Fire Warriors Start to Finish Part 4

This installment covers dealing with some of the smaller, unfinished areas as we get ever closer to finishing the fire warriors.

Backpacks/Gloves/Hooves
I needed a way to bring in Citadel Foundation Color (CFC) Orkhide Shade into my rank and file. The Orkhide Shade will play an important role in the disruption camo pattern on my vehicles so I wanted it to carry over into other areas of my army.


I made sure I had a good coat of the Orkhide Shade laid down with my Basecoat brush. I didn't thin it with anything and was happy with the way it coated. I switched up to Standard brush and painted the edges and raised areas with VGC Mutation Green.
On the next step I couldn't get my standard brush to hold the point I wanted. At that time the reason I had disavowed Citadel brushes all came back to me. I remember being frustrated at them because, for whatever, reason, I couldn't keep the point I had on them. Again, I am painting with a brush set released years ago so I cannot speak for the new brushes. Digging around I found a Windsor Newton Series 7 0 lying around. This brush was far smaller than I wanted to use but I didn't have much choice. My Citadel brushes are great for basing and larger detail, but they are getting benched for the fine stuff. With that Series 7 o I hit all the highest points and corners with VGC Goblin Green.
Going forward I am going to find another color for the final highlight. The VGC Goblin Green is too prevalent in the armor, and the hands don't look at all like they were based another color. I am worried that the same thing will occur on larger level for my vehicles. I may devise another final highlight for this color, I using the next five fire warriors to experiment.

The Guns and Vents
For the parts of the pulse rifles that were not green I just painted them black. I also did the venting on the backpack as black.
With the Standard brush I did the first highlight with a 1:1 VGC Black/VGC Cold Gray mix, thinned with water and matte medium. After that I did another highlight of 1:1 VGC Cold Gray/VGC Stonewall Gray at the higher areas. I am not really going to expand on this much further because I will not be doing it going forward. I am too fond of the black build using P3 Coal Black and P3 Frostbite in various ratios. I will expand on that black build in another post.

The Gold

I used gold for the ball thing in the pulse rifle as well as the tip of the antennas on the helmets.

From Mars Project Blog

Using pretty watery metallics has had some very good success with me so I will spend a few extra mins on the metallic steps while I am painting to make sure they look right. I laid down a base of VGC Glorious Gold first. Once that was dry I washed all my golden areas with Citadel Wash Devlan Mud a few times, making sure to get that line that bisects the ball-thing clearly defined.

From Mars Project Blog

Next I brought up the raised areas with some VGC Polished Gold.

From Mars Project Blog

And lastly, grabbed my Series 7 o and a watery mixture of 1:1 VGC Polished Gold and VGC Silver for the highest areas for the final look.

From Mars Project Blog

All that is left now are squad markings, glow effects, and finishing the basing, which will be gotten to in the next post.

Thanks for reading,
T

Oh Noes!

My grade for the week. I wanted to have the fire warrior project wrapped up today but this class is kickin' my teeth in. When I get home I enter a convalescent state of wall staring until my wife shuttles me off to bed.

The upside is that I should have ample time to finally put this thing to bed over the long weekend (Labor Day). In other good news for the weekend, I am excited about my game for the escalation campaign tonight. Having already played my 1250 army once I feel like I am in a good spot. I haven't faced off against Chaos Space Marines with my Tau yet so I am eager for the new challenge.

My list at 1250 is the same one as in the battle report. It moves around shooting, hoping not to get held down any where. The fire warriors hang out in their fish if they can, until something is lit up like a Christmas tree, then they go for the kill. I will probably be a touch more reluctant to get them out if demons are incoming. It seems like getting demons into assault isn't too hard with the icons and things.

The other big highlight is that I get to play someone I never have before. That is not to discredit my games with my nearest friends at all, just sometimes you got to change it up a little- maybe switch to the left hand, and a new opponent is a great opportunity for change.

The scenario is pretty cool. I am not sure if Magnus devised it himself, or if he borrowed it from somewhere. I suspect the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I can't see a reason why I would want to defend since I am designed to move, and don't really care about the terrain. Also having the bombardments coming in could be really nice. As for the extra points for the victory, on that I am kind of blah. I have a strange sense of fairness so I will probably never use them throughout the course of the campaign unless my opponent also won this round when they played it. I am just weird like that.

Lastly, yesterday GW released the IG FAQ and all I can say is, "Thank Christ!" I was so tired of hearing about the nonsense involved in interpretation of IG rules. Whether folks like it or not, at least they cleared a lot of stuff up.

