Weekend Update: June 25th, 2012

Busy weekend behind me; busy weekend in front of me.

I finished a few things this weekend.  Two secret (for a few days, anyway) models that I'm painting are completely done, and I have ten Grey Hunters basecoated, with the main gray color having been fully shaded and highlighted.  Each one has nine different gray/blue shades and highlights, so that takes a while.  I'm hoping to finish them soon. 

I got to play a bit of Chaos in the Old World with my painted set this weekend, and it remains my favorite board game.  I won a game playing as Nurgle by overrunning a couple of provinces while taking some partial credit when Slaneesh and Tzeentch did the same.  There's such a balancing act for Khorne in making sure that one of the other three players doesn't break the game early.  Otherwise, one player will run away with things quickly. 

Bull City Wargaming Episode Two is out on Itunes!  If you haven't checked it out, do so!  It's delicious like strawberries, if strawberries were the flavor of talking about Wargames!

Weekend Update: April 16th, 2012

To recap, here were my goals on Friday:

*  Re-magnetize the Beastmen.  They started with rare earth magnets on the bases, but a great many have come off.

*  Paint the two Thunderwolves as Razorgor.

*  Get my list and supplies all laid out for the tournament.

*  Remake Jim Chadwick's Grail Quest Best Painted award.  It got messed up at the actual event, and since he's coming up for Brawler Bash this is a good time to get it to him.

*  Fix my herdstone, which popped off its base

So here's what actually got done:

Magnetizing the Beastmen:  Done, except for the fact that I don't have enough rare earth magnets to magnetize the Bestigor.  I'll have to wait until Sci Fi Genre gets some in.

Painting the Thunderwolves:  I got started on this, and realized that my original vision wasn't great, and that I need to work on converting some Gor riders to make the wolves really work as Razorgor.  So this will be on the back burner for now.

List and Supplies:  Nah, but I can get that done later in the week.

Best Painted Award:  See List and Supplies.

Herdstone:  Fixed!

What I did do this weekend is continue my sudden Space Wolves obsession, using the new GW paints to do up a Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf.  I'll have pictures up later this week.  I also visited the new GW store in Raleigh, which was pretty cool.

All in all, looking forward to prepping for Brawler Bash this weekend!

Weekend Update: April 9th, 2012

Okay, we had a bit of a stutter there, but I'm back up and running.  The last week and a half, I had a brutal flu bug that knocked me out of doing anything and everything.  It was rough.  I was home from work for most of a week, but got little done.  Following that, we had a ton of company up for Easter.  Here's what has happened:

*  Space Wolf Scouts are painted and done.  I'll have pictures up this week.

*  My list for Brawler Bash is sent in.  I'm excited to be going. 

*  I assembled Fenrisian Wolves, one Thunderwolf Cavalry, and started on assembling another thirty-five Glade Guard.  I also converted two Thunderwolves to be my new Razorgor. 

*  I got some new GW paints, but only the Space Wolf Grey line.   I'm not ready to give a review until I've really used several kinds and colors of paints. 

Weekend Update: March 26th, 2012

Another busy weekend!  I seem to be a bit stuck on painting, not in the sense that not much is getting done, but in the sense that my output seems small because I'm taking longer for each model.  While it's really nice to have nicely done models, it is sometimes disheartening to have less things done.  

Anyway, I played some Mouse Guard yesterday, and enjoyed it very much, and also managed to finish painting another Space Wolf Scout.  I've been working on improving the bases, and hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do. 

Weekend Update: March 19th, 2012

So a lot of hobby stuff went down this weekend.  Mainly, I've been working throughout the week, and especially this weekend, to redo my office/hobby room.  I pulled everything out of the desks and closet, and have been reorganizing, getting rid of stuff I don't use, and putting my models into the movement trays / storage bins I've been building.  I'll have pictures later this week. 

