Vinyl Countdown (part 3)

This is actually a couple steps later. Though I did the bulk of the work in one step, which I think was a mistake. I tried to keep a consistency of finish by doing a bunch at once, but I think it was too much to tackle and still do to a decent level of finish. I fear visible joint lines, so try to do too much at once. I hope it turns out OK with some paint on it. I still want to "enhance" the tail first.

The final step aside, however, I am learning to love the color shapers I purchased last winter but haven't used til now. I don't know how useful they would be on small scale figures, but at this size they've been great. Especially in terms of a nice finish (which always seems to be a struggle for me.)

I included a ruler in one pic, for a sense of scale. The stock Munny Mini, with its normal head, is about 4" tall to the top of the head.

Commission Openings

Due to things way beyond my control, it looks like I've lost a couple of my commission jobs without much warning. Hopefully neither is permanent, but, as it's all out of my hands, I'm not going to rely on anything at this moment and need to make sure I can pay my bills!

So that leaves me with a bit of an opening that I'd like to fill ASAP. Preferably larger painting jobs, but I'm open to working out individual arrangements as required. I'm also open to modeling/sculpting/converting work. As I've mentioned previously, I can also produce hand painted maps.

Poke about this blog (tags for painting, sculpting, etc. are on the right) to browse photos.

I can be contacted privately at ((name of this blog)) @gmail.com.

The Vinyl Countdown (part 2)

More work on the custom Munny Mini.

I need to think of a name. I've still got plenty of time to spend with it while I finish. I will think of something.

The Vinyl Countdown

There's a vinyl toy show at a local gallery, in a little over a month. I've been wanting to do more sculpting. Seems like a good excuse to douse the procrastination and try my hand at a custom vinyl.

The basis is a Munny Mini. I'm adapting one of my watercolor critters to the style.






Since I've entirely replaced the head, I've got a couple ideas for doing something else with that.

Wheel & Townies

A little bit of painting. Just finished a doomwheel for a commission. It was tricky because it was entirely assembled. When I was looking at my own kit (still on sprue) I knew I would have to paint it in about 3-4 pieces and finish assembling it afterward. This looked like it was going to be a nightmare, but didn't turn out to bad.




I also snuck in a little bit of pointless painting for myself last night. The three figures below are from one of Reaper Miniatures packs of "Townfolk." I still need to figure out how to do the bases in a way that seems to make sense. They've got a large textured out doors look to them. I suppose that could make sense (outdoor eating area or indoor with a dirt floor), but I think a wood floor might look better.


The second pack of Townfolk I've got contains a beggar, blacksmith, and a young (?) lady showing a bit of leg, perhaps selling something -- though I don't want to make any assumptions. ;) They are primed up and ready to go.

I don't actually have a purpose for these figures. I just like them and wanted to paint them. Maybe I will build some buildings for a little town scene to use on battlefields. Maybe I will put together a skirmish game. Maybe they will just go in a cabinet.

Siege at the Tower '11

Four of the Team BREWS Clevelanders headed down to Columbus for this year's Siege at the Tower, at the Guardtower game store. The roads & weather appeared clear, but we had some tense moments on the way down, with slippery patches on the highway and occasional snow. But both cars made it down (let's call them... Team Brews West and Team Brews East/Central.)

We brought with us.... Ogre Kingdoms, Dwarfs, Dark Elves, and my Marienburgers (Empire.) The rest of the pack (about 20) was an odd mix. No High Elves or Vampires, and only one each of Warriors of Chaos, Daemons, and Skaven. On the other hand there were two Ogres, two Beasts, two Bretonnnians, one each Empire and Wood Elves. (I think I'm remembering those numbers correctly.) Dark Elves were the most represented with three armies. So basically -- in my opinion -- there were a limited number of "top tier" armies and a whole lot of middle and lower power armies. This may have had one of two effects... One, just one or two of the armies would dominate, or Two, everyone would have a good shot at it. As it turned out, I think it was the latter.


