WIP -- Trollblood solos

I was on a short beach holiday, but I towed along my painting kit and managed to squeeze in a little bit of painting time.  Still sketching colors, for the most part -- feeling out the direction I want to go. 

I'm most pleased with the caber-thrower so far.  I love the concept and the character's expression.  The sculpt is truly a miniature work of art.  The pose conveys the weight, balance, and strain of the caber.  The sculpt is also a good balance of smooth surfaces with complex surfaces. 

The other characters have way too many doodads and filigree on them.  Which is a complaint I have about the Privateer Press aesthetic, in general.  But models like the caber-thrower make up for it.  Plus, while the doodads and filigree are a little tedious, and they're brain-burners for color-choices, their textures make for some brainless slapdash-style painting, so that helps even it out.

Minis in action -- Hordes Trollbloods

So here are some fuzzy phone-photos of my Trollbloods in action this past weekend, versus the massive Farrow beasts.

As hoped, this game turned out to be a great learning opportunity, to reacquaint myself with Hordes, with a fresh perspective.  This time around was indeed much more enjoyable.  I'm still not a fan of this particular rule-system, but I can tolerate it enough to use it as an excuse to bring these models alive and duke it out with the other Privateer Press models that I like so much.

Speaking of which, I am now inspired to expand my already solid foundation of my own Farrow models!

But not at the expense of my Trollbloods.  I felt inspired to splash on some initial color the very next day....

More hobby ADD

For the past week and a half, I've been preparing for my first game of Warmachine/Hordes in 3 or 4 years.  This will be my first MkII game.  I dusted off the old Trollblood battlegroup, to glue some magnets to the bottom of the bases.

The occasion to play them is a Slow Grow league that someone in the area is launching.  I figure it's the best opportunity I have to give this game another chance.  When I tried it the first time, I desperately wanted to like it, given the great models, the inventive setting and characterful factions, and PP's excellent game/customer support. 

Alas, the game itself carried all the same complaints I had about Warhammer Fantasy:  IGOUGO, no pre-measuring, guessing distance, fixed sequence of Move followed by Action, et al.  My read-through of MkII shows that all those mechanics are still there, unfortunately.  On the plus side, I've learned to accept a game for what it is, rather than what I want it to be.  So I hope a fresher attitude will make the game enjoyable and worth painting up the 4 factions that I have sitting in my lead mountain!

Here is where I left off with the troopers, way back when:

In other news, here are the additional Kroot that I painted up to bring my total from 16 to 24.  More wait in the wings.  I'm very pleased that I was able to match the color scheme, 3 or 4 years after the first batch!

One of the projects I have up next is to paint the Prussian Dreadnought so that I can be competitive in Dystopian Wars.  While digging around trying to find it, I came across some Gunships.  A nice surprise to unleash on my unsuspecting opponents....bwahahahahahaaa.....

well....unless he reads the blog......

Here are my most recent acquisitions.  First, the new Lizardman book.

I've heard about some of the changes by listening to the Warhammer podcasts.  It sounds like GW has a done a good job, keeping their track record of moving all the new armies towards center.  Good on 'ya, GW!  (That is rare praise for GW, but I'll give it, when they deserve it.)

I like the model for the Troglodon, the monster with the spiny dorsal fin.  I'm not crazy about the new "tank" that looks like an Ankylosaurus.  The army already has a big, slow monster ridden by Skinks.  I would have liked to have seen something a little more novel, like Skink Fast Cav on Raptors! 

Speaking of cavalry, I hear that Cold Ones might be worth taking again, so that makes me happy.

I like the studio paint-jobs for the Terradons, even though they totally ripped off Avatar.  For the record, I did it first, ha, ha (although mine is a lot more discreet).

One change that I'm excited about is that a Scar Vet can now take a Carnosaur.  So it will be possible to finally fit into the list both a Carnosaur and a Slann.  Hopefully, it's worth taking a Carnosaur (or two), since cannons will still just remove it on Turn 1.  I suppose one approach is to take the Carnosaur along with one of the "tank" dinos, so that at least one of them makes it over to the fighting.


And finally, some Storm Boyz.  Just 'cause.  You can't have enough space orcs, propelled by giant Roman candles.

A hobby treasure

I stumbled on this little gem on eBay.  I never visit eBay.  I've never won a bid on eBay.  This is fate!  Fate, I tell you!

What you see here, of course, is a super-rare, sealed (but not anymore!), original, OOP, NIB, .....Colony of Ephorath box set of Mid-Nor Dwarves for Rackham's Confrontation.

If that is gobbledygook to you, just know that I just assumed that there were no more of these babies left on the planet!

I now I have one of my very own.  I will hug him and squeeze him and call him 'George'.

And, yes, my wallet it stinging, but my heart is singing.

Finished - Small airships for Dystopian Wars (Part 3)

Here are my newly-painted Prussian Empire models, in action today (small zeppelins, bottom-right).  Unfortunately, they arrived late, from reserve, and didn't get to participate in the battle.

Check out the short, pictorial battle report in my Picasa album.

The decals of the Iron Cross turned out to be problematic.  The decal sheet had three variants, and I couldn't tell which ones were which, until I applied them.  4 were plain black, 4 had white outlines, and 4 had a square, white field.  I had to paint the square, white field on all the ones that didn't have it.  It's a super-tiny decal, and it was the first time that I actually had to use my loop, for a vision aid.