Thanks for reading,
T

Containment

I had mentioned a couple of posts back that my wife has intentions of refinishing the table that I paint on. She encouraged me to devise a way to be better at not getting paint, super glue, and hobby knife gashes in said table anymore. Something about lessening the work she would need to do.

The compromise was me getting the GW Painting Station. It is funny how I have been in this hobby for more than ten years now and I never even thought twice about this product. When I worked at a hobby store about five years ago this product was either launched or repackaged. At the time we could sell dog shit so long as it had a GW logo on it so we ordered a few of these for the Christmas season. I remember stocking them on the very top shelf saying something to the effect of, "What jackass is gonna spend forty bucks on this when you can get a fold out table for twenty?"

Well past me, present me is that jackass thank you very much!

Assembling it was easy enough. The instructions were a diagram on the front of the box it was shipped in. In total the product is like four pieces. You basically just put the pieces where they go and push down till they are in their slot. The fit is snug, but not really secure. The pieces themselves are made of some really light weight wood. It feels kinda like balsa, but may be something a little more sturdy, not much though.

Once it was all built I laid it out and began trying to get it assimilated into my painting area. It reminded me of prom night night- like at first it didn't fit right, but I just kept trying at it, and then it was done and I was like, "Oh that's it?" I found myself staring at this new acquisition for a time (Also not unlike prom night.) before deciding if I was ever going to like it, I would need to see how it stacked up in my head. Thus I drafted a list of pro's and con's which I will share with you now.

Pro's:

• The water cup holders are secured. This is pretty cool if you have ever sent a jar, cup, or lid full of paint water across your painting area. It should be noted that I had to go to the grocery store to get plastic cups that fit in the roughly 2 1/2" diameter holes, as my usual jars were too big. So were our drinking glasses. I dunno, maybe they just have smaller jars in England?
• Brush holders. Pretty cool, not a deal-sealer or anything. My brushes were fine being stored on their sides in the swank wooden box I got with the Master's Set. Aesthetically I am into it though. My brushes stand at attention, eager to be deployed for use.
• The things required to paint a miniature can be be well contained within the station. On events where I need to clear my stuff off the table, I can pick up the whole thing (By the bottom, using the "handles" would be a nightmare.) and move it some where else. While it can be relocated, the station should not be construed as portable, but we will get to that in a second.
• My wife described it as "handy" and "cute". While I am not fully fluent in girl, I think these things are complimentary. Complimentary means she is happy with it, or at least doesn't hate it, which happens rarely when it comes to miniature related accouterments. Chock one up for marital bliss.

• My favorite Pro is paint at eye level. It is nice to look up for the paints instead of having to look down. The shelf is at a good height for being able to read labels as well as see the tops of the paint bottles.

Con's:

• The first, and biggest Con is the price tag. I have no doubt that someone with a modicum of carpentry skills could make something far more functional, sturdy, and cooler looking for less than forty dollars. I do not possess said skills, so I had to take it without lube.
• Despite its looks, I would not call this portable. It is extremely fragile. I would never think that I could just throw this in my back seat and expect it to be intact when I arrived where I was going. If you used wood glue on the various pieces it would prevent it from falling apart, but the larger surface areas are still so fragile that I could see an army carrying case falling on this and snapping it in half.
• As stated above, you may have to go on a quest to find water containers that fit into the allotted circles, I did, but my glass ware could be anomalous.
• Forty effin' dollars!
  

Neither a pro or con, the surface or working area within the painting station is sizable. Before I had a whole table, but this provides plenty of room. My cutting mat, pallet, and paper towels all fit in with room for extra stuff.

So all said and done, we ended up with 5 Pro's to 4 Con's (The price tag counts for two!). The Pro's have won the day, and I am happy with my new purchase. Again, if you or someone you know, could make something like this for less, do it. I didn't have that luxury, or of I did I was unaware, so I do not feel jaded. Chock this up to another GW product that, if you are in the know is silly, but to the layman it is "awesome"! In this instance I am glad to be the layman.

Initiate assimilation process completion...

Process complete.

Thanks for reading,
T

Fire Warriors Start to Finish Part 3

The next step in my fire warrior series is the green armor. This will actually be the main color of my army, being extremely prevalent on my vehicles and Crisis Suits.

As with everything I paint, I will offer the obligatory reminder to use wet paint in every step (Though you could probably skip it in the first step.) and to make sure that you are using a brush that can hold a lot of paint, but keep a good tip.

