Merry Christmas to All!!!

I got a little drawing time in last night. So drew a pic of the little buggers 8). Hope everyone has a great holiday.

Ok who gave me the hot foot?

A got to squeeze in another hour last night, which could have been longer but I told my wife I wouldn't be long. Which I wasn't, a little over an hour and I walked out of the room and what do I find? She's asleep. WTF .. haha .. I had already cleaned and packed up so I just went to bed and watched a little Christmas Carol before rolling over for night night.

I've been wanting to get some more work done on the Farseer Conversion I've been working on but it's been awhile. So last night I start getting more colors on him, he's still so far from being done it's silly. So far I'm digging the colors which I only have a tiny bit of blending in. Once he's finished up he should look pretty cool, hopefully haha.. I'll highlight sections of the "warp energy" he's riding on, blend out all the fabrics and smooth out the gold sections. For gold I'll usually start with a bronze or brass and then hit all the highlights with gold. Then taking a very thinned gold I'll do some coats over it to give it a darker gold hue over the bronze areas. Black ink the cracks and then start with the highlights using a silver. Then it's back to the light coats of gold. I want the metallics to look good on him so it may take a few more run through of the steps. I'm un-decided if I want to use some glow effects on him, sometimes it really does look good but other times it's just too much. But there is plenty of time before I need to decide. So I might just wait till he's done and clear him then take a serious look at him and if I think he needs more I'll try adding some. Plus if he's already cleared I can remove it if I don't like the look of it.

Some of the early pics since it's been awhile.

I also put some paint on the BA guy. If I'm using the same colors I'll grab whatever is nearby that needs it haha..

Mainly just added the white/bone/grey and gold. I did hit him up with a little shading but only a few washes. I'd like to do something cool on his shoulder cloth but with my limited time it might be hard. Makes me wish I would have went back to the table last night haha.. But what can you do. After tomorrow I'll have 11 days off of work for the holiday, I need to finish up the room but I'll also try to get in some painting time. And do Christmas stuff. And see the Hobbit. And hang with the kids. And replace a gutter. And.. wow...  um build a dimensional portal where time passes slower so I can get everything done!!

BOOYAH!!

I actually got some paint on a mini. Saturday night I was tired but both the kids were asleep as well as my wife so with great sneakiness I crept like a creepy creeper into the shambles of my painting room. It's still a hot mess but I had cleaned it off the other night in case such an occurrence popped up. I felt like a ninja sneaking to the bathroom to fill up my now bone dry water jars. Slowly turning the knob and tip toeing, shutting the door, two quick fills and sweeping back into the painting room. All  that and it bought me an hour haha.. oh well. It was an hour I got to paint some. This week I'm going to glue together the Orks my niece picked out so she can try her hand at painting some. She's only 5 but she had fun painting an old marine I had. But .. here's some of the not much I got done haha..

I was hoping to get more done on this guy, but when I was dispensing the bronze it was slow to pour out. So I squeezed harder and I'm sure you know where this is going haha. I should have clear up the nozzle but I didn't and then Booyah. A ton of Bronze paint. I've mentioned before that I hate to waste paint so as usual I grabbed whatever was nearby that needed bronze paint. It mainly ended up on a Deffkopter and a Nob..

Nothing got very close to being any where near done but at least I got to paint something that wasn't a fence or wall 8)

First Rule of Paint Club..

 

Is never make a deadline..  2nd is don't call it paint club.. it sounds dumb. I wanted to have the playroom done by Thanksgiving but then my daughter got sick and then I got sick and now I have Bronchitis, AWESOME! But it is pretty close. Close enough that I finally got the display case I bought built and filled with miniatures.

Which is cool as I've had some people ask about seeing a group shot. So here's a good way to get some group shots of my armies. (Though I wish I would have remembered to switch lens on my camera and set it to micro, Focusing is a bit wonky because of it.) But there are also some downsides. When I was looking for a case my friend Matt mentioned that the IKEA case has a lot of space between shelves and he is totally right. I really couldn't get a ton in there. But it is enough for now and I actually can see my painting table having placed what was on it in the case. I'm going to get some glass and make some shelves of my own. Otherwise a good portion of stuff will still be sitting on shelves. But I'm sure IKEA didn't build it with Minis in mind, the nerve.