My army was essentially:

1 General
1 Lv. 4 Mage
1 Battle Standard Bearer
2 Engineers

2 x 30 Swordsmen, each with 10 Handgunner detachment
1 x 30 Spearmen with 10 Crossbow detachment
1 x 25 Greatswords
2 x Cannon
2 x Mortar

That's it. Nothing fancy. The general had the Mace of Helstrum, the Mage had the Rod of Power. There were a few other minor magic items (wards, armour, etc.) but nothing too tricksy.




No detailed battle reports this time (again.) I was really just looking to relax and play a few games. I was hopping to not lose all of them.


Game One
vs. Brett's Lizards




The scenario was Meeting Engagement. (I think that's the one. It's the scenario with the diagonal set up and units held in reserve.) I deployed second, though that was somewhat irrelevant. Considering the two armies, I had to hunker down in that far corner.

All of my army was on the table except my mage and one mortar (seen in the upper right corner in this deployment shot) My opponent had all of his stuff on the table except his Slann and its Temple Guard.

We had several pieces of Mysterious Terrain (all woods and rivers -- this was a tournament-wide rule.) The river -- much to the chagrin of my hnandgunners who deployed in it -- was a River of Fire or some such thing. The woods in which I deployed made my units inside cause Fear.

It was a bit of a slow, shoot & magic match with few casualties. From the deployment, you can see that the Stegadon and big Saurus unit in the foreground had a bit of marching before they got to the action. I nailed the big lizard with artillery for something like 3-4 turns, and the Slann kept healing it (Lore of Life.) Finally I was able to bring it down with enough wounds in a single turn, before it got to me. The Sauruses (Sauri?) never made it to combat. They rolled horrible charge rolls three turns in a roll. That was my denied flank, and it worked.

The Slann also never even approached combat, nor made it to the area of the tower. So the only close combats were some scouting Skinks on the far side of the river, and the Sauruses in that same area. The Skinks popped up near the the artillery, moved up and started trying to blowgun the crew. My Handgunners saw a dual opportunity. They charged out of the Flaming River of Fiery Pain and Death, and had a better shot at beating the Skinks in combat than they did shooting at them. They won the first round, drove them off and pursued to a safe spot on the flank.

The Sauruses advanced, and slowed for at least one turn to try to cross the river. After they did so, I moved my greatswords and swordsmen up to double-team them. But by the time this all happened, it was late in the game and neither of us could cause enough casualties to gain any VP.

So in the end, I lost a unit of handgunners who fled and never rallied. My only other casualties were from some Salamander fire on my Spearmen in the woods. I killed the Stegadon, the Skink scouts for VP. I had nearly wiped out a unit of Skinks + Krox, but my opponent hit the remainder (one Skink and one Krox with a single wound left) behind his army & terrain so I couldn't get to it. At one point the Salamanders were down to a single Sally with one wound left, and two handlers, but they were healed back. Similarly, both units of Sauruses were damaged -- one was below half strength, even after being healed as well.

I got a solid victory out of the match.



Game Two
vs. Berkley's Dark Elves



The scenario was Dawn Attack. During the course of deployment, we learned that the woods in which I deployed (foreground, center) were just normal woods.

Berkley had (from left to right)... Dark Riders, 12 Crossbow, a Lord (Lady, actually) on a Dragon, two units of Warriors and a Chariot hiding between them, a second Chariot beyond the hill, Black Guard and Harpies.

My opponent went first, as was the case in all three games. But one my half of turn one I managed to land two perfect mortar shots, wipe out about 1/2 the Black Guard, wound a mage, kill 1/3 of a unit of Warriors (also with a mage in the unit) and send them fleeing to the back edge of the table, and take out the Dark Riders. I couldn't wound the Dragon or Chariots, but I still thought I had a huge advantage to the game. I even offered to start over.

As it turns out... it wasn't so disastrous to the DE. I was never able to kill the dragon (and certainly not the rider with the inverse ward plus 1+ saves), but I did tie it up the whole game, after it ate a mortar, with a unit of swordsmen. Although I lost my Lv. 4 mage, I did kill off all the black guard, both chariots, and one (or was it two?) unit of spearmen, the enemy BSB and one of the mages. I got the harpies down to one model, but couldn't seal the deal.