Lastly, it should be noted, that I felt like I was settling on the green for these fire warriors during the entire process. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I can't conceivably spend the amount of time I want on each model and hope to finish in a reasonable time. I have stated the goal of this armor is to finish, and my own personal notions of "needs more" need to take a back seat to economy of time. I kept on keeping on and didn't mind the finished product one bit. That being said, the vehicles and suits are gonna get at least two more shades.

Without further ado and bitching I give you the next installment.

Step 1

From Stuff I Have Painted

Nice and easy...but it took me a really long time. Using a Citadel Basecoat Brush I went for full coverage with Citadel Foundation Color Knarloc Green. This step took so long for me because this is where my painting style of one color before the other comes back to bite me in the ass. I could not cover as quickly because I had to keep careful brush control near the already painted fatigues.

I did water down the Knarloc Green, and it took two coats to cover, but I probably will not on the rest of the fire warriors. This stuff was designed to cover, and it does it well. I see no reason to get in its way.

Step 2

From Stuff I Have Painted

After I got the coverage I wanted on the armor (as well as the few round pieces on the gators) I washed all my Knarloc Green down with Citadel Wash Thraka Green. I used the wash straight out of the pot with my Basecoat brush. The wash was there to unify and smooth out the base coat (It looked a little thick to me) as well as establish the recesses in the armor. In some of the deeper spots I waited for the first wash to dry then applied another.

At this point I become a little bit of a hypocrite, diverting from what I preach. I needed to backtrack a color, I used the Citadel Detail Brush (ZOMG!!!), and I didn't work inside out. I used the same color progression as the fatigues on the Tau sept badge on the shoulder plate of the armor. I used the smaller Detail brush to get into the recess so as not to leave the blue on the armor I had just painted.

Step 3
I switched up to my Citadel Standard Brush and used VGC Goblin Green. I thinned it with water and VMC Matte Medium and began highlighting. The Tau armor was pretty intuitive as to where to highlight, where they bothered to sculpt it. On a few of the legs those greaves just kind of melded together and a lot of the detail was lost. Maybe a bad mold, I dunno? I will have to look at my other fire warriors.

From Stuff I Have Painted

I focused heavily on the edges of the armor plates in highly visual areas like the the top of the helmet and the larger shoulder pad. The highlight is drastic and, on larger projects where this color is the majority, I will probably add a step between Two and Three. It will be the same as the step above only with a 1:1 CF Knarloc Green and VGC Goblin Green before going straight into VGC Goblin green.

Step 4
In the name of economy of time I will call this the last one. Still using my Standard brush I make sure it has a good tip and go to work with a 1:2 mix of VGC Goblin Green and VGC Dead Flesh mix (I used my usual water and matte medium to thin this mix as well). For this highlight I am only going to hit the highest areas on the model. There is a time saver trick that goes a long way. The fire warriors lend themselves well to this trick, which is to paint the corners. Anywhere on the armor where there is a lit corner, hit it with your highest color.

From Stuff I Have Painted

I am way in (4x digital macro) on that shoulder pad so it looks far more splotchy in the photography. Looking at the bottom corner of the shoulder pad the highest color is evident. I also added little dots of it on the Tau sept symbol. I used the mix to add the extra "gleam" to the fire warriors and make them look interesting from four feet away.

I am thinking, again, on the larger models that will display so much of this green, that I might add a few more steps. Certainly adding just a small bit of watery VGC Dead Flesh to the tips of the corners would add that extra "pop". I will try some glazing as well, as that can go a long way to unifying shades. Dependent on how well the glazing works these guys might be revisited.

Settling and shoulda-woulda-coulda's aside, I am happy with the way they are turning out so far. All that is left now is the black and the finishing touches, which we will look at in the next installment in the series.

From Stuff I Have Painted

Thanks for reading,
T

Dig In?

As luck would have it, there are a slew of Warhammer 40k events in my area over the next few months, not including the Planetary Empires campaign I am starting.

A lot of my friends and fellow local area enthusiasts are gearing up to hit all of them, and I have to say that their preparation is intoxicating. I feel like I should get caught in the tide. My meager 1250 of Tau is but one hundred plus dollars, a scowling wife, and a couple of days building time away from being able to fully participate in all the events. It wouldn't be painted mind you, but none of them require it. So why not get to it?

Before we go any further down that dark path I will take a quick second to list the events in which I am referring. If you are in the area I encourage you to check them out. All this information is pulled straight off the Fighting Havenican forum that consolidated the information, as well as the stuff posted on Da Mommasboyz. Thanks guys for doing so.