The other thing I noticed was about my army coherency. Color wise at least. My Blood Angels, Dusk Wolves and .. well pretty much every army except my Eldar were all bought, built and painted with an idea in mind. I knew what I was going to do before I even bought the minis. I have played Eldar for 20 years and it really shows haha. When I first started painting I was learning so they aren't awesome, I also didn't have many paints so the colors are typically the same and the combos were pretty bad. My tastes also changed so my models did as well. Bases went from green to black or even blended in so now I really see the difference in age. And I really noticed that the Dar need a huge make over literally from top to bottom. I'm not changing my color scheme but I need to update the older minis to match up, since I'll be changing my lists for 6th it needs to be done anyway. Only sad part is I'd like to wait till some of the new minis come out.

It also made me realize how many minis I have in a 50% state. I jump around so much my armies get scattered. Also noticed I have way more vehicles mostly done so I need to come up with a plan to try and get them completely finished up. Just seems like I have more fun painting a vehicle as there are more things to mess with. Or I build all the minis up and want to get them all done together instead of knocking one out and moving on haha.. oh well.

 

The Land Raider is almost done so I put him in there but he needs some final detailing.

The guard needs a lot of love as well. Most of my Tanks are 80%, I don't really think about it when they are sitting up there and forget after I get a game in with them. Putting stuff in the case really helped I think. I'm going to setup a list of what needs to get done and what it's importance is, maybe that will help. Maybe but probably not haha..

 Thankfully my painting table is almost ready. I have a few more things to find homes for but it will be ready sooner then later. I was thinking of moving it over to the wall with the display case and moving the tread mill next to the puter looking out the window. That way all my stuff is in one spot. Still not sure yet. I need to get some Orks built for my niece, I bought her some a month or so ago but couldn't get to my table to build them. And if you know kids, every time she comes over she wants to know my progress haha..

Wraithguard Got Game ..

I got a game in this weekend and threw together a completely mixed up list to get a feel for what's decent and whats crapola. I played against the new Chaos Dex so it was a good test for one of the oldest Dex's out there. My list really was a mess haha but I wanted to play test a lot of units.

Eldrad
Farseer w/ Stones and 3 powers
5 Jetbikes
5 Pathfinders
5 Pathfinders
10 DA + Ex w/ 2 SC and Bladestorm
8 Wraithguard
5 Hawks
7 Spiders + Ex w/ Duel Spinners and WD
5 Reapers + Ex w/ Fast Shot (whoops edit bad word spell check missed)
Deathspinner
3 WWalkers w/ duel Scatterlasers
Aegis D line

It was a good game and we called it a draw as my friend had to leave at turn 4. It was the 5 Obj mission and he went first. He was sitting on 3 of them and I had 2 but I was making for one on the far side of the board with my Jetbikes to either contest or take. I had been pummeling his blob of chaos zombies or whatever the hell they were most of the game with the Spinner. I really haven't had time to even read the new Chaos Dex so really didn't know what the new stuff was and figured I'd just learn what they did as I went. My list was far from optimized and wanted to see how it would go down. I got first blood and would have most likely had line breaker. If his dice wouldn't have been on awesome mode I would have marched up the field sooner with the WG and Eldard to through down a Challenge on Typhus. But man was he getting a lot of 5s and 6s on his Mauler (whoops edit not the flyer) Daemon saves. Those things were pretty tough, especially for my non CC Dar haha. But 2 Witchblades brought one the pain and then the WG sent anothers' ass back to the warp.

Some things.. The Eldar did get a boost in the Psy Field. With the addition of the deny the witch and changes to the Psy Hoods you are going to be able to get off most of your powers without being contested at all. Most of the new powers in Div and Dex powers are Buffs/Blessings so it doesn't target the enemy. No stopping me sucker! We have Ghost Helms, the only thing I can think of that still will save you against a Perils. Poop, double ones.. Booyah .. a 5, the Warp aint got nothing on me! Runes, we still have a way to stop our opponent (not counting Deny the Witch) plus they have the added bonus of whoops you had a Peril.. My friends Sorcerer died from perils. I love that. Not to mention he got to use not one power before his head exploded. And that's just equipment.

