Sneak Peak

Here's a look at some stuff that's currently being worked on.

Because nobody likes Haley. I'm thinking about ripping her head off and spiking it on one of DJ's fingers. One thing I know I'm doing is having her soul leak into DJ's soul furnace.

Nothing in Cryx should have A-cups. My girlfriend loves sexy things so I decided to sexy-up my Warwitch Siren for her. Painting this now.

Pistol Wraith!

That's all for now.

Board Tutorial Part I

So I'm in the process of making my first game board for Warmachine/Hordes. My friends and I love going to our local store but a lot of times we just don't feel like packing all our stuff, or want to play late at night. We've always thought and talked about making a board but didn't take much initiative. My friend Keith did buy a 4'x8' that he was going to make in to a warhammer(ew) board but I think it was a little too much and it's only half done at this point(about a year). I decided to take the initiative and exploit my recent re-interest in Warmachine to make a board. I'll be writing up a tutorial here for those who'd like to try making their own.

The first step is to print out some graph paper. Make sure there are enough squares to equate 1 square to 1sq". Draw out a 48x48 square and go wild. Plan out your map carefully, where you want terrain, what kind of terrain and buildings you want, how it will interact with the various scenarios, etc. This will make it much easier to make the board itself. I'd show you mine but I'm too lazy to use the scanner. After you've got your board laid out you can start beginning.

Materials Required:
A 4x4 1/2" thick MDF Board - Get MDF! Don't get plywood or sheetwood or something that will split and bend and break. MDF is absolutely the way to go, it is very durable and will stand the test of time. You should consider cutting this in to 4 2x2 boards as I did for storage purposes, but if you've got a place to put a 4x4 board then consider doing it, the board will look better.
1 Sheet of Pink Insulation foam - You know, the pink panther stuff. This stuff always comes in 2'x8', so have it cut in half if you're doing a 4x4 board or have it cut into 4 2'x2' if you're splitting the boards. Thickness is up to you. 1/2" is a good all-purpose but you may want to go thicker if you have terrain features like rivers that you'd like to dig in to it.
Wood Glue -  This stuff is important. Don't get the white elmers because it won't last, it'll eventually crack. When you spend so much time on a project like this you want it to last.
Some Brushes - Various sizes, you'll need larger ones than you're used to for painting models.
Sand, gravel, ballast - You'll need this to make your board nice and textured and not a boring flat surface. The same kind of stuff you use for basing. Multiple grain sizes is good for variation but more on that later.
Stones, Extra Foam, Foam Core, etc. - Anything you'll need for your terrain.
Flock - You'll want some grass. You could just paint some green in but flock looks really nice.

Alright so let's get to it. I was saving up all my pictures to write one big guide but decided it'd be overwhelming, so I'll split it in to 2 or 3 parts.

Step 1
The first thing you want to do is glue your insulation foam to your MDF board. Score the wood with an exacto knife to allow a few good places to grip, then apply a generous amount of glue. You'll want to add weights to the corners so that it lays flat.

Nice right? Various heavy objects. Repeat this process for all 4 boards, or both halves of your 4x4. You should also consider stacking them like this once you've got them all setting. Make sure you let them dry for at least 30 minutes. An hour would be better.

Step 2
So now your boards are all foamed up. It's time to start translating your chart onto the foam itself. Use a marker that will stand out, purple, blue, and black all work well. Draw out your roads and terrain features so you have an idea of what's going where.

The best way to do this is to count the squares in between terrain features. For example, I had a house(top left rectangle in the picture above) to draw in. I measured how far it was from the edges, 2" out and something like 15" in. It's very easy once you have a feature or two in for reference and to build off of. This took me about an hour, maybe hour and a half.

Step 3
This is more step 2.5 than anything. For positioning and drawing in buildings you should consider using pieces of paper or cardboard cut out to the shape of your building. Lay this down in it's general position and get a sense for whether or not it's in the right place. What looks right in your drawing may not translate well to the board itself. I ended up redesigning and moving the house a little bit to get it in a position I thought would make the board better.