• 1,500 pts Sept. 19th. Hobbytown in Spokane, WA. Call store for more details.
• 1,000 pts Sept 20th. Merlyn's in Spokane. Info here.
• Doubles Tournament in Richland, WA. Sept 26th. Info here. Last I read event was full.
• 1,850 pts Oct. 10th. Lightning Comics in Coeur d' Alene ID. Call store for info.
• Oct. 25th. Merlyn's in Spokane. Details not yet available.

Quite a bit going on, especially considering that even 3 moths ago I couldn't find a friggin' tournament outside of the ones Merlyn's was running, and they always seemed to be on days I had plans.

I have mentioned that I play in an escalation league with my Tau. Our rounds are two weeks apart, and so every other weekend I travel about 100 miles to hang with my friends from college, drink, play 40k, and run a D&D campaign. Pretty ideal, but also time consuming. If I go down there it is normally for a night at least. Sadly, I do not get to exist solely within a nerd vacuum over the weekends. My wife has things she would like to do, as do our families. These things are almost always on Saturday or Sunday. It is a good kind of trouble to have, but it still makes it difficult to fully immerse myself in the forthcoming events.

I think the easiest way to go here may be to emulate my buddy Magnus' model of planning, which can be summarized thusly, "First come, first serve." There have been occasions where I have seen Magnus bag on something I know he would enjoy to keep a prior and perceptibly less fun commitment. Whether or not it actually proves to be less fun is something else, yet, because he had other plans, he adheres to them bravely.

The other big decider in the events I play in over the next month and a half will be where my army is in the escalation league, points wise. I don't think I will force my army to be ready for a tournament. It is too early for that kind of thinking. Instead, if I got the points, and I have the time, game on!

The foxhole of tournament prep, where in things are built, slapped with paint, and numbers are crunched in hopes of gaining ground, will have to be manned by another this winter. I am not due to head to the front until next Spring. In the meantime, I will make sure that what I do commit to gets written down... some where, that way when I inevitably double-book myself, I can know who I get to blow off with my new "First come, first serve" policy.

Thanks for reading,
T

Couple More Acres

Got back from a great weekend in Seattle yesterday and had to do all the things which are associated with returning home and getting ready to head to work the next day. The trip was great. I got to see family and friends, watch a Sounders match at the Owl & Thistle, and go to a Mariners game.

I didn't have a lot of time to work last night so I decided to knock out a couple more Planetary Empire tiles. I am going to be running a campaign in Spokane over the late fall/early winter so, while not really pressing, there is some impetus to get these finished.

The spaceport tile was a lot of fun and I used both brown and green on both sides instead of one or the other. In all I am pretty happy with them. The product has been really nice so far and they are a quick and gratifying paint.

From Mars Project Blog

For the next month I have a night class every Monday and Thursday. It pretty much goes from right when I get off work until about an hour before I am supposed to crash. I am going to designate those nights for the Planetary Empire tiles. It normally takes me about an hour to get painting at a good clip. I would hate to hit that clip then have to stop, or paint so late that I am good for shit the next evening. I am hoping to wrap the fire warrior series up by Friday having Tuesday and Wednesday night to paint. As for tomorrow, expect some more of these fun tiles.

Thanks for reading,
T

No Girls Allowed!

I like my space. Not very profound a statement, or even startling. Most people do like their space. It is theirs, to do with as they desire.

In my case, my space was my game room. It wasn't much, smallest room in the house, but it was mine. Now it isn't, and it sucks.

As I mentioned earlier my wife and I are expecting. My wife is also very crafty so we decided early on that we both need a room for our various hobbies. Mine was my game room, hers was her sewing room, which then grew to encompass part of the dining room, and now at times spills over into the living room. In light of the newest edition to our home, it was decided that one of the rooms would become the nursery. I don't really get it, but something about CPS being called if you try keep your kid in a kennel.

Because babies get the best stuff even before they are born, well and some other thing about the sewing room being closer to our bedroom, it was been decided by "us" ( I had no recollection of this decision.) that her sewing room is to become the nursery. Meaning that the smallest room in the house will be divided and crammed full of her stuff, the same stuff whose might cannot be contained by just one room. The real travesty is that I no longer have my space. Neither does she...kinda.

Last night I was working on my fire warriors (Only got about an hour in.) when I started to hear loud noises coming from the game room. Upon investigating I discovered that the wife had begun carving her "half". In the name of fairness in borders, and not wanting to accrue some serious wife agro, I decided to "help". As she tore through my space like some Conquistadora I suddenly felt empathy for the tribal people of South America. After all, who can comprehend no longer possessing what has always been yours? And how do you explain the worth of things that foreigners can not comprehend?

