Blood Bowl Card Game

Marghh! Giants!!!

Here is a little something special to keep you busy until my next post. Have a great weekend.

Big Units in Fantasy

That sounds like some odd porn title. but its not what I wanted to talk about today!
One of the issues I battled with this Orc army is how to keep track of all of the boys in the unit. Enter the simple and effective solution.
I picked up some customizable printer labels that you can peel off (here) for another project. For this, you simply cut down the label and put them on the underside of the base. Now you know where the guy goes and change the order over time (like for instance if GW changes the rules on you!).
Initially I used a Sharpie but it was hard to see (unless you have the super cool Silver Sharpie) and its hard to change.

There you go. Your simple tip of the day. 

Orc Boy Champion

A couple of days ago, I showed the completed unit. But today I wanted to share the unit champion in detail. While the standard troopers can get a bit repetitive over a short time, the unit leaders and the characters are nothing short of awesome.

The base is cork board with snow effects. Simple, effective. The rust effect is from Secret Weapon Miniatures. The 'dust' was added to water and applied like a regular thinned paint. 

Orc Boys, Complete!

It seems like eons ago that I started this unit, but they are done! Painting 40 Boys is no laughing matter, let me tell you. But it was great fun painting up all of these orcs. While I generally still hate a few things about the kit, it is an improvement over the prior versions of the main orc foot troops. The biggest issue is that the models are generally too big for their bases and when you trying to squeeze 40 of them into a unit, you have to get a bit creative in how you place them on the bases, and even what arms you use.
Anyway, I am happy how these guys have turned out.  I know that Pappa JJ will be happy as well, or I'll stab him in the eye with all of these spears!

Here is the unit, assembled, and ready for paint.

And here they are, all covered with paint (minus that banner thing). 

Don't worry. I'm not done yet... there is a rather large stack of boys still in my basement!

On the Painting Table- Even More Orc Boys

I am now thirty of forty Orc Boys down. Wahooo!  In fact, as I write this the other four models are dangerously close to being done with the rest of the models. At the moment, I am waiting for some Secret Weapon Miniature supplies to arrive to finish off the unit.

Oddly enough, its taken about this long to start to hit my stride with the unit. Finally, I feel like I have the colors down and further models are taking less and less time. Its an important thing to remember when doing large model count armies like this. It can take awhile to get started and get going, but then the army can be finished pretty quickly.

Here is the last of the second rank, all the individual models.

And in non-ranked up position. Some of the details are yet to come. My next update will show what I finally decided to do with some of the special bits on the models.

Here it is in their full glory (minus a banner that fell off).  Its getting close... so close.

Miniature Monday- Orcs in 4x4

One of the biggest aids in painting large regiments in Warhammer Fantasy Battles (like this huge Orc Boy mob) is to put some of your models on the long regiment bases (like last weeks post), or square monster bases. It helps break up with 'stand in a straight line' phenomenon you can otherwise get. These boys are going to be in the middle of the large unit, shields to be placed up in the air to protect them for the inevitable hail of fire.

For those keeping track of the army, the weapons need the rust effect finalized and the shields with emblems will be placed. Twenty-four down, only sixteen left to go!

Miniature Monday- Orc Boys

I've been busy back at the painting table the last week. The Orc Boys are getting some special attention. Also, I hope to start a new theme on my blog- Miniature Monday.  It goes like this- I don't like some of the things social media gives us. However, I've been enjoying the trend of #MiniatureMonday on Twitter. Its been fun seeing all of the painters out there from all the genres. So join the crowd, post a MiniatureMonday picture! (links were above, give it a go).

Below is the 40 strong unit of boys just waiting to get completed. Oh, how I love the new WFB!
Anyway, the painting has been broken down into manageable groups of 6-8 models at a time. I like this method because it would be impossible to do them all at once (obviously). However, it is a bit frustrating to see how your painting technique and colors used subtly (and not so subtly) change over the course of a few weeks painting the same squad.
I'll let you all see the subtle changes as they occur.

Looking good. I'm in the grove and will be done in no time!

Oh crap! There is how many more to paint! Aghhh! :)

GenCon 2011 Wrap Up

Its only been a month since GenCon Indy, but with summer ending, the kids starting school, and recovering from all of my summer vacations, its been busy around the workshop here. I got the paint brushes out this week to complete the Orc and Goblin army for Papa JJ. Pictures will be coming soon, but I wanted to show you all some of the pictures from Indy!