Step 4
The next and final step for Part I is to do any roads or terrain features that are built in to the foam itself. For example, I wanted cobble-stone roads running through my board. The best way to do this is to imprint them into the foam using a sharp-ish pencil. Do not use a pen. Do not use a mechanical pencil. Don't use a screwdriver, carving tool, anything. Just a regular old pencil, anything else will tear the foam. Use your pencil to carve out your desired shapes and features. I had my sister help with this since there was a good amount to do.

And here is a close-up picture of the effect:

That's all for now! Expect Part II tomorrow.

Battle Report Vs. Khador

I had a great game against Mike and his Khador today, he won but the game was very close and I easily could've been the winner. Here are the lists

pDeneghra
2x Nightwretch
Slayer
Bane Thralls
Bane Thrall UA
BLT
Warwitch Siren
Gorman di Wulfe

pIrusk
Spriggan
Winterguard deathstar
min IFP
IFP UA
Yuri the Axe

I believe that was everything...here's how it went.

Khador sets up first.

I set up my Cryx. Nothing too special, I kind of regret stacking the arc nodes on one side, but with the way the board looked I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep both in my control area to channel through.

First turn, Khador advances. No action yet, just some spell casting and advancement. Yuri got pretty far up on the left flank but...

With the help of Curse a single Bane Thrall got to charge. I barely matched his defense with my attack roll, but once I hit there was no way he'd live. Other than this, just general advancement forward. I ran my nightwretches up to set up some sprays the next turn. The board looked like this when my turn ended.

Onto Khador round 3.

More movement, more spells. Nothing exciting here. Watch for the next picture, there's a huge before and after.

The Warwitch Siren and Deneghra both sprayed the IFP who were shield walled. It was farm more effective than I expected it to be and left only the UA. I put Ghost Walk on the Bane Thralls and ran them through the building there, engaging the Winterguard but not being able to attack.

A solid retaliation by Khador. While a good amount of the Winterguard were engaged, their defense 17 proved very difficult to hit. I ended up only killing one while the rest backed out of melee and fired sprays at the Bane Thralls. Actually, most of the WG moved to fire at Deneghra. The warwitch ended up dying here and Deneghra took 6 damage total. I lost a lot of Bane Thralls too between the WG, Irusk, and the Spriggan. 5 Bane Thralls died in total, including the Officer.

This was a fun turn for me. First I moved Deneghra up. My intention was to put Crippling Grasp on the WG unit, but they were at DEF17.... So I popped her feat first. This brought them down to 15, and a boost to hit got me what I needed. Now that they were at a manageable DEF13 I let Bane Lord Tartarus do what he does best. He charged at a WG and used thresher, killing 4 out of 5 of the models in range. 4 Bane Thralls for me! Mike wasn't too happy about this. He hates Bane Thralls like everybody else. That IFP also engaged both of my arc nodes the turn before so I was really regretting stacking them on the right. That was stupid. I killed what I could with my Banes but forgot to cast Ghostly to charge Irusk with them. I did take out the Spriggan though.

A slow, sad turn for Khador. With the WG at SPD1 they weren't really going anywhere.

However, a daring IFP Officer had a moment of glory where he survived two free strikes to engage Deneghra. Unfortunately his moment of glory was lame and, despite hitting, he did 0 damage. Irusk did work though. He moved up and one shot Deneghra with his gun to end the game.

So that's that. I think we're playing again Tuesday and my girlfriend might actually play with/for me. Maybe if she plays for me I can take many pictures.