The Bitz

From Mars Project Blog

Explaining the whole notion of bitz and bitz boxes to my wife proved far more difficult then I ever would have imagined. I have a lot of sprues lying around, as does any enthusiast who has been playing the game for awhile. Admittedly, most of my sprues are for Warhammer Fantasy Battle as I use up most of the 40k stuff. My wife is getting into quilting, so she has these "scrap baskets" that are just filled with extra pieces of fabric that she can use. Showing far more insight than I thought myself capable of, in a moment of triumphant diplomacy, I drew a parallel between my bitz box and sprues, and her scrap basket. Even going so far as to point out that people trade from bitz boxes just like quilters trade scraps.

The trouble is that my wife is smarter than I am. She immediately began asking the right questions:

W (Wife): "So, you are gonna use all these pieces on your Tau guys or whatever?"

M (Me): "Maybe, there isn't a lot about the game these are for that translates into hi-tech but I might."

W: "Why did you buy them?"

M: "Because they were for another army."

W: "And so these pieces left, they aren't for that other army?"

M: "No I used what I was going to use."

W: "So these pieces won't be used for your Tau, and any armies that you already have, you have combed over these pieces and taken what you wanted?"

M: "Yeah. But I may use the pieces for a future arm-"

The mere mention of me getting another army before I have completed this one brings the "wife rage" to the surface. On this path I shall tread no further.

M: "Look it is just that I already have these. And I do not want to be going along years down the road and be like, "Damn I have to spend forty bucks again for the few pieces I need out of the Tomb Kings regiment."

W: "You spent 40 bucks on a 'few' pieces you need!?"

And there is where I lose the battle. You see, I learned long ago not ask my wife to get me gaming stuff because then she knows what it costs. Once she knows what it costs, she can do the math, and realize what I am spending on shit that has thus far gathered dust. And once she knows what I am spending...well you can imagine.

Instead I like to keep her assessing her own value to the items. If she doesn't know specificly she will attach a sense of "reasonable worth", relative to her own fiscally responsible nature. If she thinks, "There is no way Tony would spend one hundred dollars on this," then I haven't, as far as she is concerned. It is a win win.

The outcome of this sparring match was a resounding loss by yours truly. If you are looking for WHFB sprues check ebay soon.

Other Armies

From Mars Project Blog

Without a doubt this is the greatest point of contention between my wife and myself. And though I vilify her to some extent for the purposes of interest and humor, she is really quite tolerant about most the various eccentricities that go with being married to a gamer, and a fickle one at that. The unfinished armies really exhausts her patience. The way she sees it is that the army is built, so I am almost done. Would that it were true! I spend about fifty times longer painting an army than building it.

A little while back, when she first got pregnant, we reviewed our budget and my gaming took the major hit. In all fairness, so did her sewing, a hobby which is just as expensive as my own. In order to recoup the loss I started ebaying stuff that I got in excess trades or whatever. Just stuff that I would never use. This was unfortunate because the wife was then able to see the potential of turning around the stuff "I don't use" for financial "gain". I think maybe in her mind, most everything on my shelf is stuff "I don't use", and unfortunately she is right. Even still, it doesn't mean I am eager to hawk my shit at 40% of what I paid for it. What happens if a Tzeentch dedicated CSM list is really enjoyable to play when ever CSM gets a new book? I will be stoked to play it but my army will have parted out and shipped to the four corners of the world if she has her wicked way.

In the end it came down to simple economics to avoid not having to spend the next month ebaying. I explained to her that prices for GW stuff go up often, even if the models don't change. I would be spending less if I hung on to the stuff. Also, I showed her that I could consolidate the various armies, sprues, and crap into modular plastic bins that filled the closet. As real estate is a premium in "our" room, this went a long way. The efforts put forth by both parties were fair and appreciated. And never would have had to be made if I still had my own effin' room.

The days of "out of sight, out of mind" policies pertaining to wife and gaming are over. It is a brave new world of budgeting, effective storage, and hard questions like, "Do I really need this?" It is going to be a pain the ass, but in the name of marital bliss I will endeavor to persevere. In the mean time I will dream of an even larger house, with a room that can once again be my own. In this glorius room I can scatter plastic willy-nilly and have no cares. Oh such a place will be Nirvana, and in this Nirvanna will be no girls are allowed!

Now to stash all my crap from the other games I play before she sees it.

From Mars Project Blog

Thanks for reading,
T