I've also had my Wood Elf project temporarily derailed by some dirty Space Wolves, of all things.  The new Thunderwolf Cavalry and Fenrisian Wolves boxes really tickled my fancy, and I ended up picking them up with my winnings last weekend.  I then got into a couple Space Wolf Pack boxes I had, and ended up making some models, and painting my first Wolf Scout.  He'll be up on the site this week as well. 

Weekend Update: March 12th, 2012

It was a triumphant hobby weekend, with my Beastmen kicking butt and taking names at the WFB Brawler Bash Prep tournament to bring home first place.  I went through Ogres, VC, and Dark Elves on the way to the top.  Like Rudy, my Beastmen have gone from worst to first, and I'm hoping to sign their story to a movie deal soon.

I also put some Space Wolf Wolf Scouts together, and tried out some new basing materials in an attempt to make some unique basing for them.  We'll see how it all turns out.  

Oh, the weekend.  Somehow, you have plenty of time on Friday, and then it all flies by.  Oh well!  I got a Treeman painted, and some work done organizing my hobby room.  I've also been working to improve my Glade Guard with some modifications I hope to post later in the week.

Interesting thing:  I've always used my wife's fancy digital camera for taking pictures of miniatures.  It's a great camera, but I've found that the Iphone 4S' new camera actually takes better pictures of small objects.  That's a great value. 

Weekend Update: February 27th, 2011

Another weekend down, and more stuff done.  This weekend, I didn't manage to paint (again!)  It's getting a bit sad, but I hope to get some painting in on my day off today.  At the very least, I'd like to get the painting station set up again, so as to have the ability to paint.  I did go to a Fantasy tournament on Saturday, where my Beastmen, bravely lead by Skeletor the Bray Shaman, came in first.  I walked out with a box of Lord of the Rings Wood Elves, who will one day be Waywatchers in my Avelorn army, as well as the Warhammer 40K 25th Anniversary model. 

He's going to look pretty good as an Imperial Fist, I think, and make a good objective marker. 

Time for some painting!*

* or procastinating

Weekend Update: February 6th, 2012

Not much painting and modeling getting done this weekend, but there was a ton of gaming and a very busy weekend. 

On Saturday, I played in a 1,000 point, four round Warhammer 40K tournament.  Sadly, I went 1-3, with two losses being close and one loss coming from Grey Knights blowing me off the table on turn one before I had a chance to play.  These things happen in 1,000 points, I suppose.  Four short games did lead to me getting in four games on Innovation on the side, though, which was pretty great. 

On Sunday, I played in a session of Mouseguard first-timers, and it was pretty fantastic.  The great character creation and a combat/crafting/doing anything system that is simple and intuitive leads to a great game, as did the great people that I was playing the game with. 

I got three rounds of frisbee golf in as well, so all in all it a very enjoyable weekend, although I would love to have another weekend just to recover!

Weekend Update: January 30th, 2011

Man, what a great weekend!

I'm not going to pretend that a ton of hobby stuff went on, and that's because we had yet another weekend with weather in sixties (F).  So I got some frisbee golf in and some hiking and rock climbing. 

On the hobby front, I was able to construct my Wood Elf display board, which I think will be very nice.  I also worked on the Ghorgon model, and I think I have hit the critical part of painting the model in which I really start to look forward to the painting.  Finally, I've finished Age of Legends and Deliverance Lost from The Black Library.  All in all, it was a great time this weekend, and I look forward to delving into some of those topics.

Weekend Update - January 23rd, 2011

A productive hobby weekend all around, although there aren't pages of things to report.  I finished painting and basing six Treekin.  They were the GW ones, in finecast, and although I don't love the models, I think they came out well since I was able to rearrange the limbs and poses, making them a bit more aggressive looking.  I also painted the Heldenhammer, which is the main ship from Dreadfleet.  Finally, I got a couple base coats and washes down on the Ghorgon for my Beastmen, but am not sure which skin tone I will choose, or if I'll go another direction.  We'll see!

In other news, I was hoping for a San Francisco win last night that they fumbled away.  Yuck!