A Very Warmachine Weekend

Despite spending a lot of time at work this weekend I've been able to make it very Warmachine-y. I couldn't do anything except for maybe some minor painting on Friday, but last night after work I had some friends over and played a game against Circle. I meant to take pictures for a Battle Report but got a little too into it. The pictures I do have are from setting up, and they aren't very good/exciting. Nevertheless, here are our armies:

Cryx List: 23 pts
pAsphyxious
-Deathjack
-Cankerworm
min Bane Thralls
Bane Thrall UA
Bane Lord Tartarus

Circle List: 25 pts
Baldur Stonecleaver
-Pureblood Warpwolf
-Megalith
-Woldwatcher
-Druid Wilder
Lord of the Feast

The points are screwed up for various reasons but it didn't end up making any difference. The game was pretty close, both the casters played back and on the top of turn 1 DJ got ALMOST wrecked, only 3 boxes left. I had an arm and cortex so with my 4 focus I repeatedly slapped the Purebloods shit, got it's soul token, and healed my other arm. I was happy until the next turn when he got 1-hit by Megalith.

I might've been able to end the game on round 2 or 3(cna't remember) with hellfire spam channeled through Cankerworm. Thing is I didn't consider the feat, and could've only cast twice in my mind. So instead I just threw one and used the other 3 focus elsewhere(1 was on upkeep). Next turn I told Keith he should charge Cankerworm with Baldur. He ended up only doing 6 damage(sad rolls on his part) and I gobbled him up next turn. I think that's my fault, running away was probably a better idea.

Now, Sunday morning, the same friends and I are heading off to the LGS to play a game there and maybe buy some stuff. This time I'll be playing Khador and will remember to take pictures! I also might pick up a Harrower, but will probably decide against it after carrying the box around for an hour.

Bane Thralls: The Last Time I Swear

I promise this blog has more to offer than bane thrall updates. I took the advice of some people over on the PP forums and redid the shoulders and added some more finishing touches to the models overall. Here's the results.

Oh and I rigged a lamp as a floodlight so no more flash washing out my paintjobs.

Bane Thralls are Done!

WOOHOO
After a paint-filled past few days, I finally finished my Bane Thralls and Tartarus. I still don't consider them fully finished but I'm not sure I ever will. I decided against adding runes to the weapons and instead made a banner for the leader and put a rune on that. I'm very happy with the way the free-hand came out on the banners. Here's a few pictures.

First the Bane Thralls. We're going to pretend that this isn't a minimum unit and I don't have to do 4 more eventually.

The Bane Thralls and their boss

And a look at the freehand runes on the banners. I love the way these came out, although the picture came out a wee bit blurry.

That's all for now. I'm not sure what's up next...I've had these looming over my head for months and now I feel an uncomfortable sense of freedom. Maybe Mechanithralls? Or the Seether....I just don't know. Let's say pDeneghra.

Basing Part III: Adding Flock

Alright so you've got your bases all sanded up and painted, now you might want to add some flock or static grass. I decided against using that much on my Bane Thralls, I wanted to go with the rocky gravel look and minimal vegetation. Also, the flock I had wasn't a very good match. Adding flock is very simple:

The first step is to add some of that thinned glue we were using in small blobs to the base of the model.

Step 1: Dab of Glue

Then, pick up a pinch of flock and sprinkle it over the glue. It's better to go heavy than it is light, keep what sticks and tap off what doesn't. As you'll see in the picture below I just threw a big blob on.

Step 2: Blob o' Flock

Lastly tap the excess off(preferably back into the container). You can also turn the model upside down and give it a few taps to make the grass stand up more. Repeat around the base as preferred.

Step 3: Tap and Repeat

If you have any excess flock on the model, no problem. Just take a dry brush and pretend you're Indiana Jones, gently wiping the excess away. That's it! Very easy stuff.

Basing Part II: Painting the Base

For my Bane Thralls/Tartarus I've decided to paint the ground a bone-colored theme to compliment the paints I used on the models(skulls, wrappings) while still adding contrast to the model as a whole. What colors you use is really up to you, but here's how I did mine.