Steampunk is awesome, right up to the part where I try to wear it. 

For those who haven't heard, the con had over 36,000 attendees this year. That smashes all of the previous GenCon's. And I think that most were there to see the new Star Wars stuff!  FFG games announced the industries worst kept secret just prior to the con that they were acquiring the rights from Lucas to produce just about everything this gamer wants to play that falls into the Star Wars Universe. The X-Wings of War, errr X-Wing game looks fantastic and the card game looks to hold interest to my gaming group as well. The key things I saw were that they are focusing on the 'original' SW story and they are using (new) art over movie stills. Surly FFG hopes to inject new life into the SW story. 

Star Wars Card game- with original art!

Of course, I'm the most interested in the RPG that I hope is announced next year at GenCon. There has been no word on anything about the system, rules, sytle... nothing at this point. But it is safe to consider this the hottest item already for next year!

X-Wing looks great. 

On a personal note, I took one step closer to looking into Warmachine/Hordes. The system and style hasn't bee my thing for a few years now. However, the big fella up there made some threats! However, I did spend a lot of time at the Wyrd both and Malifaux is in my sights for this next year.

Dan (ETW) and me. 

I did get to meet up with Dan from the Eternal Warrior's podcast. We had some lunch and got to play a fun game of Dark Heresy RPG along with some other listeners and Bill from the Gamers Lounge (well sorta!).  More on that next week. It was a blast to hang out for a day with someone that I've spent the last couple of years listening too online. Don't fret, he is still pretty much a douche bag in real life as well!  (I kid, I kid!).

It only took one rum and coke to build up the guts to do this. Yeah, just one!

But to be honest, I spent most of my time playing Pathfinder RPG's in the small room with lots of people! It was a total blast despite the lack of space.

GenCon and Kara Black

I've been back from GenCon for a week and a half and just got my oldest starting school this week (he is a big kinder-gardener now!). So life at the DrGabe blog is coming off of its summer hiatus and back to grind. It was a great summer, filled with a few vacations and of course the big daddy gaming convention of them all, GenCon. 

I'll have more to report about GenCon in the coming days, but I wanted to talk about my miniature that went into the painting contest, Lt Kara Black. This is pretty much all I painted this summer and it was a blast to paint only one model and give it the best I could when it comes to blending in the highlights and shadows. Unfortunately it didn't make it past the first cut, since there really wasn't such a thing at this competition. The winning entries were fantastic, but we were all going up against professional painters who took home almost all of the trophies. 

When I was picking up my entry the organizers were talking about how Marike Reimer was embarrassed to have won all of the Dark Sword Miniature prizes, since she is one of there staff painters. The comment I heard, was "What stuff is there left to get at this point."  Anyway, there is probably a long rant coming about professional painter and the hobby painter somewhere down the road.

So what would have make Kara stand out more? The blending is actually pretty well done, but not perfect. There is space on the back for some freehand work (I was too chicken to do it!), and there were no conversions on the model (something almost all of the winners had, even if it was just the base).  The good news is that its open to enter at Adepticon! :)

Wait, where is the 40K?

Its ok to call off the man hunt- I'm still here, and there is nothing to be overly concerned about.  The truth is that I've been taking some down time with painting. At least painting 40K that is. Now don't try reading too much into this, but its more that that I have a large box of other party single miniatures that I've been picking for the for the last couple of years. In fact, my future painting log looks to be full of single models and not full 40K armies. Don't fret PappaJJ- you're orcs and goblins are still on top of the work list. Well, after I finish this here one model!

Last year at GenCon Indy, I found the Studio McVey models for the first time. The Lt. Kara Black from the now forthcoming Sedition Wars range immediately caught my eye. There is so much to love about this model- the pose, the guns, the extras, and the incredible resin cast. So here she is, my first run of really taking some time on an individual model. There are still several places that aren't started, and a few that need more work, its definitely WiP. I hope to start on the base this week and finally be finished soon. Perhaps when I go to GenCon this year, I'll throw it into the painting contest...

Movin' to the Boyz

Here are the first couple of Orc Boyz to get my feet wet on the big guys. As much of a pain in the ass these models were to assemble, they paint very nicely. I hope the orange vests and the purple-leather skirts come as well as I envisioned them.  With all of the washes and no dull coat, the models tend to reflect a lot of light.  It will probably take awhile to get the full unit of 40 boyz done... but at least it will be fun!

Goblins are Done!