Weekend Update: January 16th, 2011

It wasn't much of a weekend for modeling, but it was a great weekend for gaming.  I spent Saturday gaming with a group of friends, and had a great time.  I played a "Song of Blades and Heroes" game for the first time, which is a miniatures skirmish game.  The game isn't very balanced, but the core mechanics are fun and it was great!  I then ran my Pathfinder game for six player characters, which ended well with the party defeating an evil Jabberslythe that had been plaguing the area.  Finally, I got to take a crack at Wings of War, and defeated the British forces in the sky.

While I would have liked to get some painting in over the weekend, the gaming itself was highly satisfactory, and I very much enjoyed it.  I have a few weekends off with no real plans (to my knowledge) coming up, so there should be plenty of progress on the painting and modeling front. 

Weekend Update: January 9th, 2012

A short weekend, but a good one.  I got a few things done.

*  The miniatures I got/had for my Pathfinder game I'm running next week are all painted.  I'm bringing five premade level ones:  a wizard, a cleric, a fighter, a rogue, and a ranger.  I'm really looking forward to this, and will be tweaking the adventure all week in preparation.

*  I played in a fourteen person Warhammer Fantasy Tournament at Sci Fi Genre, and came in a round the middle of the pack with a minor loss, a draw, and a massacre.  I ran both the Jabberslythe and Ghorgon, and realized that I've got to stop mucking around with all the big monsters if I want to return to form.  The Ghorgon never saw combat in any of the three games, simply evaporating to shooting and magic, and the Jabber, while amusing, could have had his place taken by a Razorgor for two hundred and twenty fewer points.  They are fun, in theory.  In practice, they really hurt compared to other options.  They'll end up as good unit fillers until the new Beastman book.

*  As you can see from previous posts, the Scenarios for Grail Quest are all written.  White glass pips to represent the Korcain are on order, and I'll have to see about how to best represent Gary Busey on the table. 

So yeah, not a bad weekend at all. 

Weekend Update: Happy New Year Edition!

 Ah, a short vacation away from work and such, as it turns out, is pretty darn good for some hobby.  I had a short trip down to Florida (where there was no hobby) to recharge the batteries and visit family, and when I got back, it was time to sit down and crank out some hobby goodness.  So here's what I've done.

- I got the Pathfinder Beginner Box and Core Rulebook for Christmas.  I've been reading through the rules and the starter set, and am going to be running a short game on the 14th.  I've broken out some old miniatures for that purpose, and also found a warrior priest model to be a cleric and purchased a wizard model.  These will need to be painted up relatively soon.

-  I painted all twenty-four of the Dryads I had on the table.  They're all based and ready to go, although I can't hit them with a varnish yet as it's too cold outside (high of 34 degrees Fahrenheit today).

-  The Jabberslythe is painted and based as well.  What a monster, and what a pleasure to paint!  The detail on the Jabber is incredible.  I put him in my Beastmen list, along with a Ghorgon, for this evening.  

-  Assembled the Ghorgon.  When I was putting it together, I thought it was roughly the same size as the Giant, but in comparison it is much, much larger. 

-  The Scenarios and background for Grail Quest are written.  I'm looking forward to February and the fun to be had.  I'll have the scenarios up on this site and the Sci Fi Genre forums this week.  

Yep, it was a ton of hobby, and it was a ton of fun.  I'm hoping to keep up the momentum over the next couple weeks and paint some Treekin, the Ghorgon, and the wizard and warrior priest models.  

Weekend Update: December 12th, 2011

I feel like Weekend Update should just be renamed as "Nope, the Dryads aren't done."   I was supposed to have a long weekend, and instead went to work some more.  Such are the trials of being an adult, I suppose. 

There were some high points.

Games Day in High Point went off well, from what I hear.

My wife and I celebrated our Christmas early (we travel on the holiday, so we give each other gifts earlier) and she got me a Jabbersclythe!  More on the Jabber later this week, but it sure was a nice gift!  I even assembled it this weekend.

The Brawler Bash WFB GT has been announced for April 21st and 22nd in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Save the date!