The harpies were the MVP on the DE side. They took down a Cannon, Mortar and unit of Crossbowmen. I also lost the rest of the artillery, one unit of handgunners, the Lv 4 (as previously mentioned) and the unit of Swordsmen I fed to the Dragon.

At any rate, the result was a very close draw.




Game Three
vs. Shaun's Beastmen



This one was just a straight-up battle. My opponent had, from left to right...

3 Minos, 2x24 Gors, 20(?) Bestigors, more Gors, Chariot, a Giant, Ungors. Off the table he had three more units (15-18?) of Ambushing troops. I think two were Gors, one was Ungors. One unit of Gors showed up in the first turn, behind my artillery opposite the Minos. The other two came on later, on his side of the table, along my right flank.

My artillery was doomed from the start. Especially on my left. They didn't even get off a decent shot before dying. But they tied up the Minos and ambushing Gors for a couple turns. I forgot to move my Engineer out of danger, so just before he got charged by the Gors, I managed to cast Shield of Thorns on him. I rolled up an amazing 12 S3 hits, but then botched the dice on the actual to-wound roll and only killed something like two of them.

In the woods (which also made my units cause fear -- but I forgot that rule the entire game) my Spearmen, Crossbow and Handgunners (to the right of the woods) tried to stand tall in spite of the overwhelming odds against them. Their job was to hold everything up for a couple turns -- the two big units of Gors, the BSB, the Bray Shaman, the ambushing Gors and the Minos now on my flank. Amazingly, they did far far better than I even hoped.

The shooters faced front and blasted away until the very last minute. The crossbow reformed to face the now frenzied Minos, but angled to avoid disaster for my spearmen. The spearmen moved up to the edge of the woods, right in front of all of the Gors. I had to give up the charge in favor of delaying an extra turn while still pinning them in place. To my surprise, not only did they hold up, they actually did well in combat for several turns!

To their right, my Greatswords, General and Swordsmen with BSB double-teamed the Bestigors. The second round of combat my General took off the Beasty General's head with 6 wounds from the Mace of Helstrum. The few Bestigors left fled and were run down. This left me open to charge into the flank and rear of the combat in which the brave Spearmen were holding.

On my far right, I surprisingly was able to deal with everything else with just a unit of handgunners, a unit of swordsmen and the artillery crew. Not so much the artillery itself... the crews were holding their own in combat, allowing the handgunners to toss away their guns and join in the fight as well!



This was to be repeated in the mess in the photo above. There were also more Gors to the left of the Minos. They ended up panicking after being nearly surrounded by my three combat units at the end of the game. The two units of Gors in the phott were beaten & run down, while the Minos charged past them in the opposite direction. They lost on cow to the crossbowmen in combat, and were then defeated in the last combat of the game buy the handgunners in combat. Amazing as it was. my handgunners sealed the deal and let me table my opponent in turn six by killing two double-frenzied Minos.

This was a hard fought battle. The first two turns it was looking like a Beasty victory. Turn three I was hoping I could pull it back to a draw, but only if I could time everything just right in terms of delaying something, getting into position (thinking two turns in advance...) I was thinking the draw was a slim hope. In the end, everything worked out and I got a massive victory.

The fact that all four of my artillery crews and both units of handgunners held their own and caused several times their value worth of casualties against superior troops was the amusing highlight of the game for me.

Shaun's army was absolutely beautiful! He won the Best Painted award.



Results

The results aren't posted yet, but as I said, Shaun won Best Painted.

I managed to pull off my third First Place (overall) at a Siege tournament. Not only that, but by some miracle I was able to do it with my Marienburgers. I'm not certain what it is about this event, but I've got some sort of unexplained fortune there. It's a lot of the same players, rules, etc. that are used at the other regional events at which I usually do so poorly. Must be my bribes to the judges. ;)

After the event I very quickly ran over to Rivet gallery on the Short North (more on that later) before meeting up with the BREWS and friends for a bit of dinner before heading back up to Cleveland.

Once again, it was a good time, good people & good games. Also, if you're in/around Columbus, the Guardtower is a great store & gaming space.

Last Warm-up, and WIP BSB

I tweaked my Marienburg list one last time and played one more pre-Siege warm-up game against an Ogre Kingdoms army. I did OK, but lost in the end. So my last four games I went 2-2. Not looking like I've got a very good chance at a tournament, but at least I'm winning some games.