The first step is to apply a coat of a deep brown. I chose Umbral Umber, but any dark color will do. You get this down first because it's what you want the darkest shadows to be, everything else will be dry brushed on top. Make sure you thin the paint when you do this one, you want it to get in all the crevices.

Next I mixed the Umbral Umber with a little bit of Battlefield Brown and Bootstrap Leather. The Bootstrap Leather lightened it to a very milk chocolateish color while the Battlefield brown muted the saturation a bit. This still isn't dry brushing, just brush very lightly. This will add depth to the shadows and make a good base to dry brush onto.

Now I was pretty much out of paint to work with, so I started over with some Bootstrap Leather and just a touch of Battlefield Brown. This is when I started to dry brush. Only wipe a little paint of the brush, you aren't doing highlights yet. Painting bases is all about working from dark to light, since having to add shadow later on usually implies a step backward(or several). Avoid this by building up slowly. You'll be rewarded with awesome looking basses!

Here's where you'll see the previous steps pay off. Bootstrap leather was too saturated and with an orange, flesh-like color to use on it's own, so I lightened and muted it a bit with some Menoth White Base. I then dry brushed this over the gravel 2 or 3 times, going lighter on the paint each time.

Next up was straight Menoth White Base dry brushed over several times. Make sure you're wiping a lot of paint off the brush now.

After that I did very very light layers of Menoth White Highlight. At this point you should be wiping a lot of pait off the brush to the point where it doesn't look like you're doing anything. If you need proof that you are, give the black part of the base a brush and see.

And a final highlight of Morrow White, very very lightly dry-brushed.


Your final step should be painting the rest of your base black again. It's no doubt coveredin dry-brush lines. Now you're ready to add the flock and what-have-you. Check the next article, Basing Part III: Adding Flock for a short how-to.

Basing Part I: Adding Gravel, Rock, and Sand

This is part I of a series on basing your models. Make sure you check out Basing Part 0 first since your bases should be properly prepped.

Basing is one of those things that can be a big deal or a little deal. Whether you go bananas or not, basing makes a model looked finish. It can be a personal thing, making a theme for your entire army or making an epicly unique base for an epic model. Or, you could just want to make the models look finished.

This tutorial will be for adding sand, gravel, or rocks to your base.

Supplies
For this tutorial you'll need the following:

Some Supplies

• Water
• Elmer's white glue(don't buy this at your FLGS. Sorry but 9 dollars a bottle is retarded)
• Rocks, sand, ballast, etc. I recommend you go to Michael's and find the  bags of sand for like 1.99. Beats the hell out of buying a small tin for $5
• A Paintbrush you don't care about (small enough to get hard to reach areas)
• A small container
• Models to base

Alright, so let's get started. The firs thing you should do is pour some glue into your empty blister/palette/whatever you're using. Start adding water to it a little at a time. You don't want it to be watery, just loose. The regular glue is too thick and unwieldy for proper use, so thin it out a bit. Use your crappy brush to mix. You don't have to make as much as I did, but I was doing about 14 models and wanted to make enough to be visible in the pictures!

Step 1: Mix Glue & Water

Now that you've got your glue ready, add it to the base of your model with a dabbing motion. If you try to brush it it might be too thin, dabbing helps it pool a bit. When you're done it should look something like this.

Step 2: Apply Glue

Now we're ready to dip. My girlfriend made me get all of my wargaming things organized and it was one of the best things I ever did. I got some stacking containers at walmart and they work wonders. My favorite is the small 3 door one that holds my brushes in the top drawer, tools and greystuff in the second, and the third is filled with basing sand. It's small enough that I can put it on my table when I'm working and store it away after. Take your model and dip it into the basing sand. Pull it out, give it a good shake/tap, and re-dip from a different angle. This assures that all crevices are properly covered. Make sure to tap off the excess.

Step 3: Go for a dip in the sand

Now, step 4. This is very important. Just walk away. WALK AWAY. Alton Brown style. You don't actually have to walk away, now is a great time to repeat the process with another model. Rinse and repeat till they're all at this stage. The point is, leave them alone. Give the glue time to dry. Very very important.