New Powers - I chose to replace both Eldard and the Seer's powers. I wanted to see how good they were and I'd have to say I was pleased. I was hoping for the Seer to be more of the face puncher but Eldard got the better powers for that role. Not to mention him getting to replace 4 powers helps to get all the good ones. I only used Div powers as I wanted to test the all buff mindset I mentioned. Grouped up with a squad of Wraithguard they are a mean combo. Re-rolls for shooting, Firing Snaps at full BS plus some of the others. The other Seer in the backfield with the Reapers giving them re rolls and Snaps at BS as well. Being able to reposition and still fire normally is pretty nice. Overall pretty happy with are Psyness so far. I think next game I may put in a Council and see how they do.

Aegis D Line, I think will be a must. With fliers filling the sky now the Dar need something to shoot them down. The Dar have no GW fliers atm and have nothing to reliably shoot them down (Unless a Seer has buffed a unit and they are in range and have a decent Str weapon, a long list). I put the Seer with the Reapers and the Reaper Ex on the IcLas from the D Line. I gave him fast shot for that sole purpose. Getting another shot in with it is pretty sweet, on the second turn his first Helldrake came in and got smoked by the Reaper Ex. A bit lame that the Dar have to hop on some Imperial equipment to get the job done but what can you do. I see this setup working well so I'll probably be making my own version of an Eldar D Line.

Wraithguard, what's not to like. Their guns will destroy anything pretty easily, be it infantry, vehicles or even characters. If he wouldn't have had awesome rolling on a 5+ they would have brought down one of his Mauler Daemon things in one quick round of shooting. He ran amuck on a poor squad of Pathfinders who thankfully held him up though his next turn and then the WG brought it down. They have a high Str for Eldar as well as Toughness coupled with some Seer powers they are down right mean. Charging down a squad of WG firing at full BS is going to be a hard overwatch to get through even for Termies. ReRolls to hit on an already good BS and then a 2+ to wound and AP2, all that equals up to MEAN. The only downfall is their speed and range but it could be worse. I liked the combo so I'm thinking 10WG with Seer in the future. I'll have to paint up the rest of my WG though, only had enough painting that could ride in a Serpent and that won't be happening anytime soon.

War Walkers, Wasn't too impressed. I'm use to having a faster gun platforms so maybe I have to just get use to it but there wasn't much to really shoot at in the game. The way the board was setup the only fire lines I had would have put me in range of 48" guns that would have taken the WWs out quickly or have nothing to shoot at so I pretty much just shot at the second Helldrake. 24 Shots, 3 Hits and then 1 Glance (Saved). I think I got about the same result twice. The number of shots is nice but they aren't going to be decent vehicle killers for sure and definitely not flyer killers. I was hoping to have Eldrad in the back so I could give them re rolls as well but no such luck. I'll give them another try but they really aren't calling to me so far.

Hawks, they did nothing. And that may tell of their usefulness. I don't see people running large mech forces anymore so I don't know if the hawks are worth putting in a list. All they did was hide as I looked for an opening to do something and when nothing appeared I jumped off the table to at least do something with them. They dropped their grenades and missed. Blah .. oh well 8)

Spiders got caught by the Mauler thing and cut them up pretty bad so they didn't get to do much either as they were now limited in numbers.

Nightspinner, I love this thing. I actually did as soon as it came out but never has the space for it. Now that people are slogging a lot more and seem to be using blobs on more then just IG the NS really shines. It's range is very good and is TL'd. So if it scatters poorly, re roll. With it being Str 6 on average you are going to wound alot and if you are hitting T3 units it's instant death. You also have a chance to pin and now they are in dangerous terrain. So you have another chance to put some hurting on them plus they are slowed. If someone is footslogging over you can really hold a squad back. Overall fun, I don't know if it would be as awesome in a Tourney but the annoyance factor is there haha.

I'd have to say the game went pretty well, the things I was trying to do seemed to work and that's cool. I'll have to whittle a little more and see how it goes in the next game. But it seems like I'll be painting a lot more as many of the units I have done are what I ran in my old lists. It also means I'll be painting stuff that might be getting replaced when the Dex comes out if rumors are true. So, don't know where I'm going to go with that haha.. not that it matters at the moment. Hopefully soon I'll have more time to work on some stuff.