Since the army standard is so important in 8th edition WFB, I've finally determined to paint up my limited edition standard bearer... two days before the tournament. Here's a work-in-progress shot of it...


The image is of the maid of Marienburg, a mermaid holding a sword in one hand, a sack of gold in the other.

In contrast to the rest of my (bright as the sun) army, I went with really toned down and dark colors for this one.

Hopefully I finish him in time. Wish me luck -- on both the painting and the actual games. I'll need it in both cases.

WFB Warmup

The Upcoming Siege

This week I played a couple WFB games at 2200 points as a warmup to the annual Siege at the Tower tournament in Columbus. I've gone the past three years and won two of those three times. Both times with Skaven (once old book, once new book.) Two years ago I got flattened when I brought my Marienburgers (Empire.) This year I'm hoping to change the pattern and do well with the ex-Imperials.

2010 Entry
2009 Entry
(No 2008 Entry. There were batreps on Warseer & I still have maps uploaded on the internet, but I can't find the text at the moment.)



Game One

I had to come up with a new list, as most recent games have been either 1500 or 2500 points.

My first game was against High Elves. No pics. We played the scenario in which one counts banners (forget the name.) I was doomed from the start. Deployment hadn't even finished and I joked that I wanted to start over. Yes, my deployment was just that bad.

Still, even with that, my army was outclasses. I had four large combat blocks against four HE combat units that were far better. I had two mages against two far better HE mages. We were probably close in terms of heroes, and the only advantage I had was in artillery... which (in spite of engineers using their re-roll ability) failed to impact the game. It was all over after 3 turns.


Game Two

I just got back from my second game this week. This time with a tweaked list, and fighting Skaven. I figured it would be another good game, since High Elves and Skaven are, in my opinion, two of the strongest armies in the game at the moment. (I'd put them both in the top 4.)



This game went significantly better for me. We played the Meeting Engagement scenario. The pic is from the bottom of the second turn. I went first and in those rounds I dropped the Abomination, destroyed the Plague Furnace and took out 2/3 of the monks pushing it, and caused 5 wounds on the Doomwheel that is in combat with the swordsmen in the photo above.

The shooting in this game made all the difference in this game. I eliminated or crippled the two biggest combat threats before they contacted me. In the previous game, I did nothing so my melee troops were outclassed by the time combat happened.


RPG Animal Sidekick

In my previous entry, I mentioned a bit more about the RPG game. I had previously posted a photo of my sidekick from the character creation session. So here's one of the sidekick from the individual/introduction gaming session recorded in Nob's Journal.

Resolutions for 2011

2011 will be a year of change for me, in terms of gaming. I've lost my previous job and I'm currently (barely) staying afloat by painting figures and other artistic endeavors. So traveling to conventions will be severely limited. But I will be painting a whole lot. The job news was followed up about a week and a half later with news that my wife and I will be having a child. That's going to increasingly cut into my free time. In a strange twist, I've started to dabble in RPGs again, along with some other "old-timers."

Anyway, on with the actual resolutions.


1. Get back into pointless gaming. This is a carry-over from last year. I'm going to throw the "Legendary Battle" into this one as well. I just want to play some interesting non-competitive games again. Although I've going to one in a little over a week, I'm really getting sick of tournaments and the tournament mindset.


2. Paint lots of Romans (and the friends & foes.) Again, a carry over from last year. This year I'd really like to be able to pit two Roman armies against each other for some dramatic civil war action in the late Republic.


3. Cleveland East-side gaming. I'd like to get some gaming in my general part of town. I know there are a few other people around here, so it's just a matter of organization. Ideally I'd like to do something a bit casual. Some friends and I used to get together every other weekend, drink some beers, have some laughs and play some 40k in the basement. Something like that.


4. Make my hobby more profitable. That sounds a bit "unfun" but I assure you it isn't. I've said before that I believe that if one is going to devote 1/4 to 1/3 of their time to their work, it should be something they enjoy, and about which they are passionate. I've learned that lesson the hard way -- I'm now left with nothing to show other than a lot of stress & baggage from almost a decade of suffering at a job that made me miserable and made me feel shitty about myself. I don't want to go back to that. As long as I'm in this position, I want to try to do something positive with it. I'm trying to work on a few different possibilities. This is something I've really got to work hard for, and is probably the most important thing on the list. In terms of survival, that is. OK... everything else on the list is back to less serious business...