Weekend Update: November 21st, 2011

Okay, so I took a week off there for the first time in, well, forever.  I worked ridiculous hours for a couple weeks, and was basically coming home to sleep.  Anyway, with the holidays coming up things are slowing down a bit, allowing me to get back on the horse.  I did get some hobby done over the weekends:

*  Dryads are now all assembled and primed.  I'm torn between attaching them to the base now and trying to pin them.  I think they'd look better pinned, but they have very thin, bent legs which will be difficult to put pins in. 

*  I played in a Fantasy Tournament last weekend, and got my very first last place finish.  My Beastmen couldn't work through several goblin hordes in Round One, and then missed a Vampire General and BSB by inches when it was critical in Round Two.  I actually had the last place bye for round three.

*  We continue to get in some Dreadfleet on alternate Tuesday nights around here, and it's a ton of fun.  The trick is to have a few people and give them each a ship, and to remember that the game is pretty random. 

*  In non-hobby news, I've played a bit of Skyrim, and am loving it.  To me, it corrects the problems with Oblivion and makes a truly great one.  The story is engaging, the graphics and play upgraded, and the world immersing.  I also got back out a couple times this weekend to the Frisbee Golf course, an old passion of mine.

So there should be some posts this week.  See you then! 

Weekend Update: November 8th, 2011

An emergency project at work kept me glued pretty much to my seat all weekend and yesterday (and most of today), but I did assemble twenty Dryads (and acquire twelve more via trade).  I have four more to assemble when I get a spare minute. Spare minutes are in short supply, however, as you can see by my Monday post coming in on a Tuesday.

Also, I got the Space Marine bug for the first time in a while, and decided that if I'm going to work on Blood Angels any longer, they'll need an upgrade.  I have two squads finished, one of the Death Company and one Assault Squad, both with Rhinos.  They're on plain sand bases, and I'm going to move those over to new bases with black sand, grass, stone, and barbed wire.  The new models I'm assembling need more conversions in general.  I put together a test model, using Bretonnian bits as well as the Tactical and Assault Squad kits, and have assembled a new base as well.   Hopefully, I'll get to paint him up soon, and it will propel me back into painting up some 40K.

Weekend Update, Spooky Halloween Edition 2011

I was sick all weekend, which is so much fun.  On the upside, between not being able to go anywhere and not being able to do anything that involved any real activity, I got a lot of hobby done. 

*  I finished painting nineteen Glade Guard and fixing them on their bases. 
*  I painted the Skabarus, the Skaven ship from Dreadfleet.
*  I painted another Dreadfleet island. 

Apparently, I should be sick more often, at least in terms of hobby stuff.  On the other hand, I have to head to work now still feeling like crud, so I don't think on a whole it was worth it. 

Weekend Update: October 24th, 2011

There's not too much to report this Monday, but not for lack of trying.  Have you ever had it happen that you work a lot on a project, for what seems like little result?  That's what happened to me this weekend with the Glade Guard.  On Friday, I painted for a many hours, and I swear at the end of the day didn't have much to show for it.  On Saturday morning, I put in some more time painting, and have three finished, and sixteen more just needing some clean-up and basing.  So I'll continue to work on them this week, and hopefully finish up by the weekend. 

I suppose I had forgotten what painting entire units is like, and the work that goes into doing so.  Each step takes much longer when it comes to twenty+ models instead of one.  Plus, I missed one model early on, and now have one that is just primed while the others are close to being finished!  Oh well, at least it keeps me busy!

Weekend Update: October 17th, 2011

Not a bad weekend for the hobby this time!  On Saturday, I played in a Warhammer 40K Doubles Tournament with Bart.  We both took Space Marines, and ended up coming in second out of eight teams, after playing against a Tyranids/Deathwing army, a Sisters of Battle / Grey Knights army, and a Tyranids/Necrons army.  A great tournament all around. 

I also painted up one of the ships and three islands from Dreadfleet, which was great.  The ships are so incredibly detailed!  The only thing I seem to be stalled on is painting up my Wood Elf Glade Guard, but I'm hopeful that I'll get something done this week.