Step 4: Wait, or Repeat with New Models

The next step is also pretty important. Instead of forging ahead with your basing plans, you should do the following. Take your dried models and your crappy brush, apply another layer of glue over the sand with a very light dabbing motion. Try to spread out any large drops that might form, but don't brush. If you use a brushing motion there's a good chance you'll brush off your sand with it. The water in the glue you're adding will loosen everything up again and it'll be susceptible to disturbance. Apply a layer of glue all around the base, and then set aside and repeat step 4.

Step 5: Apply another layer of glue!

You're done now! Unless you'd like to add a little variation. After the base is dry again, you can add a dab of glue to a spot and dip it in the sand. You can build up little mounds of dirt, rock cairns, make a "path", etc. This is completely optional though and something you need to come up with yourself.

Finished models

So there you have it. Next up is Basing Part II: Painting the Gravel

Basing Part 0: Filling the Gaps

So you know those little gaps you sometimes get in your bases? Where the metal tab of the model slides in. Those are no good, we need to cover those up. Before you read this guide and go shoving gray-stuff everywhere, I want to point out the following.

There is a very easy, cheap way to do this. Just put masking tape over the gap when you attach the model.

That being said, masking tape isn't always an option. Maybe you're working with models you've already attached to the base. Maybe you want the metal tab for stability or it's too much work to remove it. For any of those stituations and more, you can fill the gaps with the following method.

Note the gaps on the sides.

Supplies:

• Grey Stuff
• Hobby Knife or Clay Sculpting tools
• Models that need a good filling

Fairly simple stuff, here's how its done. The first step is to mix your grey or green stuff, whichever you use. As always, try not to waste this stuff. You can always make more! Mix it up and cut off a piece about the size of a pea, a little smaller or larger depending on your gaps. Roll this out into a little log about the width of the gap.

Step 1: Mix your puddy and roll into a log

The next step is to apply the grey-stuff through the bottom of the base. If youre filling an entire gap as I was with my bone chickens, you can slip the whole piece in. If it's a smaller gap like the one in Tartarus' base above, cut off a small piece. Use your hobby knife or sculpting tool to push the grey stuff into the gap, checking the top of the base to make sure it's all the way through. Then, use your knife or sculpting tool to flatten out grey stuff. It'll probably have a a rounded shape to it. A light pulling motion usually is enough to smooth it out nicely for me.

Step 2: Apply and smooth

Now go to the bottom side of the model again and use the knife to salvage any grey stuff that might be stuck on edges or whatever. Add this back to your ball. Repeat the process with any other models you have.

Remember that grey-stuff takes a little while to harden, so make sure you use it all and then give it time to rest. Now that your gaps are filled, you can go on to the next step.

Part 1: Basing with Sand, Rocks, or Gravel

And if you're interested in those organizing drawers, I found them here at Amazon. You can also get them at Walmart for about the same price.

Mans Painting 5/16

I actually got quite a bit done, even though we ended the night short to go to the tavern. Here's what I worked on last night.

Drumroll please....
Bane Lord Tartarus is....

So he's not done. He's got both his arms though! I just need to finish up the base and make his weapon not look lame. I don't have many ideas for that yet other than working the metals and adding some rotted gold to it.

I got a lot done on my Bane Thralls as well. I painted all of their weapons and attached most of them, and finished their armor/cloth. All that's left now is to do the skulls, and a few highlights/shadows on the weapons. Speaking of the weapons, I don't like them. If there were ever a reason to buy those Bane Thrall resculpts, it'd be for the new weapons. These ones are so bland. I think I'm going to carve runes into these and make them glow, because they're just so boring. Oh, I also need to do the banner.

Overall it was a good night. I also began basing these models, as well as some bone chickens, for a tutorial on basing I'll be adding shortly.