5. Paint more landsknechts. I've had some of them forever. I love the figures, and if nothing else I can work them into my Empire army. I'm not even sure I care if I use them. But they take time and I keep postponing working on them based on the idea that it's not efficient use of my time. I need to throw that idea out the window on occasion, and just enjoy painting them once in a while. (I did paint a few in 2010.)


6. Sculpt/Convert more. I've got some ideas. I know I can do it, I just need some more practice. It's a matter of motivation to get over that first obstacle -- starting.


7. Paint Macedonians/Successors. I've got a pile of pikemen. I want to paint them. I always seem to have other things that seem more pressing. Like adding to existing projects rather than starting new ones.


8. Paint Carthaginians. This has got to be one of the easiest to do. I've got a small batch of Carthaginian spearmen. If I paint them, I can mix in a bunch of mercenaries... some Spanish, Numidians, Gauls, etc. Most of those I've already got painted. Tah-dah: Instant Carthaginian army. Added bonus: they're cleaned, assembled, primed and based. They just need paint.


9. Gaming Table - refurbish or replace. I'd like to either repair and refurbish my existing gaming table (table tops that go on the dining room table) or replace them with an entirely new one.



That's it for the moment. Since I went back and added one extra last year, I will stop with nine and leave myself open to add a #10 tomorrow, after I've slept on the list a bit.

2010 Resolution Review

A year ago, I made my first set of "new year gaming resolutions." Everyone else was doing it, and just like I'd jump off a bridge if everyone else was, I made my resolutions. So a quick review...



1. Minimal wargaming budget in 2010.

Success. Well, that was a given, unless I really lost my self control. Yes, I spent sigificantly less on gaming stuff in 2010 than I have in recent years. I also limited the number of conventions/tournaments that required travel expenses.


2. Participate in promoting the hobby.

Success. I ran games and taught people how to play at the only conventions I went to, and I ran games at both of the club Game Days. I've also been painting figures with my mind on having pairs of matched armies.


3. Get back to pointless gaming.

Fail. This one was a bit of a dud. I played in one Black Powder game that someone else ran, and did design one un-even (yet mostly balanced, I think) scenario for the Treachery and Greed campaign. But that was about it.

4. Get into zombies.

Fail. My ideas for a zombie game got pushed to the back corners of my brain. Mmmmm.... braaaaains...


5. Paint lots of Romans (and their friends & foes.)

Mixed. I've painted more Romans, friends and foes. But not at the extreme output I would have liked to. I'm OK with this.


6. Repair & update Skaven.

Mixed. I did most of what I wanted, with the big exception of painting enough of the new clanrats to replace the old ones. I will keep the old ones for big games, but I like the new ones better.


7. Sculpt Hellpit Abomination.

Fail. My sculpting time went elsewhere. Again, I'm fine with that. I will get to the Abom when I get to it. I can continue using the old one in the meantime.


8. Finish Empire steam tank.

Success. Finished that and I finished the war wagon as a convertable war wagon/STank/war altar.


9. Stop reading Warseer.

Success. I peek in at the Historical section semi-regularly, and occasionally peek at some of the painting sections, which have some great stuff in them.


10. Play more ancients/medievals.

Mixed. I played less games overall, but I think I played a decent number of ancients and medievals. I'm still itching for more, though. I'm also looking forward to trying out some new rule sets in 2011.


Addendum: After thinking about it a bit, I like John's idea for a big game. So I'd like to add an 11th resolution to have a really "Legendary Battles" type game of some sort.

Fail. The biggest game was the WFB game I ran at the most recent club game day. It was only 3000 points. I want a BIG, epic, all-day game.



Summary: I count 4 successes, 3 partial successes, and 4 failures. Not a bad record, though it still leaves quite a bit of room for improvement.

I shall now draw up my 2011 resolutions. I'm not just a sheep -- it's good to have goals.