Blog Elite Guard of Texustria (painting stuff)

[rychek]

Hey NexS1, were the Flamespyres you were thinking of the pair that Jimmy painted?

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=30984&start=750.

They look fantastic, but I'm going for an overall lighter/hotter look.

 

[NexS1]

Jimmy did those two really great flamies, yes. But after that one, I stumbled across another one... i think it might even have been Curu... let me check..
edit: Curu did do the black feathers on his bi-polar bird, but it's not the one i was thinking of... :/

 

[rychek]

Yeah, I checked Curu's thread. Definitely not what you were describing. Interesting concept on that bird though.

 

[rychek]

I started on the Flamespyre today. I painted it white with my airbrush as a learning exercise. It wasn't disastrous, but I have a LOT to learn about using an air brush. Luckily I started with a Griffon so the worst mistakes were made there. I didn't start taking pictures until after I added the first red wash. Please note that the lighting for these pictures is really yellow, so the colors aren't quite true to life.



I then added an orange wash





I've been using the Griffon as my test model for each coat (you can see it in the background). I can say the Phoenix looks much better than the Griffon at this point.

Next is a yellow wash, but it isn't ready for photos yet, so you'll have to be patient.

 

[rychek]

Here is the Flamespyre with the yellow wash and it turned out nicely.




However, I decided it looked too plain and, in the words of Lego Darth Maul, "Needs more red!" As you can see, I added more red. Though I fear I may have over done it.







The more I look at the Flamespyre, the more satisfied I am with the red. There is not a clear distinction between feather and flame.

You may be wondering my I took the Flamespyre off of its stand. Well, I dropped it and the plastic post snapped. Now both of my chickens match.

 

[NexS1]

Hey mate, these pis don't work for me...

 

[rychek]

Oops. That's what I get for moving things around in my Photobucket libraries. I'll get them back up in a bit.

EDIT: fixed!

 

[NexS1]

Looks nice mate!

 

[rychek]

Thanks! I need to do some highlighting on the feathers and beak, but beyond that I think it is complete.

 

[rychek]

I just "ordered" my Tablescapes Kickstarter from Secret Weapon Games. I'll be getting a 4'x8' table top made from their 1'x1' Rolling Plains tiles. The tiles have a creek/river built in, so it will be excellent for the Lizzies. Now for the really had part: waiting for delivery. I figure it will arrive sometime around next April (if I'm lucky).

I was reading back through this thread and came across this little gem. I'm still waiting for the table to be delivered. there habe been many delays in China, but shipping is supposed to start in August. I'm still looking forward to getting this sucker so I can really get used to my air brush.

 

[NexS1]

i'm not sure what that is.. haha

How's the painting going?

 

[rychek]

It is this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1084069684/tablescapes-by-secret-weapon-miniatures?ref=nav_search

It's like a Realm of Battle board, only 1'x1' tiles instead of 2'x2' tiles.

 

[NexS1]

That's kinda cool, very 40kish though..

 

[rychek]

Wow, I totally missed your response.... The board I bought is the rolling hills themed set, so it is very much like the Realm of Battle board except is has a built in river. I'm very excited to finally receive it! However, they are still sitting in a warehouse in China, so I continue to wait.

In other news, if the Old Ones will lift their curse from upon me, I will be playing my first game in waaaaaay too long this weekend. I bought Triumph and Treachery and we are playing a 750 pt game on Saturday (provided my group doesn't flake on me again). I'm fairly confident that the Dark Elves will show up, but they are the only army I have any confidence in at this point. Vampire may make an appearance as well as Skaven/Ogres. Time will tell.

 

[rychek]

I finally got to play a game! 750 pt Triumph and Treachery with my Lizards vs Vampire Counts vs Dark Elves. There were reports of a Skaven warband in the vicinity, but their tunnels collapsed upon them; killing them to a rat. Thus they were unable to participate in the Glorious Plan of the Ole Ones. As if there could be any doubt, the Lizardmen were victorious. Though I do have to admit that the biggest threats to my army were neutralized by Morathi, of all people. She was in CC with two Cairn Wraiths and a Banshee when she miscast. The ethereal unit died instantly to a S10 large template and Morathi's, pegasus and all, was sucked in to the Warp. That only left two bases of Spirit Hosts and lone Banshee that I would have trouble with. The game ultimately ended at the end of Turn 5 when it became apparent that neither the DE nor the VC could get more victory points than the Lizardmen.

 

[NexS1]

A victory is a victory!

Let the adversaries murder each other and lap up the milk of victory like a boss.

 

[rychek]

I didn't have much choice. Half of my army was fleeing from the spirit hosts and banshee, because, like an idiot, I neglected to take magical weapons on my general. Almost every time I have played against this VC player, I forget to take magic weapons to negate the ethereal units. Luckily the Bastilodon took care of the banshee in turn three, but I had 10 skinks, 20 some odd saurus and Scar Vet and a salamander running for their lives in turn 1.

 

[NexS1]

Wow, that's inconvenient. I generally always have a magical weapon somewhere. OR i'd be going for a win via static Combat Res.

 

[rychek]

In a 750 point game I was focused on making my SV rock hard, so I spent all of his points on armor. I figured his S attribute was just fine for a game that size, so I didn't worry about a magic weapon. Obviously I forgot about ethereals.

I eventually killed off the spirit hosts with static combat res, but it took a while. Also, I just realized I calculated the rank bonus incorrectly. Oh well, that's what we get for not playing for so long.

