Potential projects for Crystal Brush

Been doing the prep work for these candidates for Crystal Brush.  I don't recall if the painting challenge on the WAMP forum for the Sapo bust (toad on the right) is considered a competition.  If the Sapo challenge is a competition, then it's ineligible to enter into Crystal Brush.

Dark Age was unkind to include only 8 of the spikey blades on the Mean Jellybean model (left), when there are holes for 15 of them.  I double-checked a duplicate blister pack to make sure.  That pack had only 8 as well.  Punks.  I hand-crafted the difference using plasticard.  Pain in the butt.  And you just know those things are going to break off.  I'll see about reinforcing the join with 2-part epoxy.

Cojo, crazed killer ape

I had a lot of fun painting this guy.  His name is Cojo, and he's for the game, Malifaux, by Wyrd Miniatures.

I probably spent around 6 hours on him, I think, from box to finish.  I've been looking forward to painting him, ever since I saw his artwork in the new Malifaux rulebook.  Crazed killer apes just rock.

The hair on his head is a repurposed grass tuft.  I haven't seen anyone do that before, so hopefully it's convincing.  I like it.

Here are the WIP shots.  This was after priming with the airbrush.

And here is the raw modeling, so you can see the grass tuft and the seam-filling.

That white seam on his cheek didn't fill in entirely, and you can notice it on the finished model.  It was hard to judge on the raw model.  Lesson learned.

What, another project revision?!

Yet another overhaul of priorities is in order.  Two developments drive the change in course:

1. Crystal Brush is creeping up on me.
2. I showed my Christmas present, the Saga ruleset, to my buddy, Steve, who immediately declared the game to be everything he is looking for in a wargame and moved Saga to the top of his wargaming priorities.  Since Steve probably the most available of my wargaming buddies, it makes sense to follow his lead.

While I had a few ideas for Crystal Brush, none of them were ones that I really wanted to sink my teeth into.  I want to present something respectable, but I'm not going to kill myself or make too many sacrifices in my other hobby goals.  I do want to push my boundaries, however, and I would like to earn a Bronze.  With those guidelines, here are some other criteria to help me decide on a project:

• Relatively small.  Single figure, bust, or small unit.  This will make it easier to transport and display at home.  I want to make room in my transport case for both Crystal Brush entries and a couple of skirmish armies.
• A model that I probably won't be using in a wargame.  To compete for a trophy, I'm pretty much obligated to put as much effort into the base as the figure itself, so it might as well be integrated and set the scene, making it likely that the figure will need to be permanently affixed.

So here are my candidates.  Left to right:  Steampunk Goblin bust by Forged Monkey; Mean Jellybean by Dark Age; Moraineman by SphereWars; Steambike by Maxmini.

So off the list of immediate projects goes the Tau Sunshark.  In its place, I'll press forward on my Orcs & Goblins, which I can use both for Warhammer Fantasy and as proxies for Dark Age warriors in Saga!

I still want to finish at least this one unit of Fire Warriors.  I have the main color scheme down, but there's still a lot of work left to do.  If anyone knows a fast way to paint that damn thigh armor and still show the lines, please let me know!  Washes didn't work for me.  I ended up painting each subpanel in order to etch the lines with negative space.  The thigh armor is finished for this unit, but there's another one after this one, so any shortcuts would be greatly appreciated!

In other news, I received my Rivet Wars game from the Kickstarter I supported.  Yay!  This was a pleasant distraction, while I was fighting a cold over the weekend.

Crazy-good components:

And superb box control:

Fantastic production and very satisfactory communication and delivery.  Definitely a success story for a Kickstarter.  I've had my share of duds with Kickstarter, so it's nice to see one come through so well.

More WIP ADD

I've been waiting for some reasonable progress before posting, but I now remember that's really not the point of ADD!  So here is yet more evidence of my affliction.

Fire Warriors for 40K.  And slow, slow progress on my Alkemy figures.  Let's not even talk about the orcs.

Next we have Cojo for Malifaux.  I actually have enough figures to play the game already.  Enough figures for 3 factions, as a matter of fact.  But I just can't resist the temptation to paint crazed, giant apes.

As for 40K, I need a Sunshark Bomber to even the odds against my regular opponent's Dark Angels.  He's fielding some kind of crazy artillery piece.  Time to bring in airstrikes.

And I'm finally returning to building terrain again.  This building will be a pump station that I can use for 40K and Malifaux, now that I'm actually playing these games again.

Christmas score

For Christmas, I received another ruleset to add to my collection -- and to add to my list of gaming temptations.

SAGA is a historical skirmish game, set in the Dark Ages.  As a fast and light-weight game, with a low model count (particularly for historical games), it's a very accessible gateway game into the historical scene.

What makes it interesting to play is its unique activation system.  It uses custom 6-sided dice with a 3-2-1 set of icons on its faces to weight the options you have at the beginning of each turn.  Players face tough choices for both resource management and risk management.   Plus, the choices differ for each faction, thus giving flavor and different play-styles to each one.

This mechanic moves the game more towards "game" than "wargame", but it will certainly scratch the itch for a time-budget-friendly, easy-to-learn/teach game.

Naturally, I can't leave well enough alone.  Given the possibility that my buddy, Steve, is expressing cautious interest in War of the Ring, I may be able to kill two birds with one stone.  I may need to get back to work on my War of the Ring Haradrim cavalry (started and abandoned probably 3 years ago now!), which I figure will work well for both games!

Yup, the Haradrim will make great substitutes for Normans, orcs & goblins for Vikings, elves for Welsh, Empire/Rohirrim for Anglo-Danes, etc....  :-)


By the way, for anyone who tried to follow the link(s) in the previous post, and encountered only one photo instead of a full battle report / photo gallery, I think I fixed the links.  Please try again!