Things have been silent a bit around here for a couple of reasons.  I was waiting for a WarStore order that continue the Scenic Snow to arrive and for some new lights (from Target of course) for the light box. So in other words, I've been lazy. :)

The snow/mountain effect of the snow was fun to do, and it was the first time I've done this. Being unsure the 'best' way to proceed, I took my cues from Mr. Justine at Secret Weapon Miniatures Tutorial.

I ended up doing the 'wet snow' technique to represent the horde of orcs marching over the snow, causing it to melt a bit underneath. Making wet snow is easy- place Realistic Water and then douse with the fake snow. I put some 'fresh' snow on top, using a PVA glue/snow mix to add some variety to the consistency of the snow.

Night Gobbo' Command

I am nearly done with the first unit of the Orcs and Goblins army project- only some touch ups and basing to complete. The part I like the least on these guys is the purple. However, there is going to be a WarStore order in my future. I'm pretty happy with the rough highlights and then using lots of inks and washes to complete the model. The effect looks nice and it doesn't take forever to complete.

WiP Night Goblins

Question to the group- favorite snow effect products on the market that you like?

Next on the order is starting on a large unit of orc boys!

Working on Night Goblins

After pushing the oversized orc boys off a cliff, I moved to the Night Goblins. These models are more like it!  Only a couple of pieces of beautifully carved plastic that fit well within their bases. Nice work Games Workshop.

The paint scheme/method was going to be a bit different than your typical paint job. One of the things that I need to be able to do is to produce a good (or better) table-top quality army without spending most of my life doing it. 

So the model gets base coats all around then highlighted pretty aggressively. More aggressively than you might think. The first pass looks pretty weird- no shadows, lots of messy highlights. But then you start throwing inks, washes, and other shadows on top of the model and viola! You get some pretty nice looking models without spending tons of hours on the models. 

This is my variation on the methods taught on the Miniature Mentor Website and the Wapple's class this year at Adepticon. A couple of things to note. The main thing is that you need to highlight more than you think. A whole lot more. In fact it should look like "peptobismol"  according to Jim Wapple. This is something I'll do more as I start working on the front ranks. The other thing is that you'll loose some of the highlight along the way and you'll have to go back and redo some of the areas. It will help bring out the pop more. Lastly, black sucks. No easy way to do it and I'm glad the main units of orcs don't wear black robes. I should have chosen purple or something!

Its Fantasy Time!

No, not that kind of fantasy. Thats for another blog.
Now that your mind is back in the gutter.... a few months ago an old friend (he's old and we've known each other for a long time!), prolific blogger, and long-time reader of this blog (can you believe its the same person!) asked me to paint an army for him.  How could I refuse PapaJJ?  I eagerly accepted the 'job' and waited for the details. Well that was a mistake, as I should have asked for the details and then accepted the job!  A few days later a huge box of Orcs and Goblins showed up on my doorstep... and my follies were only just beginning.

All kidding aside, this is going to be a fun army build. The only bad part is that this is probably going to take awhile to complete. That is the nature of WFB armies, particularly large ones like the O&G's.  So sit back for the next few months as I struggle to build these monsters (as fun loving as they might be).

Background:
JJ also has a Dark Elf army that he built for Adepticon this year that he plans to grow. According to the fluff in the army book, the DE's at one time held O&G slaves. The idea quickly sprung from there that these orcs were going to be escaped/freed slaves of the Dark Elves. With that, the color scheme and basing were settle on: Snow capped mountains for the terrain and the complementary color set of yellow-green (skin tones) with purple and orange highlights.
The hope is to create a visually unique army that will tie in with his Dark Elves. The purple-orange is different from the red-yellow-white of most O&G armies out there.

The Start:
The first thing I wanted to start was the huge unit of orc boys with choppa and shield.

Proof that they all will rank together...  just barely!

However, those damn orcs are a pain to assemble on a base. The feet and bodies are way to big, even for the larger square bases. After cussing at Games Workshop for a few days assembling these bad boys, I moved to something more sane for the first coat of paint- goblins. And I'l

Rogue Trader the RPG

One of the last single models that I have been working on before my next army project has been a  Dark Age Forsaken WarWind model that I got last year at GenCon. Since we will have some females (and female PCs) in our forthcoming Dark Heresy/ Rogue Trader campaigns, it seemed natural to have some female models.
First off, the Dark Age miniatures are incredible and I plan to get more of them in the future. While the game hasn't captured my attention, their sculptors and painters certainly have. There is so much detail on these models, you can spent a lifetime bringing them all out. However, as I needed to move onto more projects and I only needed to get this table top presentation... I had to move on.