 

[rychek]

WARNING: linear time has little sway in the following post's event descriptions!

I finally got to play again! I participated in a three game tournament at a local store with the Alamo Gamers group. Little did I know that this was the warmup game for the Alamo GT, so I played against armies/lists I had never experienced before. Also I used High Elves instead of Lizardmen because I've been dying to use my now painted phoenix pair. I'm not going to go into a ton of detail as I did not take notes and I'm haven't slept much since the tournament on Saturday. This was a learning experience for me. I had no delusion of grandure. I had no delusions of anything short of what happened actually.

My (unoptomized, thrown together late the night before using whatever I had painted) list was along these lines (model counts may be off a bit as I am doing this from memory):

Archmage (High Magic, Book of Hoeth, 4+ Ward Talisman) deployed in archer unit
Loremaster of Hoeth (Armor of Destiny) depoyed in White Lion unit

15 archers (no command)
15 archers (no command)
30 Lothern SeaGuard

20 White Lions (Banner of the World Dragon)
6 Sword Masters of Hoeth
5 Dragon Princes of Caledor

10 Sisters of Avelorn
Flamespyre Phoenix
Frostheart Phoenix

Game 1 vs Chaos Trolls (Thraug (pretty sure I spelled that horribly wrong) list)

Thraug
Demon Prince (don't recall loadout, but it was "competitive")
Chosen of Chaos (mounted on steed)

8 Trolls
9 Trolls (Thraug goes here)

Chariot
Chariot

Chimera
Chimera

Hell Canon

We called the game in turn 4. I had managed to kill both chariots, the Hell Canon and the unit of 8 trolls was routed. I put a few wonds on one of the Chimeras and peeled a few trolls off of the other unit as well. My opponent killed 3 Dragon Princes, my archers with Archmage (though this unit did hold up the Demon Prince in close combat for 2.5 turns!), the Flamespyre and the Frostheart. The White Lions were severly reduced in number and the Sword Masters were toast (having been breath weaponed by a Chimera).

Game 2 vs Chaos Dwarves

Lvl 4 caster/Engineer in 30 dwarfs
Lvl 2 caster/Engineer in 20 dwarfs

3 Centaurs
10 Halbadiers (halberd gun hybrid weapon)

Hell Canon
Steam Tanky thing (I say thing because they are not quite the same as their name implies)
Flame Thrower thing
Other Warmachine Thing

The first two turns were fairly anti-climactic with magic being out of range for most spells (due to the custom scenario we were running) and S3 shooting and S4 flaming shooting not having much success against flame resistant Dwarfs. To sum this up, my sisters died to the Hell Canon, my Archmage and archers fled the table after a calametous detonation and being rammed by the steam tanky thing. My SeaGuard and Flamespyre chased the Centaurs across the board all game but only managed to kill one of three. My Frostheart killed the Hell Canon in close combat after it was whittled down to a single wound remaining. It then overran into the flame thrower thingy and killed it (MVP for the game right there, not that it changed anything). The Other Warmachine Thing misfired and blew up on its own. The Dragon Princes and White Lions fell to warmachine fire as well. The Sword Master did nothing all game and eventually died in close combat with the block of 30 Dwarfs. They were under the influence of the "Ash spell" and could do nothing to defend themselves. At the end of the match I had my Flamespyre, one unit of archers and Seaguard remaining.

Game 3 vs Vampire counts
Vampire Blender Lord
Lvl 2 Necromancer
Lvl 1 Vampire
20 Grave Guard (Vamp goes here)
20 Crypt Ghouls (Necromancer goes here)
Some absurd number of Zombies (lvl 1 Vamp goes here)
6 Vargeist
6 Horrors (I think that is what they were. They were Monstrous Infantry that could not fly and had spikes in their bodies)
1 Dire Bat
1 Dire Bat
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves

The Sisters wiped one unit of Dire Wolves turn one. The Dragon Princes did the same to the second set of Dire Wolves turn two and reformed to hit the Ghouls from behind. Most of my shooting was directed at the Grave Guard or Ghouls depending on board position. Few wounds were had. Dire Bats charge blocked the Dragon Princes, but they did not survive. The sisters were Gaze of Nashed down to two and the Grave Guard were buffed with re-rolls to hit. I charged them with the nearly full strength White Lions, full strength Sword Masters and the Flamespyre Phoenix. When the combat was done, the Phoenix was a marker on the board, the Sword Masters were obliterated and the White Lions/Loremaster were also toast. The Grave Guard were still above 50% strength (yes, very bad dice rolling occurred on my part). The Vargiest managed to get to my Archmage/Archer unit, but not before taking a few rounds of bowfire and a stand and shoot which peeled off two models. The combat ended in a route with only two Vargeist remaining. They then charged another unit of archers and lost another model to stand and shoot. Meanwhile the SeaGuardand Frostheart destroyed the Ghouls and rounded on the Zombies with a flank charge. The game ended with a vampiric victory, but I was not tabled 20 to 0 like I was in the previous two games.

Inspite of the crushing defeats and hilariously bad dice rolling, I have not had so much fun playing Warhammer in my entire Warhammer career (granted it is only two and a half years of sporadic play). I was awarded the consolation prize for being the best punching bag. I'm not complaining though. It was fun, educational and I got a gift card for the local shop which hosted the tournament. I also met a bunch of "local" (San Antonio is a big place, so local does not necessarily mean they live nearby) players with whom I can play in the future. I think I might have acrued enough enthusiasm to start painting again.