Four Gamers challenge. And thus was born The Legion of Doomed Husbands First Annual Warhammer Fantasy Battle Tale of Four Gamers, or TLoDHFAWHFBToFG for short.
Stay tuned for more upcoming posts on the TLoDHFA... you get the idea. The first challenge is coming to an end this Saturday so I'll be posting pictures from each contestant showing their entries in various stages of the process. I'll also have a post detailing the rules of the contest and the particulars of this month's challenge.
(This space left intentionally blank until I come up with an award-winning catchphrase)
Brandon
I've wanted to start a blog ever since we got into the hobby about a year ago. I thought it would be a fun way for us to share our heroic miniature exploits with others so that we don't have to endure their rolling of eyes in a face-to-face situation. I hope to use this blog to post army updates, battle reports, painting tips, and various other Warhammer related miscellanea.
So who are the Legion of Doomed Husbands? Well there is me, Brandon, your humble guide through these various misadventures. I am currently playing a Blood Angels army in 40K and have just started an Empire army in Fantasy. Joining me on the blog is my brother Cam, our Austin outcast, who plays an effeminate but feisty Eldar army in 40K and a newly started Skaven army in Fantasy. Next we have Chris who plays Chaos Space Marines and is starting a High Elf army. Last, and possibly least, depending on whether or not I like him at any given moment, we have Justin, the proud owner of a ramshackle Ork horde and recent devotee to the Warriors of Chaos.
You may have noticed that we all are currently in the beginning stages of collecting a Fantasy army. With the release of 8th edition this summer, we thought it would be a great time to jump right in to "the thinking man's Warhammer." Encouraged by the recent "Tale of Four Gamers" feature on the Games Workshop website, we decided to hold our own Tale of Four Gamers challenge. And thus was born The Legion of Doomed Husbands First Annual Warhammer Fantasy Battle Tale of Four Gamers, or TLoDHFAWHFBToFG for short.
Stay tuned for more upcoming posts on the TLoDHFA... you get the idea. The first challenge is coming to an end this Saturday so I'll be posting pictures from each contestant showing their entries in various stages of the process. I'll also have a post detailing the rules of the contest and the particulars of this month's challenge.
(This space left intentionally blank until I come up with an award-winning catchphrase)
Brandon
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