Again, the base is a free resin base from Dragon Forge Design from Adepticon 2010. Jeff does a wonderful job with this resin bases and I hope to use a lot more of them in the future.

Cato the Blonde: DnD4E

My local DnD campaign is in the middle of a Harpers campaign. My character, needed a face lift and the Pathfinder Low Templar from Reaper Miniatures  came to the rescue!  At first I had my reservations about the model but after putting the finishing touches on it, I'm rather happy with the model and the result.

Once again, I tried my hand at NMM and I'm not too happy with the 'silver' result. As I've pointed out through the week, I've given NMM a fair shake and other than some success with gold, I think its time to move to more 'modern' techniques. :)

The base is a free base from Dragon Forge  given out at Adepticon 2010. It is a great promotional base and I plan to purchase more from DF in the future.

Below is Cato's character background, obviously a spin off of the great Kato Kaelin.  :)

Cato the Blonde.
Known as an oaf to some and a moucher by many, Cato the Blonde is well known but seldom adored on the Dragon Coast. Most are likely to point and joke at the strapping blonde haired brute, but hang on his coat tails since (for reasons not clear to many), he is nearly always invited to the best parties in the merhcant and nobel ranks in the large cities. When it comes to a party, the standoff-ish man is always around- sometimes to provide protection and other times just to drink and mingle among the elite. 
What is not widely known is that Cato's connections with the Dragon Coast elite is due to his membership with the secretive Harper's group. He is the operation's connections to the wealthy and upper class, particularly in Westport. However, a recent scandle has rocked the wealthy mechants district and has further soured his name. Cato was recently living with a noted entertainer in his Westport villa when a grizzly murder rocked the neighborhood. Accusations of a mistress and a bloody blade have been croned about loudly by the people in the area. Cato, being the only witness has escaped the Watch's notice and his whereabouts are currently unknown

More Dark Heresy Henchman

Monday, I showed you the PC created for my friends Dark Heresy campaign. Today I have a Nurgle infested NPC. He wanted something that looked a bit more dark and tainted with Nurgle but nothing over the top. Something still recognizable. This won his approval.

Of note, I dumped that silly NMM idea and went with regular metal paints with lots of washes on top. Washing Nurgle acolytes with greens, reds, and purples gets the job done. The model also sports a 'home made' base technique from last years Wapple Base Class. Is simple, easy, and effective. Using Super Sculpey I scored the cooked clay into the checker pattern- from there its paint, wash, ink and done.

Dark Heresy: Inquisitorial Henchmen

After Adepticon, I already had a few commission projects on the table that were ready to go. First was some RPG models for Fantasy Flight Games Dark Heresy. We love DH around these parts, its just that we don't have the time to play it enough. Role playing in the dark future is emense fun. Our GM is running some Dark Heresy at GenCon this year and needed some guys painted up. Enter the Acoylyte.

A couple of notes- I tried using NMM for the metal parts. I failed. I hate NMM. The gold turned out pretty nice, but the silver not so much.
I also tried using the Wapples technique of washing the model to achieve shadows. This was from the class at Adepticon. It turned out ok and I need more work on the technique. First, I need to highlight the pre-wash much more. The final models below are a bit to dark (which might fit a DH character better).

All in all, I like the model- even if the metal and black look a bit to similar. But the client was happy with the result and I'll be shipping it to him soon.

Adepticon: Rick Taylor

One of the things I appreciate about Adepticon is that everyone there loves the hobby of wargaming and is more than happy to talk about it to anyone who wants a conversation. There is simply not any pretentious behavior amongst anyone.  One of the coolest conversations that I had was with a very talented painter  Rick Taylor. He did take home best sci-fi miniature with his wonderful Lord Tiberius (see below). Whats interesting is that he used oil paints over acrylic. Rick has a lot of experience with 2D painting and military painting as well as competitions.

Mr. Taylor was gracious and spent some time with me on Friday and Sunday talking technique, future projects, and the work of the other artist (of which he was very complementary). In short, he had a wonderful geek-out time with each other. To me, this is what Adepticon is all about.

On Lord Tiberius, its a Kabuki Miniature done in oil based paints. The faces on the back are all hand painted (although they look so impressive they almost look 'stuck' on).  After a small outcry, the miniature was put on a rotating base to see all the details on the front and back.  It got my vote for best in show.