Guild Ball - The Fishermen's Guild

Session 18.  And I'm spent.

I decided not to do the eyes.  It's the difference in motivation level between painting a squad to play games with, or painting an individual miniature.  I'm very satisfied with the former.  The latter is just beyond my motivation level.  The cost is to fall short of really impressing the judges at the Capital Palette.  But that's OK.  As a gamer painter, there's only so much I'm willing to do.  After all,  Roman, Raffa, and Justin have seen the world's best.  I'll be happy to help fill the cabinets with some cool-looking minis which can at least help give a good representation of the Mid-Atlantic region.

So 18 painting sessions, plus around 4 for prep.  22 x 110 minutes = 40 hours and 20 minutes.  A full work-week.  Less than an 8-hour day per miniature, from scratch to finish.  Sounds about right.

Ready to play Guild Ball!

WIP - Guild Ball - Sessions 16 thru 17

I managed to squeeze in the mascot, Salt, and the game ball.  It sure was fun researching otters for color patterns!

I need one more session for touch-ups.  I'm pretty much at the end of my motivation for this project.  But I want to try to show the judges that I can paint eyes.  I think!  

WIP - Guild Ball - Sessions 10 thru 15

Two sessions apiece.  Still more to do.

WIP - Guild Ball - Sessions 4 thru 9

Sessions 4 thru 5

Sessions 6 thru 9

I decided to change the color of Shark's "sash".  I thought it stole from his masculinity.  I'm going to pass on the 80's-style Adam Ant eye-mask as well...

However, now that I see it on-screen, I'm thinking the aqua sash would tie together better with the fancy-colored armor.

Thoughts, anyone?

WIP - Guild Ball - Session 3

Some initial color sketching.

WIP - Guild Ball

I'm adding Guild Ball to the mix.  I'm starting with my favorite crew, The Fishermen.  I hope to finish this crew in time to enter it into the Capital Palette.  I've roughed out the skin tones, and I need to see them on-screen to help me see what direction to take them:

I wanted them to look a bit bronzed, by being in the sun, as opposed to the pale white complexion in the studio paint-jobs.  However, the girl in front initially turned out too yellow, and I had to bring in some lighter tones and roses to help shift the color.  The guy on the right is a bit yellow, too, but he can work out, whereas the girl initially looked too unnatural.  The big guy turned out closer to what I had in mind. 

Wrath of Kings, Rage of Pigs

I still need to finish the basing and do some more touch-ups, but here is how my Union Workers looked, going into the tournament yesterday.

I'm pleased with the concept of the rugby-style stockings.  Some color-combos I like better than others, but as for the overall theme, I like breaking up the otherwise toned-down earth-colors of the pigs and armor with basically a garish heraldry that suggests some kind of insane cult -- which is basically what the Teknes faction is.  And the absurd anti-machismo adds that much more insult to injury, when a pig chops down their opponent.

The rest of the faction still has a long way to go.  I'm now in a bit of pickle -- that is, to decide what projects I work on, leading up to NOVA Open.  I have a lot of ideas for entries for Capital Palette -- more ideas than I can complete in less than a month!  And I also want to make progress on the rest of my Teknes faction, since I'll be competing in CMON's official narrative tournament.  So I have some tough choices and a busy schedule ahead of me for August.

As for yesterday's tournament, I am astounded to report that I won.  Not just a game or two, but the actual tournament!  With only 3 games under my belt going into the tournament, I had the mindset of "I'm going there to learn and gain experience."  I held no expectations of 'win' or 'lose', just 'learn the game'. 

I certainly did struggle with the information overload, being introduced to so many individual abilities and faction-level themes being thrown at me from the other side of the table.  I think where I managed to eke out an edge every game was aggressively trying to score on scenario objectives, or "Motivations", as Wrath of Kings calls them. 

While I've always played to scenario objectives, I think my experience with Malifaux was helpful to think and plan in terms of "scheme runners", where I would dedicate a model or a squad with a singular mission on the fringe of the battle.  My experience in chess was helpful, too, in terms of sacrifices and trades.  Not to give myself too much credit, of course.  Any of these games could have swung on a dime [mixed metaphor?].  Which, of course, is what made them such great games -- because they were so close!

Kudos to the Game On! game store in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and to Zachary Beker for organizing and running the event.  The Game On! staff are very friendly, and Zak ran a tight ship for the tournament.  On to NOVA!